Nip/Tuck

Background:

“When Christian has sex, it’s straight out of Penthouse. When Sean has sex, it’s funny and a little awkward and your cringe a bit. It’s real!” Dylan Walsh on his character on “Nip/Tuck”

American actor Dylan Walsh was a regular, captivating presence in television and movie for almost a decade and half before finally shooting up to stardom with his role as the always conflicted Miami plastic surgeon Sean McNamara in the critically lauded FX series “Nip/Tuck” (2003-?), where he received a 2005 Satellite nomination. On the silver screen, the handsome, curly-haired actor offered a good turn as an undercover cop in the low-budget independent drama Jet Boy (2001), a performance that strengthened his career. He is also known for playing roles in such prestigious Hollywood movies as Robert Benton’s Nobody’s Fool (1994), Congo (1995), Blood Work (2002) and We Were Soldiers (2002). His more recent and forthcoming credits include David Mamet’s Edmond (2005), the Sandra Bullock-Keanu Reeves vehicle The Lakehouse (2006) and the comedy One Part Sugar (2006).

Off screen, Walsh was listed as one of People Magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive” in 2006. He likes playing poker and the piano, listening to music as well as reading drama books He also enjoys swimming and collects Rolex watches and coins of the past. On a more personal note, the 5-foot-10½-inch actor has been married twice. He was married to screen beauty Melora Walters from 1996 to 2003 and has two children with her. He is now the husband of actress Joanna Going, whom he wed on October 2004. The two have one child together. Walsh’s love life has also been involved with megastar Julia Roberts.


Wandering Youth

Childhood and Family:

In Los Angeles, California, Charles Hunter Walsh, who would later be popular as Dylan Walsh, was born on November 17, 1963. As a result of his parents’ occupations, both Foreign Service employees, Walsh was raised in several places like East Africa, India and Indonesia until age 10, when his family moved back to the U.S. and settled in Virginia, where he attended Annandale High School in Annandale, VA. It was in high school that Walsh started acting professionally. Upon graduating in 1982, he enrolled at the University of Virginia and earned a degree in English in 1986.

On March 20, 1996, Walsh tied the knot with actress Melora Walters, but the marriage ended in separation in July 29, 2003. The couple have two children together, daughter Joanna and son Thomas. In November 2003, actress Joanna Going gave birth to his daughter, Stella Haven Walsh. They eventually got married on October 10, 2004. On his free time, Walsh enjoys spending time with his children.


Jet Boy

Career:

Dylan Walsh began acting professionally while still in high school, when he landed a role in the Arena Stage production of “Undiscovered Country” in D.C. He continued to act throughout college by performing in many local productions, including “Our Town,” “Curse of the Starving Class” and “Romeo and Juliet,” and after graduating, headed to New York City to give acting a more serious try. Billing himself as ‘Charlie Walsh,’ he made his TV-movie bow in 1987’s Soldier Boys, a CBS Schoolbreak Special, with James Earl Jones, which was followed by a recurring role on the CBS comedy show “Kate & Allie” (1987-1989), portraying the boyfriend of Allie’s daughter. In 1989, he made his wide screen debut, as Charles Hunter Walsh, in director Patrick Dempsey’s Loverboy, and starred in the pilot When We Were Young, that same year. Still in 1989, the actor had a small role in the made-for-TV action/comedy Chameleons, where he started using the name Dylan Walsh professionally.

Walsh next netted a regular role in the ABC drama “Gabriel’s Fire,” playing a lawyer’s assistant again opposite James Earl Jones, and acted in the miniseries “Telling Secrets” (1993) as well as in the HBO movie Arctic Blue (1993) and the Showtime film Radio Inside (1994, as a youth who loses his lover to his brother). On a feature front, the actor’s career in fact starting to achieve impetus in the early 1990s with the John Boorman-directed Where the Heart I (1990) and Betsy’s Wedding (1990), a comedy written and directed by and starring Alan Alda. He continued with work in the higher profile movies like Robert Benton’s Nobody’s Fool (1994), where he played the supporting role of Paul Newman’s abandoned son, Peter, and Frank Marshall’s Congo (1995), where he had a lead as a primatologist an exhibition gone askew.

The following years saw roles in a string of B-list films and telefilms of so-so distinction like the drama Eden (1996, as the strict husband of a woman (Joanna Going) suffering from multiple sclerosis), Lynn Roth’s comedy Changing Habits (1997), Divided by Hate (1997, TV), Men (1997), The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery (1998, TV), Final Voyage (1999), Chapter Zero (1999) and Legal Aid (1999, TV). During this period, he could also be seen as Off. Jimmy Doyle on the CBS drama “Brooklyn South” (1997) and Sgt. Eldritch in an episode of “The Outer Limits” (1998).

Entering the new millennium, Walsh was offered the starring role in Calgary writer-director Dave Schultz’s dark psychological drama Jet Boy (2001). Playing a cool, morally vague undercover police who makes friends with a street smart orphan while trying to humiliate a big-time drug trader, he proved that he was completely capable of holding a leading dramatic role. With the film’s success, Walsh’s career was somewhat bolstered. Supporting parts in major studio productions such as We Were Soldiers and Blood Work (both 2002) paid evidence to an actor salvaging his foothold after a few early fades.

Eventually in 2003, Walsh delivered his big breakthrough when he landed the starring role in the critically acclaimed television drama “Nip/Tuck” (2003-?), playing a plastic surgeon, Dr. Sean McNamara. He obtained the part after being approached by series creator Ryan Murphy in an L.A. coffee shop because Murphy memorized his strong work on 1994’s Nobody’s Fool. For his fine performance in the show, in 2005, Walsh was handed a Satellite nod for Outstanding Actor in a Series, Drama.

Walsh went on to pursue his film career. In 2005, he could be seen in the David Mamet drama Edmond, costarring William H. Macy and Julia Stiles, and more recently teamed up with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves for the fantasy-flavored romantic drama The Lakehouse (2006), based on the Korean film Il Mare (2000). The latter film saw the player give a fine acting as a buttoned-down attorney and former boyfriend named Morgan.

The 43-year-old performer will soon star in the upcoming comedy One Part Sugar (2006), as Ray Tuckby. Among his costars in the Hart Bochner-helmed are Jonah Hill, Danny DeVito and Justin Long.


Awards:
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