About Alex

[Updated 25-FEB-10]

Alex O’Loughlin (33) was born on August 24, 1976 as Alexander O’Lachlan in Canberra, Australia. Sydney is often listed on the web as his place of birth, but the fact that it’s Canberra comes straight from the actor’s mouth. His year of birth also varies, depending on the source, but Alex confirmed that it is 1976 on his MySpace blog entry of August 25, 2008:

“To answer some of your questions and just so the record is straight I am now 32, having been born in 1976 contrary to what other sources may tell us, which makes me year of the Dragon in Chinese astrology.”

Alex is a lean 6′ 1″ (1.85m) with dark brown hair and eyes that he describes as being “hazelly-blue, but they change color”. His favorite color is blue. He enjoys the outdoors and loves mountain climbing, hiking, running, riding his motorcycle (which appears to be a customized Harley-Davidson Evolution Sportster, a.k.a. an “Evo Sporty”, and he also owns a Triumph). For personal pleasure, he writes and makes music. He is partial to cigars (especially Cubans) but has now limited them since changing his diet and exercise routine, and he enjoys doing as many of his own stunts as he can. He has trained in various forms of martial arts. Actors he admires are Marlon Brando, Daniel Day Lewis, Mel Gibson, Sean Penn and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Alex attributes his many talents to his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Among his self-proclaimed “mad skills” is an aptitude for (fly-) fishing, whip cracking, cooking and guitar playing. Since working on Three Rivers, he is able to tie surgical knots. According to Moonlight co-star Sophia Myles, he is good at expressive movement. He also sings (at the very least the Monkey Magic theme) and is a natural athlete. More recently he revealed that he is a self-taught juggler:

“I can juggle, I was bored one summer as a child and I taught myself to juggle. I started with ping-pong balls, and then I moved on to walnuts. I can juggle anything.”

Alex has had to face his share of challenges while growing up. Son of a nurse and a physics and math teacher, he moved between Canberra and Sydney after his parents divorced when he was two. Like many small boys, he wanted to become a jet fighter pilot when he grew up, but was told by his teacher that it was an unlikely dream as he suffers from asthma. A painful memory that recently evoked the response, “Always teach children to reach for the stars.”

Playing dress up with items out of an old trunk was a favorite pastime for young Alex. He has fond memories of often donning a white clown suit with big red polka dots.

School was a continuous struggle, caused by learning difficulties that were compounded by ADD and OCD, and he left when he was 14, after which he held all manner of jobs in a wide range of fields.

In his 2002 article, NIDA Invites Applications for 2003, Frank McKone writes that reading A.B. Facey’s A Fortunate Life when he was 19 was a turning point in Alex’s life. Facey was a model for a new life, and as Alex travelled, also in Europe, he watched films with an ache which he finally recognised. He wanted to perform with the same commitment and honesty he now saw in so many great actors.

Acting held the biggest appeal and he was already working in short film and fringe theater as a teenager in Sydney. One of the first acting jobs he recalls is being an extra in a commercial, playing a marine. After attending numerous classes and courses in acting and expanding his horizons by traveling the world, he returned to school at the age of 22 to enroll at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. Despite a challenging first year, he went on to graduate from NIDA in 2002, after completing their highly competitive three-year, full-time Bachelor of Dramatic Art program, to which only 25 students are accepted each year.

Fellow NIDA alumni are Mel Gibson, Hugo Weaving, Colin Friels and Cate Blanchett, to name a few. As a student Alex appeared in a number of plays, including Titus Andronicus, The Seagull, Saved and NIDA graduate/teacher Nick Enright’s Country Music, which was written for his graduating class and premiered at the Parade Theatre in July 2002.

Others on Alex

Much more interesting than dry facts is what others have to say about him:

“What you don’t know about Alex, is that he is a human sponge. He absorbs EVERYTHING. ” — Gonzo Gonzalez-Stawinski, M.D., on “The Doctors”, October 2009

“Alex is a classic Aussie leading man – smart, sexy and extremely talented.” — Matt Skrobalak, Vice-President Casting, CBS, in The Sunday Telegraph, July 2009

“He’s awesome. He’s good-looking, and tall, and sweet and charming… and very leading-man material.” — Jennifer Lopez, on Access Hollywood, July 2009

“He’s the only person I was in the scene with, and he stabs me. He’s really a nice guy and very professional. It was just a delight to work with Alex.” — Jill Klopp, “Criminal Minds” murder victim in NewsOK, April 2009

“Alex is an amazing actor; he’s right next door, shooting scenes right now. Alex plays a serial killer who something happens to at a scene of one of the killings that changes his whole personality, and he reaches out to the BAU for help. It’s a really interesting character. There’s also a great kid in the episode, Andy Cherry, and he and Alex share a lot of scenes together. Alex is very sweet with kids.” — Ed Bernero, “Criminal Minds” executive producer in TVGuide.ca, February 2009

“You know it’s a good [performance] when the crew starts hanging around the monitor. They came up to me and said, ‘This guy’s great.’  From my point of view, the more an actor can inhabit something that’s the opposite of him, the more producers can be surprised by it.” – Simon Mirren, “Criminal Minds” writer and co-executive producer in TV Guide, April 2009

“I’m immune to Alex’s hotness. I see more of him than any boyfriend I’ve ever had. I’m very privileged because of that, but since I see him so much, I’ve overdosed on his hotness. It’s just the norm. But other people get weak in the knees around him. They start blushing. They drool. He has that Johnny Depp thing, a special sparkle that’s just magic. How do you define it? The young girls love him, the older ladies love him, and the gay guys love him. He’s really good at expressive movement and loves musical theater. He’s also up there with the greatest comedians I’ve ever known. I go home with stomach pains from laughing so hard. It’s constant. He’s kinda crude, English and Australians have a great connection when it comes to humor, and we can be outrageous. You couldn’t put some of it in print. Americans don’t know what to do with us, but I like that.” — Sophia Myles, co-star on “Moonlight” in TV Guide, May 2008

“I also saw immediately, even from the pilot presentation, Alex is just charming, he’s really charming and really easy to watch… he’s a very handsome man, but at the same time he’s also got this delightful charm about him and it comes off and I thought an awful lot of shows would love to have somebody as wonderful as him leading their charge.” – Marvin Rush, Director of Photography for “Moonlight” in an interview with Voices of Krypton, February 2008

“What’s great about Alex is he can turn on the sex for the job, but he never abuses his good looks. He knows his place in the universe.” — Sophia Myles, TV Guide, December 2007

“He’s a bundle of energy. And he’s funny — he makes me laugh all night long. With our schedule, 16 hours a day, six days week, I couldn’t have hoped for anyone more wonderful to work with.” — Sophia Myles, TV Guide, December 2007

“Mick St. John was Alex O’Loughlin. Alex is so warm and genuine and such a wonderfully talented actor. We had seen his episodes of ‘The Shield,’ and he’s got such great charisma and is so unassuming in his crazy good looks that he just endears himself to you.” — Nina Tassler, LA Times, October 2007

“I love him. He’s awesome. He’s such a gentleman. He just breaks my heart in how sweet he is. He’s so sweet, but such a leading man in this way that isn’t cocky, but strong. He’s strong, because he needs to be strong, and he needs caring to show, and he’s very ambitious and wants a really long career. All of the qualities that need to be attached for somebody to be really successful are all there, but without that sort of sketchy quality that can sometimes be in people that really want to get to the top. He has zero of that. I see how he treats everybody on set. He’s really compassionate. Really loving.” – Shannyn Sossamon, co-star on “Moonlight” in an interview with IGN, September 2007

“Alex is a terrifically sexy, masterful, and take-charge guy — just the type who can make you remember that James Bond is a seriously dangerous man.” — Jane Jenkins, The Casting Company, in the book “A Star is Found”, 2006

“[Alex O'Loughlin] is a very talented young actor and he’s definitely going places. He’s a real movie star.” — Brett Leonard, Director of “Man-Thing” and “FEED”, 2006

“That’s a thinking actor, that’s Alex. Every moment he’s making sure that he’s giving two hundred percent, which makes my job a lot easier.” — Peter Andrikidis, Director of “Mary Bryant”, 2005

“As soon as [Alex's] real life began, commitment to the work has led to an avid interest in theatre history covered in essays which would surprise his earlier teachers. He told me he is an “instinctual actor – I feel my way through it” but very soon was explaining detailed techniques of characterisation. He seems to have just the right mix of method and emotion, and control of his life, for us to sincerely hope for professional success.” — Frank McKone, “NIDA Invites Applications for 2003″, 2002

After graduating from NIDA, Alex O’Loughlin began his career in Australian television and film productions before relocating to Los Angeles early 2005 to find more work. His Aussie TV credits include roles in BlackJack: Sweet Science, episode 4 of the television series Love Bytes (which can be found on YouTube) and the 2005 acclaimed mini-series The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant.

Alex landed his first major feature film role in the charming 2005 Australian movie Oyster Farmer, in which he portrayed Jack Flange, a 24-year-old who moves from the city to find work in a remote and quirky community of oyster farmers in order to be closer to his sister.

He went on to make the action/horror flick Man-Thing and as the psychopath Michael Carter, he force-feeds obese women in the 2005 thriller FEED that many will find disturbing, or fascinating and darkly comical. FEED is a movie that Alex co-produced and that was based on an idea of his and Patrick Thompson’s, his co-star.

Bond was a “Big, wonderful journey”

That same year he was invited to audition for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale. After meeting director Martin Campbell in LA to discuss what he initially thought would be the role of the villain or another character, Alex was flown to London to shoot three audition scenes at Pinewood Studios. Alex: “Picture it! Picture it! It’s James Bond, need I say more?”

The role went to Daniel Craig and Alex admitted in August 2005 that he never expected to get the part as he considered himself too young. “I think in five years I’ll be a good Bond”, he mused in late 2007. With the “big, wonderful journey” behind him, he laughed off the bruised ego in typical Alex fashion. “But I’m afraid it killed my mother. She always thought I’d be a great Bond.”

After adding a 2005 Australian Film Institute nomination to his belt for Best Lead Actor in Television for his role as Will Bryant in Mary Bryant as well as a Silver Logie nomination for the same in 2006, Alex O’Loughlin landed a small role in 2006 as half of the kissing couple in the opening credits of The Holiday, which marks his debut in a US production. After playing Marcus Bohem in The Invisible, he returned to television in April 2007 as Det. Kevin Hiatt in seven episodes of the acclaimed US drama series The Shield.

In the heartwarming 2007 movie August Rush, Alex portrayed the musician Marshall Connelly, the brother of Jonathan Rhys Myers’ character and got to play his own guitar. Alex originally auditioned for the lead role; however, as a well-known name was required, it went to Rhys Myers instead. Nevertheless, the role of Marshall was expanded especially for him.

Alex explains in an October 2008 interview with Hollywood the Write Way, “August Rush was a wonderful experience for me. I read the script all the way through while I was shooting The Invisible and I loved it and I read it again. I knew I had to be part of that film. I put down 2 tests at a studio in Vancouver. I played guitar and sang a couple of songs and did a few dialog scenes. That was all actually for the lead role that Jonathan Rhys Meyers ended up playing. I spoke to the director, Kirsten Sheridan and she said that they needed a known name for the role but she would love to give me the role of Marshall. She re-wrote the character, she pumped that role up because it was a much smaller role in the beginning. We all lived together in NY and I had never lived in NY before so it was one of the greatest times of my life.”

Moonlight: “I kind of blocked it from my memory a bit”

The CBS television series Moonlight premiered on September 28, 2007 following a total cast change (with the exception of Alex) after the initial and unaired pilot was nixed. As the charming private investigator and angsty vampire-with-scruples Mick St. John, Alex and the talented cast went on to win the hearts of millions of viewers in the US alone, despite challenges such as a writers’ strike that forced the show into a three-month hiatus at the cost of five episodes and regularly changing show runners in the background. Winning the People’s Choice Award for Favorite New TV Drama in January 2008 (Moonlight logged over 10 million votes) and well publicized fan-driven campaigns, however, failed to convince CBS to proceed with a second season and the network announced the cancellation of the popular show on May 13, 2008.

Alex remembers the last day of filming, which, according to the production’s call sheet was Saturday, April 26. It was the final day of a 9-day shoot for Moonlight’s episode 16, Sonata and it involved the downtown crash scene with the prisoner transport van. “I kind of blocked it from my memory a bit. The last few days kind of string together for me. They were very busy and we were shooting like mad, finishing at all hours of the morning. The sun would come up and we had been there for 18, 19, 20 hours. The end of the last day everyone was kind of dragging themselves to their cars and leaving to go home and get some sleep. I wish I could tell you it was a little more poetic but we believed that we were coming back. It was sad.”

CBS was smart enough to retain Alex with a one-year holding deal that offered him the opportunity to work out ideas for a new television series. He is known to have been collaborating with Simon Mirren, head writer for Criminal Minds, the hit show on which Alex guest starred as a serial killer in an episode titled The Big Wheel. The episode aired in the US on April 29, 2009 and was very well received by fans and critics alike.

On March 12, 2009, the news leaked that he had won the lead role in a pilot for Three Rivers, playing a staff surgeon on the show that is centered on organ transplantation in a Pittsburgh-set hospital.  Shooting took place in Pittsburgh late March – early April 2009. CBS announced that Three Rivers was picked up for their Fall-Winter 2009-2010 schedule on May 20, 2009 during their upfront presentation in New York City.

After listening to feedback from critics and medical experts, CBS built an ultra-modern hospital set at Paramount Studios in Hollywood and re-shot and re-worked the first episode of the initial order of thirteen. Although Alex did return to Pittsburgh for some location filming in August, the bulk of the show was produced in Hollywood. The series premiered on October 4, 2009 at 9/8C, but sadly only eight episodes were aired when CBS took the show off its schedule. Despite reports that the show was “on hiatus”, Alex blogged on November 30, “today I was informed that Three Rivers would soon draw to an end”. Although filming for the remaining episodes was completed by December 15, the network was not been forthcoming about their plans for airing the remaining episodes. CBS Entertainment President, Nina Tassler, confirmed during the Television Critics Association Press Tour in January 2010 that Three Rivers had indeed been cancelled.

Leveraging Three Rivers and his increasing popularity to support the organ donation cause, Alex completed the training for his Donate Life America ambassadorship in October 2009. He is also an official organ, eye and tissue donor. “I now have the chance to give the gift of life, which I believe is the greatest gift of all,” he blogged on MySpace. Despite the fate of Three Rivers, Alex has confirmed that he will continue his relationship with Donate Life America.

Alex completed his work on Joel Silver’s Antarctica-set action thriller Whiteout prior to taking on Moonlight’s punishing schedule in 2007. The movie was released on September 11, 2009 in the US.

In July 2009, he wrapped The Back-Up Plan, his first major US feature film, a romantic comedy in which he co-stars opposite Jennifer Lopez. The movie is expected to gain him major international attention and opens in April 2010.

Shortly after completing the last episode of Three Rivers, Alex went home to Australia for Christmas to rest and consider his career options. Mid January, Twitter tweets spawned internet rumors linking him to CBS’s remake of Hawaii Five-0 and Michael Ausiello posted on January 17 that Alex was in talks with the network about a lead role. It was not until February 10 that The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Alex had agreed to portray LtCom Steve McGarrett. Not surprisingly, the announcement coincided with the commencement of his promotional activities for The Back-up Plan. Shooting for the pilot episode of the new show will begin mid March in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Alex has participated in Australian commercials for Libra Tampons (2003) as well as for Toyota and Mitsubishi (all can be viewed on YouTube).  In 2006 he appeared in a Supima Cotton print ad campaign.

He currently resides in Los Angeles.

Fans are welcome to send mail to Alex via CBS Paramount Studios.

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Tags: steve mcgarrett, mick st. john, hawaii five-o, alex o’loughlin, the back-up plan, alex o’lachlan, three rivers, oyster farmer, hawaii five-0, donate life