Although he made a name for himself as “Andy Moffett” on The Facts of Life for three seasons, Mackenzie Astin’s career has now taken off in a different direction.
Astin left the business after The Facts of Life to pursue his education. “I went to high school and edited the school paper, and made more than my fair share of errors as the J.V. shortstop on the baseball team,” Astin said in a recent online chat.
After planning to attend Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland (his father’s alma mater) and considering a career in journalism, he decided to return to acting and immediately won the starring role in Spine at The Cast Theatre. “My dad was a little bummed when I decided not to go,” Astin told People magazine, “but my mother was glad to have me back on the team.”
Since his return to acting, Astin has starred in several films. ( Click here to see Astin’s credits.) He recently completed production on The Mating Habits of an Earthbound Human with Carmen Electra and is now filming Selma Lord Selma for Disney Television.
His most recent releases have been The Last Days of Disco, Whit Stillman’s look at the early 80s, and Dream For An Insomniac, with Ione Skye and Jennifer Aniston.
Astin was born May 12, 1973 and was raised in Los Angeles. He spent part of his youth touring the United States with his parents, actress Patty Duke and actor/director/writer John Astin, while they were performing in plays.
Astin got his start in acting at a young age. “When I was eight years old, I went to visit my brother who was working on a movie of the week with my mother,” Astin said in a recent online chat, “and I saw how much fun he was having and I decided I wanted to try it, too.”
“As opposed to Sean,” Astin’s mother wrote in her 1987 book Call Me Anna, “Mackie was very shy, and at first I didn’t believe he’d be able to act. I thought if you told Mack to do something he didn’t want to, he would either cry or go stand in the corner until he turned blue, and he certainly would never repeat something more than once for anyone. But the competition between the two boys is intense, and once Sean was on his way, there was no holding Mack back.”