Nelson began acting in the mid-1980s, starring in "Making the Grade" (1984), and in "Fandango" (1985) opposite Kevin Costner. It was his roles in John Hughes's "The Breakfast Club" (1985) and Joel Schumacher's "St. Elmo's Fire" (1985) - and his affiliation with the Brat Pack - that made Nelson a star (along with Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy). The "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" music video - also directed by Schumacher - reached No. 1 in the US (1985), and was written by David Foster and John Parr and performed by John Parr; Nelson appears in the video. A subsequent article in "New York" magazine, which focused primarily on the success of these films, resulted in the term "Brat Pack" being coined.