Meeting Rick Springfield on July 26, 2014.
Born Aug. 23, 1949 near Sydney, Australia, Richard Springthorpe–who later took on the stage name of Rick Springfield–started in the music business as a vocalist and lead guitarist in the band Zoot from 1969 to 1971. He began a solo career soon after and moved to the U.S. in mid-1972.
From Sept. 1972 to Sept. 1973, Springfield appeared as himself in the Saturday morning cartoon series Mission: Magic! on ABC-TV. He went on to appear in countless other films and television shows, including Wonder Woman and High Tide. From 1981 to 1983, he portrayed Dr. Noah Drake in the ABC-TV soap opera General Hospital; he has made numerous appearances on General Hospital since he first left the show. In 1984, he played a Pop idol in the film Hard to Hold and recently had a recurring role in the HBO series True Detective.
Springfield rocketed to success in 1981 with the song “Jessie’s Girl,” which was a worldwide hit and reached number 1 for two weeks on the U.S. Hot 100 chart, as well as on the Australian Kent Music report singles chart. In the same year, he won a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.
In 2010, Springfield became an author when he wrote his autobiography Late, Late At Night: a Memoir. In 2014, he published the book Magnificent Vibration: A Novel, and on May 9, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2015, he portrayed Greg, lead guitarist and Meryl Streep’s love interest in the Jonathan Demme film Ricki and The Flash.
