10 MOMENTS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

THE HOLLYWOOD ICON AND GRATEFUL FAMILY MAN SHARES TRANSFORMATIVE MEMORIES FROM HIS INCREDIBLE PERSONAL JOURNEY AND 45-YEAR CAREER: 'THERE'S NOTHING IN MY LIFE I WOULD CHANGE'

- ELIZABETH LEONARD

Rob Lowe settles into a weatherworn rocking chair on a cliffside patio with a view of the Pacific and lights up a Partagás cigar. Moments later the coastal vista—a backdrop of Lowe’s life since he moved to Southern California from Dayton at age 11—jogs a memory of when his kids Matthew, 30, and John Owen, 28, were in elementary school. “I was doing West Wing, and I’d volunteered to be ‘parent delegate’ on the school whale-watching trip—but we were shooting late, and I was literally missing the boat,” says Lowe, kicking back near his Montecito, Calif., home on a recent afternoon. He recalls “flooring it” up the Pacific Coast Highway before leaping into the sea when he spotted the boat in the distance. “I just remember them going, ‘There’s a man swimming...’ and Matthew going, ‘I think that’s my dad.’ I swam with my sunglasses in my teeth.”

It’s become a favorite family memory and just one in a lifetime of moments that have shaped the enduring Hollywood star. At 60, the Midwest kid turned Brat Pack icon is four and a half decades into a versatile career marked by risk-taking zigzags and reinvention. Once the consummate Hollywood It boy who starred in 1985’s St. Elmo’s Fire with a who’s who of up-and-comers including Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez and Andrew McCarthy, Lowe navigated fast-lane celebrity and addiction before gritting his way back to the A-list via signature roles in Austin Powers, The West Wing and Parks and Recreation. A self-described “worker bee,” he’s had a show on TV every year since 1999 and currently juggles three series, 9-1-1: Lone Star, The Floor and Unstable. Profoundly thankful for his 33-year marriage to Sheryl, 63, Lowe calls fatherhood “the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”