Michael Kevin Pare was born on October 9, 1958 in Brooklyn, New York City. Pare was working as a chef in New York City when an agent, Yvette Bikoff, convinced him to try acting.

Pare's first starring role was as Tony Villcana on the television series The Greatest American Hero (1981). His well-known film roles were as Eddie Wilson in Eddie and the Cruisers (1983) and its sequel Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!(1989), as well as Streets of Fire (1984) and The Philadelphia Experiment (1984). Other films include Moon 44 (1990), Village of the Damned (1995), Bad Moon (1996), Hope Floats (1998) and The Virgin Suicides (1999). On television, Pare starred with Michael Beck on the CBS police drama Houston Knights (1987), as well as the short lived science fiction series Starhunter (2000).