Jonathan Niven "Jon" Cryer (born April 16, 1965) is an
American actor,
screenwriter and
film producer. He is the son of actress/singer
Gretchen Cryer. He made his motion picture debut by starring in the 1984 romantic comedy
No Small Affair, but gained greater fame by starring as "Duckie" in the
John Hughes-scripted film
Pretty in Pink. In 1998 he finished writing and producing the independent film
Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God... Be Back by Five, which was well received.
Even though Cryer gained some fame by starring in these movies, he had not found
television success for several years; the shows he had starred in (
The Famous Teddy Z,
Partners and
The Trouble with Normal) all did not last very long. In 2003 he was cast to portray
Alan Harper on the
CBS hit comedy series
Two and a Half Men, opposite
Charlie Sheen, for which Cryer won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2009.
He received three earlier
Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on the show.
Early life
Cryer is the son of
Gretchen Cryer (
née Kiger), a playwright, songwriter, actress, and singer, and Donald David Cryer, an actor, singer, and producer.
He has two sisters, Robin and Shelley.
When he was 12 years old he decided that he wanted to become an actor.
When his mother heard this she thought he should have a backup plan and joked "Plumbing is a pretty good career".
Cryer attended
Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center for several summers as a teenager
and is a 1983 graduate of the
Bronx High School of Science.
He was classmates with
screenwriter and
film director Boaz Yakin.
[Foundation for Ethnic Understanding FFEU website 2000 Annual Report. Accessed November 30, 2009.]
