Rick Springfield

Rick Springfield, born Richard Lewis Springthorpe on 23 August 1949 in Guildford, a western suburb of Sydney, Australia, is a musician and actor who has worked across multiple entertainment disciplines, including a Broadway appearance in 1995. The son of Eileen Louise Springthorpe and Norman James Springthorpe, an Australian Army career officer, he spent part of his childhood in Broadmeadows, Victoria, and accompanied his family to England when his father was stationed there from 1958 to 1963. He began learning guitar at age 13 and played in various bands during his time in England before returning to Australia. At 14, he attended a Beatles performance at Festival Hall in Melbourne.

Springfield's early musical career included a stint with the band Rockhouse, which was later renamed MPD Ltd by bassist Pete Watson. In October 1968, when Springfield was 19, the group traveled to South Vietnam to perform for Australian troops. After returning to Australia, members of MPD Ltd formed Wickedy Wak, whose single "Billie's Bikie Boys" was produced by Go-Set journalist Molly Meldrum and featured Beeb Birtles of the pop rock group Zoot as a backing vocalist. In September 1969, Springfield replaced Roger Hicks as lead guitarist and vocalist in Zoot, joining Birtles on bass guitar and vocals, Darryl Cotton on lead vocals and guitar, and Rick Brewer on drums. He wrote the band's fifth single, "Hey Pinky," as well as the later single "Freak." Zoot scored a hit with a hard rock cover of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," which peaked at number 4 on Go-Set's Top 40 in March 1971, before the group disbanded in May of that year.

Following Zoot's breakup, Springfield signed with Sparmac Records and released his debut solo single, "Speak to the Sky," in October 1971, which reached number 5 on the Go-Set singles chart. Sparmac label owner Robie Porter served as both producer and manager. Springfield recorded his debut album, Beginnings, in London, providing all songwriting, lead vocals, guitar, keyboard, and banjo for the record. He relocated to the United States in mid-1972, and Capitol Records issued "Speak to the Sky" in August of that year, with the single peaking at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. Beginnings was the first of seven Springfield albums to reach the Billboard 200 top 40. In 1973, he signed to Columbia Records and recorded his second album, Comic Book Heroes, also produced by Porter. From September to December 1973, he starred as himself in the ABC-TV Saturday morning animated series Mission: Magic!, writing and performing original songs for most episodes. A 1974 Australia-only album of the same name followed. His single "Take a Hand" reached the U.S. top 50 in 1976, taken from the album Wait for Night on Chelsea Records, a label that folded shortly after the album's release.

Springfield's commercial breakthrough came in 1981 with the album Working Class Dog, which reached number 7 on the Billboard 200. The album produced the single "Jessie's Girl," which topped the charts for two weeks on both the U.S. Hot 100 and the Australian Kent Music Report. For the recording, Springfield received the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. The album also contained "I've Done Everything for You," written by Sammy Hagar, which became another top 10 U.S. hit. Four additional top 10 U.S. singles followed: "Don't Talk to Strangers," "Affair of the Heart," and "Love Somebody." His next two U.S. top 10 albums were Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet in 1982 and Living in Oz in 1983. In 1984, Springfield starred in the film Hard to Hold and recorded the majority of its accompanying soundtrack, which included the top 10 hit "Love Somebody." That same year, the album Beautiful Feelings contained the track "Bruce," which addressed the recurring confusion between Springfield and Bruce Springsteen. His 1985 album Tao produced the singles "State of the Heart" and "Celebrate Youth," and that year he also performed at the Live Aid charity concert. Between 1985 and 2020, Springfield released nine additional studio albums. In 2020, he appeared as a featured performer on the Coheed and Cambria single "Jessie's Girl 2," a sequel to his 1981 hit. In 2021, he began hosting a weekly radio show on Sirius XM's 80s on 8 channel called Working Class DJ with Rick Springfield, and that same year he joined Russell Morris to form The Morris Springfield Project, releasing the album Jack Chrome and the Darkness Waltz in October 2021, which debuted at number 34 on the ARIA Charts.

As an actor, Springfield made his television debut on The Six Million Dollar Man on 30 October 1977. He is best known for portraying Noah Drake on the daytime drama General Hospital, a role he held from 1981 to 1983 and revisited in 2005 through 2008 and again in 2012. In 2013, he returned to the series for its 50th anniversary alongside his son, actor Liam Springthorpe. Springfield starred in the television series High Tide from 1994 to 1997 and played a fictionalized version of himself in the Showtime series Californication in 2009. He appeared in supporting roles in both Ricki and the Flash and True Detective in 2015, and has had guest roles in Supernatural, Hot in Cleveland, and American Horror Story. In 1995, Springfield made his Broadway debut in the play Cafe. In 2010, he published his autobiography, Late, Late at Night: A Memoir.