Actor Rob Lowe spoke to a crowd of fans this past weekend in Atlanta to promote his book, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, a light-hearted biography filled with anecdotes from his 40 year film and TV career.

Here are 10 things we learned about Rob Lowe:

1. Lowe moved as a teenager from Dayton, Ohio to Los Angeles to start his acting career.

2. Lowe’s first TV series was the exceptionally low rated (#62 out of 62 shows) A New Kind of Family, starring Eileen Brennan, which competed (and lost badly) to 60 Minutes.

3. When Lowe lived in Malibu, his neighbors were Martin Sheen and his sons (Charlie and Emilio) who lived in a modest house. (Martin still lives there today.) After Apocalypse Now, Martin added an elaborate boulder-and-jungle encased swimming pool, which became a backdrop for the teens’ frequent home movies.

4. During the filming of The Outsiders, Diane Lane would have nothing to do with her teenage co-stars, so as a result, they made her the target of many of their pranks and practical jokes.

5. Initially the producers of St. Elmo’s Fire did not want Lowe in their movie, eventually caving to studio demands first by offering him the very small part of Mare Winningham’s straight-laced boyfriend before Lowe convinced them to cast him as saxophone playing, bad boy Billy, a role that ignited his career.

6. Right after Lowe bombed during his opening musical number in March 1989 at the Academy Awards, he spent the rest of the evening watching the show in the Green Room and holding hands with Lucille Ball, who told him she loved his performance. He said getting to spend the evening with Ball (who would die ten days later) made his embarrassing performance worth it.

7. During the heyday of The West Wing, the cast got to meet President Clinton and their counterparts at The White House, where National Security Advisor Sandy Berger asked why the show didn’t have a National Security Advisor.

8. During the taping of Brothers and Sisters, Sally Field (whom he loves) would show up daily with a small suitcase that NO ONE could touch. Hmmm!

9. Lowe says his wife Sheryl is obsessed with the TV show Family Feud, often watching it nightly just before bed, and playing the online game on her computer.

10. In his years of meeting many big name celebrities, Lowe says it has been his experience that the bigger the name, the nicer they are as people.