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This appeared in the June 28, 1985 edition of The Sioux City Journal. Talk with Judd Nelson for any period of time and you get the distinct impression that, behind all that smoldering intensity, lies even more smoldering intensity. Unlike the gang he hangs and work with, Nelson is very much an intellectual.

He likes going out -- he's the first to admit as much -- but he wouldn't mind spending time engrossed in a book. "I come from a very well-read family," he says. "The idea that I was going to drop out of college after the second year and go to acting school, well.



.. it sort of surprised them.

I think they were concerned because the acting profession is very competitive. Like all success-oriented families, they wanted their son to be a success, so why not enter a field where the chances of success are greater?" Very much his own man, the 25-year-old left Haverford/Bryn Mawr College (where he had appeared in school productions) to study with Stella Adler in New York. She put him in several productions and taught him "if you can work for Stella, you can work for anyone.

" On a lark, Nelson decided to accompany a friend to Los Angeles. The trip was strictly a look-see. "I was from Maine, I hadn't seen the Pacific.

.. California Girls and all that.

.. and I decided to get an agent and try my luck.

" The plan worked. Nelson was cast in "Making the Grade," then "Fandango" and finally "The Breakfast Club," his breakthrough film. One of five high school students thrust together in deten.

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