Jon Cryer’s mother is an American actress, playwright as well as a lyricist, Gretchen Cryer. Similarly, his father is a veteran American stage, film and television actor as well as a singer, David Cryer. He was born in New York City. He has two sisters, Robin and Shelly. His grandfather, father’s father, Rev. Dr. Donald W. Cryer (1909-1988) was a famous Methodist minister.
When Cryer was twelve, he started to want to be an actor. As a teenager, Cryer attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center for few summers. In 1983, he graduated from Bronx High School of Science. One of today’s famous film director as well as director, Boaz Yakin was his classmate. Jon even skipped his college and went to study acting at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) in London, United Kingdom.
Cryer’s first professional acting was in ‘Torch Song Trilogy’ as ‘David’, replacing a closely resembling actor, Matthew Broderick. In 1984, when Jon was 19, he played a lead role in a romantic comedy film. ‘No Small Affair’. Later, he played smaller roles in films and television series. In an interview with daily mail, Jon’s mother said that after his role in ‘Pretty in Pink’, she started receiving calls from teenage girls who left hysterical and giggling messages on her answering machine.
One shocking fact about Jon is that in 1989, he got a lead role in a comedy TV series, ‘The Famous Teddy Z’. But because of the poor reviews, the show was shut down after the first season. But his show after that gained a huge hit. He starred with Charlie Sheen in another comedy show, ‘Hot Shots’. Later in 1993, he was asked to audition for the role of Chandler Bing on Friends which was actually done by ‘Matthew Perry’.
He played in other two shows as well, namely, ‘Partners’ and ‘The trouble with normal’, which was also canceled after the first season. In an interview with ‘Timeout New York’, he revealed, ‘Hey, every show I'm in goes down. Think about this: George Clooney was in 28 pilots or something. It means nothing’.
Moving on to his personal life, he is married and divorced with Sarah Trigger (1994-2004). They have a son ‘Charlie Austin’ who is currently 17 years old. After a year of his divorce, he started dating an American TV personality Lisa Joyner in 2005. After two years of dating, they finally tied the knot on 16th June 2007. They adopted a daughter in 2009, ‘Daisy’ who had just reached eight years of age.
Due to his close friendship with Charlie Sheen, in 2003, he starred as Alan Harper on a hit comedy show, ‘Two and a Half Men’. From his acting on this show, he received two wins and seven nominations for ‘Primetime Emmy Award’. From the show, he earned about $650 thousand per episode and his estimated net worth is $65 Million.
