Background and career
Michael Earl Schoeffling (born December 10, 1960) is an American former actor and model. He is known for playing the roles of Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles, Kenny "Kuch" Kuchera in Vision Quest, Corey Burck in Let's Get Harry, Joe Perretti in Mermaids, and Al Carver in Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken. He retired from acting in 1991.
Schoeffling was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and raised in South Jersey. He graduated from Cherokee High School in Evesham Township, New Jersey. He attended Temple University in Philadelphia, where he majored in liberal arts. In the mid-1980s he began modelling for GQ, and photographer Bruce Weber paid for his acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Manhattan.
Schoeffling came to international prominence at the age of 23 for his role as Jake Ryan, the popular yet sensitive high school athlete on whom Molly Ringwald's character has a crush in the teen film Sixteen Candles. For Valentine's Day in 2004, twenty years after the film's American premiere, The Washington Post published an article titled "Real Men Can't Hold a Match to Jake Ryan of Sixteen Candles", which discussed the character's enduring appeal. He appeared in eight additional films after Sixteen Candles, including supporting roles in Vision Quest and Mermaids, and starring roles in the 1986 action film Let's Get Harry and 1991's Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken.
After his acting career, Schoeffling opened a woodworking shop and produced handcrafted furniture. Schoeffling has kept out of the public eye and has never given interviews since retiring from acting. In 2014, his wife told People that he "simply values his privacy".
Schoeffling met his wife, former actress and model, Valerie Robinson, on the modeling circuit in New York in the early 1980s, and married in 1987. They have two children; son Zane and daughter, Scarlett, who is a professional model in New York City.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
