A graduate of Princeton University and Duke Law School, Sam serves as Deputy Communications Director in the Bartlet Administration. While his efforts at romance (first with a student who moonlighted as a call girl, and later with Leo's daughter, Mallory) have gotten him into occasional hot water, his professional life seems well on track. He is fiercely loyal, dedicated to public service, and known at times to be unabashedly idealistic in his beliefs.
Raised in Dayton, Ohio, Rob Lowe began his career at the age of 8 in local television and summer stock. After his family relocated to Los Angeles, he starred in the television series "A New Kind of Family" and was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance in Hallmark Hall of Fame's "Thursday's Child." In 2001 Lowe received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his work on the three time Emmy Award winning drama series "The West Wing."
Lowe made his feature-film debut in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Outsiders" and went on to star in "Class," "The Hotel New Hampshire," "Oxford Blues," "Youngblood," "St. Elmo's Fire" with Demi Moore, "About Last Night" and "Square Dance," for which he received his second Golden Globe nomination. He then starred in "Masquerade," "Bad Influence" and the comedy smash "Wayne's World" with Mike Myers, as well as "Tommy Boy." Lowe also appeared in "Mulholland Falls" with Nick Nolte and in Robert Zemeckis' "Contact" with Jodi Foster and Matthew McConaughey. He recently re-teamed with Myers in the huge box-office hit "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me."
Lowe starred in the miniseries "Stephen King's 'The Stand'" and "Atomic Train," as well as Jack Higgins' bestseller "On Dangerous Ground" and "Midnight Man." He also appeared in "Great Performance's 'Suddenly Last Summer'" for PBS and Francis Ford Coppola's television production of "Outrage."
In 1992, Lowe made his Broadway debut in "A Little Hotel on the Side." He recently wrote and directed an acclaimed short film for cable television, "American Untitled/Desert's Edge."
Currently, Lowe is working on "Union Pacific," a film starring Bill Paxton, which he wrote and will direct for producer Gale Anne Hurd.
Lowe and his wife, Sheryl, have two sons. His birthday is March 17.
