Actor / Director Profile

Anthony Michael Hall was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His stepfather is a show-business manager and his mother, Mercedes Hall, is an actress-singer. His sister, Mary Christian, is also a performer. He started doing TV commercials, and his first major break came when he was cast as the young Steve Allen in Allen's semi-autobiographical play "The Wake." He came to the attention of movie audiences with his performance as the geeky, overbearing yet endearing "Farmer Ted" who talks Molly Ringwald into giving him her underwear in Sixteen Candles (1984). His television credits include the Emmy Award-winning "The Gold Bug," in which he played the young Edgar Allan Poe, as well as the TV movie Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn (1982) (TV), and specials "The Body Human" and "Orphans, Waifs and Wards." On stage, he appeared in the Lincoln Center Festival's production of "St. Joan of the Microphone."