Cryer was born in New York City. His mother, Gretchen Cryer (née Kiger), is a playwright, songwriter, actress and singer. His father, Donald David Cryer, is an actor and singer who originally studied to be a minister.[7][8][9] His paternal grandfather, the Rev. Donald Walter Cryer, was a prominent Methodist minister. He has two sisters, Robin and Shelly.[10]
When Cryer was twelve years old, he decided he wanted to become an actor.[11] When his mother heard this, she thought he should have a backup plan, and joked, "Plumbing is a pretty good career."[10] Cryer attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center for several summers as a teenager,[12] and is a 1983 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science. He was classmates with screenwriter and film director Boaz Yakin.[13] To his mother's "great disappointment," he skipped college and went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England, for a summer short course in Shakespeare.[14]
At age 19, Cryer appeared in the 1984 romantic comedy film No Small Affair, in the lead role as Charles Cummings, after the original production with Matthew Broderick was shut down when director Martin Ritt suffered a heart attack.[17] He went on to appear in small roles in films and television films.
Cryer made his film breakthrough as Philip F. "Duckie" Dale in the John Hughes-scripted film Pretty in Pink.[18] In an interview with the Daily News, Cryer's mother Gretchen said that after Pretty in Pink, she started getting calls from teenage girls from all over the world, who would leave hysterical, giggling messages on her answering machine.[10]
Cryer then starred in the 1987 film Hiding Out as a stockbroker on the run from a Mafia hit man. His mother Gretchen played his aunt. The film broke even, but Cryer's performance as a character who was much older than him was critically acclaimed. In 1989, he got the lead role in the TV comedy series The Famous Teddy Z. His performance gained poor reviews[19] and the show was canceled after the first season.[19]
In 1990, Cryer appeared as Sandy in an Off-Broadway adaptation of Carnal Knowledge.[20] That same year he appeared alongside future Two and a Half Men costar Charlie Sheen in the Jim Abrahams comedy Hot Shots!,[11] which was received very positively.[21] Cryer is frequently linked to the Brat Pack.[22] In a March 2009 interview on Anytime with Bob Kushell, Cryer stated that he had auditioned for St. Elmo's Fire but was not cast in a role.[23] In 1993, he was asked to audition for the role of Chandler Bing on Friends, while doing a play in London. His reading was videotaped by a British casting agent but the tape failed to arrive in the U.S. before the network had made its final decision.[11]
In 1999, Cryer appeared as Neal in Jeffrey Sweet's play Bluff at the Victory Gardens Theater.[26] In 2000, he was cast as the lead in a comedy series called The Trouble with Normal. For the third time, Cryer starred in a show which was canceled after its first season.[27]
Two and a Half Men
Cryer's long run of unsuccessful TV projects finally ended in 2003. Against the wishes of CBS executives (who were aware of his past failures) and due to a friendship with Charlie Sheen, he was cast as Alan Harper on the hit comedy series Two and a Half Men. (He had auditioned for the role of Gaius Baltar on the Sci-Fi Channel's reimagined Battlestar Galactica at around the same time, but the role went to James Callis.)[28] Cryer earned seven Primetime Emmy Award[29] nominations and two wins[4] for his acting work on the show.[5] In a comment on the show's high ratings, he said: "When you're on a show that's fighting for survival every week, you stop trusting your instincts, because you think, 'My instincts haven't worked so far.' But when people clearly like the show and are watching it in great numbers, it takes a huge amount of pressure off you. It allows you to trust your instincts and go with what has worked for you before."[11]
After Sheen's departure from the series, Cryer's character became the show's main protagonist (with Ashton Kutcher being cast as the co-lead) during the final four seasons. Cryer is the only actor to have appeared in every episode of the series; Sheen was fired in March 2011 and Cryer's on-screen son Angus T. Jones left the series at the end of season 10.[30]
In 2015, Cryer released a memoir, So That Happened, a breezy, often comic tale chronicling Cryer's 30-year career on stage, film and television.[40]
Cryer currently appears in the drama series NCIS, where he currently plays Navy Dr. Cyril Taft who treats NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon). Cryer had expressed a desire to appear in NCIS since it premiered in 2003.[41]
Pursuing a passion for criminal justice, Cryer joined the team of the popular podcast Undisclosed where he will be voicing the weekly addendum episode for the second season.[42][needs update]
On May 21, 2018, Cryer was featured in the season 9 premiere of genealogy program Who Do You Think You Are? Cryer uncovered the dramatic tale of his ancestor James Adams, a Scottish Covenanter soldier who was captured during the Battle of Dunbar in 1650, and endured horrific conditions as a prisoner. He was then transported to America an indentured servant to work at the Saugus Iron Works at Lynn, Massachusetts. As part of his research for the episode, Cryer visited the site of the Battle of Dunbar, Durham Cathedral in Durham, North East England – where surviving Scottish prisoners were held until they were indentured – and the Saugus Iron Works national historic site. Cryer said: "Seeing the resilience of my family over centuries, you can see the legacy he left. I can't help but feel lucky...clearly, the resilience of my family, that spine of steel, was not something that came from nowhere. Moving forward, I'm going to take James Adams' strength as my inspiration and know that when you go through very, very difficult times, if you can turn around and help the people around you who had it even worse, that's real strength. And I aspire to be one of those people."[citation needed]
Cryer married British actress Sarah Trigger in 1999, with whom he has a son, Charlie Austin.[10] They divorced in 2004. On a February 2007 episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, he announced that he was engaged to entertainment reporter Lisa Joyner, whom he married in Mexico[10] in June 2007.[47][48] On September 29, 2009, they announced that they had adopted a baby girl.[49][50]
When Pretty in Pink co-star Molly Ringwald told Out magazine in 2012 that she believed Cryer's character in the film, Duckie, was gay, Cryer stated, "I respectfully disagree. I want to stand up for all the slightly effeminate dorks that are actually heterosexual. Just 'cause the gaydar is going off, doesn't mean your instruments aren't faulty. I've had to live with that, and that's OK."[51] Also in 2012, he told Jeff Probst that when he and Joyner started dating, she wondered if he might be gay because "he never kissed me."[52] Cryer was asked in 2014 if he was "mistaken for gay"; he called himself "an effeminateheterosexual dork" and made a tongue-in-cheek remark about never being propositioned: "Fellas, you're dropping the ball."[53]
Political views
Prior to the 2008 presidential election, Cryer attended a fundraiser hosted by the McCain campaign and, according to news reports, endorsed John McCain.[54][55] When Cryer did not make a public endorsement for the 2012 race, his spokeswoman said that the 2008 report aligning him with the Republican Party was a "mistake" and that Cryer was "not really political." He had attended events for both Republicans and Democrats "because he wanted to hear what both sides had to say."[56] In fact, Federal Election Commission reports show that Cryer donated the maximum legal amount to the Obama campaign in August of 2008[1]. Records also show that he again contributed to the Obama campaign in 2012, that year in the form of a $40,000 contribution to the Obama 2012 Victory Fund[2]
I have been pointing out, and I have been screaming to the rooftops, that Donald Trump is the Charlie Sheen of politics ... I have to tell you, I love Charlie Sheen, I loved working with him when he was sober, but he was, he's full of shit. He has been full of shit, he has serious addiction. His addiction is obviously serious, drugs, and, but, Trump is just addicted to feeling important. I think if anybody is under the delusion that he cares about anybody in America besides himself, they are stoned and need to rethink their priorities, 'cause it's just ridiculous that he's gotten as far as he has.[57]
^ ab"Jon Cryer Wins Emmy". Two and a Half Men Fan Site. September 21, 2009. Archived from the original on September 17, 2010. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
^Mangalindan, J P (January 8, 2024). "Jon Cryer: What I Know Now". People. Vol. 1, no. 1. pp. 63–65.
^Bierly, Mandi (August 23, 2006). "Don't You Forget About Duckie". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 3, 2019. To mark a new special-edition DVD of "Pretty in Pink", Emmy nominee Jon Cryer chats with Mandi Bierly about the movie's original ending, 'Try a Little Tenderness', and more
^Lurie, Karen (2002). "Brat Pack". St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale Group. ISBN1-55862-405-8. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved September 13, 2008.
^"Anytime with Bob Kushell feat. Jon Cryer". Anytime with Bob Kushell. Season 2. Episode 1. March 17, 2009.
^ abcd"Jon Cryer (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved September 14, 2023. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
