A look inside Hollywood and the movies : Remember the Brat Pack? Well, Now That They’re Grown Up. . .

They seemed to come out of nowhere--or perhaps they all sprang full-blown from the head of John Hughes.

They were eight young actors and actresses who, through a twist of fate, were thrown together in a couple of mid-1980 movies --”The Breakfast Club” and “St. Elmo’s Fire”--and wound up with a nickname they all professed to hate: the Brat Pack.

Ah, youth: It is wasted on the young, and young actors are no different. Though they all started promisingly, the years have not been kind to many in this particular group. At this point, as this chart tracing their careers shows, some might actually jump at the chance to make “The Lunch Club” or, perhaps, “St. Elmo’s Fire Burns Again.”

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ACTOR: Emilio Estevez, 31

REALLY CAME OF AGE: Playing vulnerable loner roles in “The Breakfast Club” and “St. Elmo’s Fire.”

CAREER TRAJECTORY: Roller-coaster--lots of ups and downs.

HIGH POINTS: Commercial success in mediocre films “Stakeout” and “Young Guns”; married Paula Abdul.

LOW POINTS: Decided he was a comedy auteur and wrote/directed the comic garbageman mystery “Men at Work.”

GUTSIEST MOVE: Going the Disney route in “Mighty Ducks”--and inspiring a hockey franchise.

NOW PLAYING: “Judgement Night,” running for his life from Denis Leary.

PROGNOSIS: Inheriting intense character roles from dad Martin Sheen.

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ACTOR: Anthony Michael Hall, 25

REALLY CAME OF AGE: As fast-talking, cool-guy manque in “Sixteen Candles.”

CAREER TRAJECTORY: Is there a difference between a plummet and a nosedive?

HIGH POINTS: Likeable nerd overachiever in “Breakfast Club.”

LOW POINTS: Puberty and onset of postadolescent thuggishness in films such as “Johnny Be Good” and “Into the Sun.”

GUTSIEST MOVE: Signing on as a cast member for “Saturday Night Live” for doomed 1985 season.

NOW PLAYING: The Christmas-release “Six Degrees of Separation,” as a snotty preppie.

PROGNOSIS: Playing an obnoxious neighbor on a Fox sit-com.

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ACTOR: Rob Lowe, 29

REALLY CAME OF AGE: Fooling around with sis Jodie Foster in “The Hotel New Hampshire.”

CAREER TRAJECTORY: From tabloid bait to image rehab (including a Broadway stint).

HIGH POINTS: Seductive psychotic in art-imitates-life “Bad Influence”; tough-edged heel in “Masquerade.”

LOW POINTS: The famous homemade sex video (available on the collectors’ circuit).

GUTSIEST MOVE: Getting married (to makeup artists Sheryl Berkoff); having first child.

NOW PLAYING: TV miniseries of Stephen King’s “The Stand,” to be broadcast early next year.

PROGNOSIS: “Howard Stern Show” regular.

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ACTOR: Andrew McCarthy, 30

REALLY CAME OF AGE: As sensitive parochial schoolboy in “Heaven Help Us.”

CAREER TRAJECTORY: Steady; there’s no shortage of roles for calow young men (but, ahem, he’s not getting any younger).

HIGH POINTS: Not getting in the way of the laughs in “Pretty in Pink.”

LOW POINTS: Playing second fiddle to a dummy (“Mannequin”) and a dead body (“Weekend at Bernie’s”).

GUTSIEST MOVE: Skipping “Mannequin Two: On the Move.”

NOW PLAYING: “The Joy Luck Club,” as a caddish yuppie.

PROGNOSIS: Playing the good son of a vicious businessman on a nighttime soap.

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ACTOR: Demi Moore, 30

REALLY CAME OF AGE: As teen’s love obsession in “No Small Affair.”

CAREER TRAJECTORY: Like a rocket.

HIGH POINTS: Box-office smashes “Ghost” and “Indecent Proposal.”

LOW POINTS: New-Age bomb, “The Butcher’s Wife”; horror flop “The Seventh Sign.”

GUTSIEST MOVE: Marrying bad boy Bruce Willis; posing pregnant and nude in Vanity Fair.

NOW PLAYING: “Proposal” and “A Few Good Men” on video.

PROGNOSIS: Great, if Bruce doesn’t pick her scripts.

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ACTOR: Judd Nelson, 33

REALLY CAME OF AGE: As hoodlum with a heart in “Breakfast Club.”

CAREER TRAJECTORY: Downward spiral.

HIGH POINTS: As white-guy sidekick in “New Jack City.”

LOW POINTS: Ask anyone who saw his performance as a comic with a third arm in “The Dark Backward.”

GUTSIEST MOVE: Saying “Is this a black thing?” to Ice-T; hanging with this summer’s favorite bad girl, Shannen Doherty.

NOW PLAYING: “Airheads,” a comedy due next year.

PROGNOSIS: Obscurity until teens turn him into a cult figure in 2015.

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ACTOR: Molly Ringwald, 25

REALLY CAME OF AGE: As John Hughes’ ironic heroine in “Sixteen Candles.”

CAREER TRAJECTORY: The slow fade.

HIGH POINTS: As sensible, likeable teen princess in “Sixteen Candles,” “Breakfast Club” and “Pretty in Pink.”

LOW POINTS: As pregnant teen in “For Keeps”; as good daughter in “The Pick-Up Artist.”

GUTSIEST MOVE: Wearing that upstaging top hat in “Betsy’s Wedding.”

NOW PLAYING: Miniseries on “The Stand” with fellow Packer Rob Lowe.

PROGNOSIS: A CBS sit-com as the Mary Tyler Moore of the ‘90s.

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ACTOR: Ally Sheedy, 31

REALLY CAME OF AGE: With triple-play in 1985: “Breakfast Club,” “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “Twice in a Lifetime.”

CAREER TRAJECTORY: A downhill slide.

HIGH POINTS: As tough cop in “Betsy’s Wedding.”

LOW POINTS: Playing opposite a robot in “Short Circuit”; dreadful “Maid to Order.”

GUTSIEST MOVE: Publishing that book of poetry.

NOW PLAYING: Thriller “Man’s Best Friend” opposite killer mutant dog.

PROGNOSIS: Playing eccentric roles Amanda Plummer turns down