Mackenzie Alexander Astin

American actor Mackenzie Astin is best remembered for his television role as Andy Moffitt over four seasons from 1985 to 1988 on the popular sitcom The Facts of Life.

He was born Mackenzie Alexander Astin on May 12, 1973 in Los Angeles, California to actress Patty Duke and actor John Astin. He is the half brother of actor Sean Astin of Lord of the Rings fame.

At the age of nine, he made his acting debut in the TV movie Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal followed by several other roles in TV before landing the part of Andy Moffatt Stickle on the sitcom The Facts of Life. Astin moved to feature films in the 1990s with a spate of roles in Hollywood studio films, including the lead in the Disney adventure Iron Will (1994).

After substantial parts in two high-profile box office disappointments, Terms of Endearment (1983) sequel The Evening Star (1996) and the Sandra Bullock-Chris O'Donnell historical romance In Love and War (1996), Astin focused on work in more idiosyncratic independent films. Astin's boyish good looks made him deceptively "perfect boyfriend" material in the romantic comedy Dream for an Insomniac (1998), and he played a hapless male in the mockumentary Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (1999). Astin particularly enhanced his indie record with his performance as one of the young preppies negotiating The Last Days of Disco (1998), the final part of Whit Stillman's trilogy dissecting the mating habits of Manhattan's haute bourgeoisie. He returned to TV in the late 1990s as shooting victim Kevin McCarthy in the docudrama The Long Island Incident (1998), and in the civil rights drama Selma Lord Selma (1999).

He is married to Jennifer Abbott Astin (née Bautz).

Sources: Wikipedia, Starpulse