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Alan Dale
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Alan Hugh Dale (born 6 May 1947) is a New Zealand actor. As a child Dale developed a love of theatre and also became a rugby player. After retiring from the sport he took on a number of professions to support his family, before deciding to become a professional actor at the age of 27. With work limited in New Zealand, Dale moved to Australia, where he was cast as Dr. John Forrest in The Young Doctors. He later appeared as Jim Robinson in Neighbours, a part he played for eight years.
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Alan Hugh Dale (born 6 May 1947) is a New Zealand actor. As a child Dale developed a love of theatre and also became a rugby player. After retiring from the sport he took on a number of professions to support his family, before deciding to become a professional actor at the age of 27. With work limited in New Zealand, Dale moved to Australia, where he was cast as Dr. John Forrest in The Young Doctors. He later appeared as Jim Robinson in Neighbours, a part he played for eight years. The character is the role Dale is most associated with, although he fell out with the producers over the pay he and the rest of the cast received.
After leaving Neighbours, Dale became typecast as Robinson in Australia and struggled to find work. His career was revitalised after he relocated to the United States in 2000. Since then he has had roles in many American series including prominent parts in The O.C. (as Caleb Nichol) and Ugly Betty (as Bradford Meade), as well as recurring and guest roles in Lost, 24, NCIS, ER, The West Wing, The X-Files and Torchwood. Dale has also appeared in minor roles in films such as Star Trek Nemesis, Hollywood Homicide and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as well as the London West End production of Spamalot. Dale has been married to former Miss Australia Tracey Pearson since 1990 and has four children.
Early life and work
| "When I was 27, I started to get really jumpy and thought, what could I do that would give me the same buzz rugby did? Acting was what came to mind. I told my first wife, 'Look, I really can't stand it any more. I'm going to have to go and be an actor'." | | — Dale on why he turned to acting professionally. |
Dale was born on 6 May 1947 in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. One of four children, Dale enjoyed his childhood, but his family were relatively poor. Although he was a gentle child, Dale was bullied and so learnt to defend and stand up for himself.
Growing up in New Zealand without television until the 1960s, Dale developed a love of theatre and amateur dramatics. His first performance was for a school concert, at the age of 13, doing an impression of comedian Shelley Berman. His parents built their own amateur theatre in Auckland called "The Little Dolphin Theatre". Dale often operated the stage equipment used to produce weather effects, and whenever he was on stage he loved the applause. Although a skilled rugby player, Dale opted to move into drama instead because "the acting fraternity didn't like footballers and the footballers didn't like actors. [...] Acting gave me the same buzz and there was the chance of a longer career." He gave up rugby at the age of 21 because it was not considered a workable career at the time, and he had to support his family. Acting roles were limited in New Zealand so Dale worked in multiple jobs, including as a male model, a car salesman and a realtor. While working as a milkman he heard the disc jockey at his local radio station resign during a broadcast. Dale went over to the station and told the managers that he could do a better job. They gave him a trial and then signed him up for the afternoon show, which lead to him landing his first TV role, and at the age of 27 he decided to become a professional actor.
Acting career
Early roles and Neighbours
Dale's first professional acting job was playing an Indian in a production of The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the Grafton Theatre in Auckland. His first on-screen role came in the New Zealand television drama Radio Waves, which although not successful, he described as "nine months of solid work and great fun." In the late 1970s, Dale moved to Australia at the age of 32, due to the limited acting work in New Zealand. He applied to the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, but was rejected because he "was a lot older than anybody else on the course." He was soon cast as Dr. John Forrest in the Australian soap opera The Young Doctors, where he remained for three-and-a-half years.
In 1985, Dale was cast in the continuing role of Jim Robinson in the Australian soap opera Neighbours, earning him acclaim across the world, including the United Kingdom. He stayed for eight years before his character was killed off. He found working on Neighbours "exciting" and it enabled him to provide for his sons, but he noted: "You were a totally replaceable commodity; [the production company] didn't put any value on any of the people appearing in the show." He expanded: "I didn't like it there, they were not nice people. When we decided that we hated each other, the company and me, one of the things the company did was to market everything they could out of us and pay us nothing." Dale and the company (Grundy Television) parted on "bad terms".
After Neighbours, Dale struggled to find work in Australia because he was typecast as Jim Robinson. His only regular sources of income were voice-overs, and publishing magazines about his former show which he "made quite a lot of money out of". He lost most of his profits investing in a failed children's magazine. In 1999, he was cast in the American TV film First Daughter, which was filmed in Australia. After discovering he could perform a convincing American accent, Dale attended the film's premiere, finally moving with his family to the United States permanently in January 2000. Dale, his second wife Tracey, and their then two year old son Nick moved into an "awful little flat" in Los Angeles and found an agent. Dale recalled telling his wife in Melbourne that "there's no way this is going to work. But if it does, it proves you can do anything."
Wider success
At the age of 52, his career was revitalised and he began taking acting classes, something he had not thought about after being cast in Neighbours. He described his age, unknown status and willingness to work for a relatively low fee as being his main assets for getting work in America. His drama teacher, who he has remained with ever since, told him "that you might want to play great roles, but truth is you will get cast as a specific type. Just work out your type. The others in the class said I was a bit Anthony Hopkins and a bit Sean Connery and that went into my head. I thought if I go for roles those guys would go for I'm more likely to get them." The first role he was offered was a part in a series called Sign of Life, a show about a rock band, which eventually fell through. Dale only received a couple of auditions during his first year in America, but his break came when he was cast as the South African Al Patterson in four episodes of ER. Since then, Dale has been "busier than ever", and is frequently cast in the "go-to powerful guy" roles. He has appeared in many well known television series including JAG, The West Wing, NCIS, Torchwood, The Practice as well as the series finale of The X-Files, playing the Toothpick Man. He played the recurring role of Vice President of the United States Jim Prescott for seven episodes of the second season of 24, a part which was originally supposed to only be one scene. Dale also had recurring roles in the serial Midnight Man and series Sea Patrol. He also appeared as the Romulan Praetor Hiren in Star Trek Nemesis and had small parts in films such as Hollywood Homicide, After the Sunset, and the minor part of General Ross in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Dale said his script for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was printed on tin foil so it was impossible to replicate, in order to keep the film's plot a secret. Dale was cast in Star Trek Nemesis after the actor originally cast fell ill.
From 2003 to 2007, Dale appeared in his longest running American roles. He starred in the Fox TV series, The O.C. playing Caleb Nichol, a wealthy tycoon. The producers saw that the character had further potential, and made his initially recurring role a regular character in the series. Caleb was killed off in the second season episode "The O.Sea". Dale was disappointed that Caleb was written out and described it as a mistake by the production staff. In 2006, Dale was cast in the starring role of Bradford Meade, the owner of Meade Publications in the ABC show Ugly Betty. Although he impressed the producers in his audition, he initially lost the role to a "bigger star". After said star began "causing trouble" and was fired, Dale was given the part. Bradford was killed off during the show's second season.
Dale appeared in the second season finale "Live Together, Die Alone" of Lost, as Charles Widmore, a part which has since become a recurring role. Dale's publicist was initially worried that Widmore (who is an integral part of the show's mystery) would become a starring role, meaning it would be hard for Dale to appear in both Lost and Ugly Betty at the same time. As of season 4, Widmore has only ever appeared as a guest star.
In March 2008, Dale replaced Peter Davison in the lead role of King Arthur in the London West End production of Monty Python's Spamalot at the Palace Theatre. He accepted the role because he was a fan of Monty Python and considered that "life's too short" for him to have turned down a West End part. Although he has seen all of the shows and the other films, Dale had never seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail (from which Spamalot is "lovingly ripped off") and had to buy a copy to prepare for the role. It was not his first experience in musical theatre because he appeared in a 1984 Australian production of Applause, but Dale found the comic timing of the part to be the hardest task. "On stage, the battle is to find all of the humorous moments and not skip over them. [...] There's an art to Python humour and I'm aiming to try and get every single joke just right." He was succeeded in the role by Sanjeev Bhaskar on 23 June 2008.
Despite his recent mainstream success, Dale is still primarily known for his role as Jim Robinson in Neighbours in the United Kingdom and Australia. This was spoofed in a promotional ident for Channel 4 in 2007 which sees Dale taking part in a mock interview about the sudden upturn in his career, before being accosted by an Australian fan, who recognises him as Jim Robinson. Discussing this association after Ugly Betty's 2007 Golden Globe win, Dale noted: "Every article I read I'm always, 'Ex-soap star Jim Robinson'. Maybe now people will just get to know me as actor Alan Dale." In 2007, Amazon.co.uk reported that they had sold more DVDs of films and television shows featuring Dale than any featuring other ex-Neighbours cast members. Coincidentally, Dale's characters in Neighbours, The O.C. and Ugly Betty have all been killed off by a fatal heart attack.
Personal life
| "I like both places [Australia and New Zealand] but I get a lot more respect and recognition from Australia than I do in New Zealand. New Zealanders don't want to know me at all, really. I've been Australian for 20-odd years. Everywhere I went I was the guy from Neighbours so I was Australian. Then when I came here [Hollywood], because I have a New Zealand passport I became a New Zealander again. It's odd." | | — Dale on his nationality. |
In 1968, Dale married his girlfriend. Claire, and the couple had two children, Simon and Matthew. Both of Dale's eldest sons are involved in the entertainment industry, Simon as a radio announcer at Kiss 100 and Matthew as a writer, film maker and actor. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979. At the time, Dale lived in Auckland but after the divorce he moved to Sydney with his sons. On 8 April 1990, he married the 1986 Miss Australia, Tracey Pearson, who he met at the 1986 Australian Grand Prix, when she was 21 and he was 39. Dale described it as "the most appropriate relationship I've ever had." Dale also has two children from this marriage, Daniel and Nick, who "keep him young". He and his family now live in Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles, California and also own property in Australia and New Zealand. Both of Dale's parents died in 2007, and he regrets not spending enough time with them. Dale describes his life philosophy as being Winston Churchill's quote "Never, never, never give up", and counts Gene Hackman as his "big acting hero".
Filmography
Television
Films
Video games
Theatre
External links
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