Nathan Fillion

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Nathan Fillion

Nathan Fillion, 2005
Born Nathan Fillion
March 27, 1971 (1971-03-27) (age 37)
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Occupation actor
Years active 1994—present

Nathan Fillion (born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian actor, known for his lead role in the television series Firefly.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Fillion was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the son of Cookie and Bob Fillion, both of whom are retired English teachers.[1] He has an older brother, Jeff,[2] and attended Holy Trinity High School, Concordia University College of Alberta and the University of Alberta. He claims to be descended from Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early.

[edit] Career

After working in several theatre, television and film productions, including Theatresports with Rapid Fire Theatre and the improvised soap opera Die-Nasty, Fillion moved to New York City in 1994 where he acted in the soap opera One Life to Live as Joey Buchanan, for which he was nominated in 1996 for a Daytime Emmy Award in the "Outstanding Younger Actor" category. In 1997, he left the series to pursue other projects (but would return for a brief guest appearance in 2007). After moving to Los Angeles, he played a supporting role in the sitcom Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place and was cast as "James Frederick Ryan" or "The Minnesota Ryan" in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan.

In 2002, Fillion starred as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the Joss Whedon science fiction television series Firefly, for which he won the "Cinescape Genre Face of the Future - Male" award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA. Fillion also won the SyFy Genre Awards in 2006 for Best Actor/Television and was runner-up for Best Actor/Movie.[3] Although the show was cancelled, it was adapted to the big screen; Fillion reprised his role as Mal in Whedon's movie Serenity (2005). He also had a recurring role as Caleb in the final season of Whedon's series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Whedon has a history of reusing actors, and had also used Firefly alumni Gina Torres, Summer Glau and Adam Baldwin on his other show, Angel. Fillion considered his time on Firefly to be the most fun he had on a television series.[4]

Fillion has lent his voice to the animated series King of the Hill in 2001, the video game Jade Empire (as the voice of Gao the Lesser), and the animated series Justice League Unlimited (as Vigilante in the episodes "Hunter's Moon" and "Patriot Act") in 2005 and 2006. Fillion starred in James Gunn's 2006 horror film Slither. For his starring role as Bill Pardy, he garnered a 2006 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards nomination in the category of Dude You Don't Wanna Mess With.[5] Fillion starred in the romantic comedy film Waitress, written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelly, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival January 21, 2007 and opened in theaters on May 2, 2007. According to Box Office Mojo, Waitress grossed $22,125,001 in worldwide sales as of 13 May 2008, and $29.22 million in rentals as of 28 January 2008.[6] [7] Fillion also starred in White Noise 2: The Light.[8] He has made one appearance in the 2006-2007 season of the television show Lost, as Kevin, Kate's ex-husband.[9][10]

In October 2006, Fillion signed a talent holding contract with the Fox Broadcasting Company, and in December 2006, The Hollywood Reporter[11] confirmed that Fillion was cast in the lead role of Alex Tully in the series Drive, which debuted on Fox in the spring of 2007.[12] Drive was created by Fillion's longtime friend and former Angel and Firefly writer Tim Minear. Ivan Sergei played Alex Tully in the original pilot episode of Drive. The first two Drive episodes premiered on April 13, 2007 in Canada (April 15, 2007 in the United States). However, the show did not deliver the ratings Fox desired, and on April 25, 2007, the network announced that the series was cancelled.[13][14] The final two produced episodes were supposed to air back-to-back on Fox in July 2007, but did not actually become available until July 15 when they were posted on Drive's MySpace page.[15] Fox has since removed Drive episodes from that Myspace. All six episodes are now available for download from Amazon.com[16] and Itunes[17].

Fillion reprised his 1990s role as One Life to Live's Joey for the series' 9,999th and 10,000th episodes, aired 16 August 2007 and 17 August 2007. [18]

Fillion and actress Dana Delany joined the cast of ABC's Desperate Housewives at the beginning of the Fall 2007 season. His first episode aired on September 3, 2007.

Fillion plays the voice of a Marine Sergeant in the Xbox 360 game Halo 3. He is joined by his Firefly co-stars Adam Baldwin and Alan Tudyk who both voice marines. At one point early in the first mission, he identifies himself as "[Sergeant] Reynolds" over the radio, referring to his character's name from the TV series Firefly. All three actors are given personalities in the game that match those of their characters from Firefly.

The independent feature film Trucker in which Fillion plays the character Runner was premiered at the New York 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.[19]

Filming finished on Joss Whedon's Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on 21 March 2008, which is expected to be released before ComicCon in July 2008.[20] Doctor Horrible stars Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer, Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible and Felicia Day as Penny.[21]

Fillion announced in 2008 that he had written a pilot and couple of episodes for for a comedy with the working title Repo Brothers[22] [23] which has been picked up by the ABC. In 2008 Fillion started working on a TV series for ABC called Castle, in which he plays Nick Castle, a mystery novelist who helps the NYPD solve crimes.[24][25] In 2007 Fillion was featured in People magazine's Sexy Men issue under the "Domestic Bliss/Guys Worth Running Home to" section.

Nathan Fillion was listed as one of Entertainment Weekly's "50 Actors We'd Watch in Anything".[26]

[edit] Projects

Fillion appears in the Martin Firrell project HERO.

Fillion recently had his pilot "Repo Brothers"[27] picked up by ABC, April 2008

[edit] Filmography

Acting Filmography
Castle (2009) Television Nick Castle


Unnamed Wonder Woman animated movie (2009) Steve Trevor
Chilled in Miami (2009) TBA
Trucker (2008) Runner
Desperate Housewives (2007) Television Dr. Adam Mayfair


Halo 3 (2007) Video Game Sergeant Reynolds (voice)
Drive (2007) Television Alex Tully


Waitress (2007) Dr. Jim Pomatter
White Noise 2: The Light (2006) Abraham Dale
Lost (2006) Television Kevin
Ep.: I Do


Slither (2006) Bill Pardy
Justice League (2005-2006) Television Vigilante - Gregory Saunders
Ep.: Patriot Act (2006)
Ep.: Hunter's Moon (2005)


Serenity (2005) Malcolm Reynolds
Pasadena (2005) Television Rev. Glenn Collins


Jade Empire (2005) Video Game Gao the Lesser (voice)
Outing Riley (2004) Luke
Miss Match (2003–2004) Television Adam Logan
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2003) Television Caleb


Water's Edge (2003) Robert
Firefly (2002) Television Malcolm Reynolds
King of the Hill (2001) Television Voice - Frisbee Guy
Ep.: Luanne Virgin 2.0


Dracula 2000 (2000) Father David
Blast from the Past (1999) Cliff
The Outer Limits (1999) Television Michael Ryan
Ep.: Star Crossed
Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (1998) Television Johnny Donnelly


Saving Private Ryan (1998) Minnesota Ryan
Total Security (1997) Television Troy Larson
Ep.: Das Bootie
Spin City (1996) Television Guy
Ep.: A Star Is Born
One Life to Live (1994–1997) Television Joey Buchanan


Strange and Rich (1994) Walter Hoade

[edit] References

  1. ^ Serenity star was 'a geeky kid'
  2. ^ Nathan Fillion Biography - Yahoo! Movies
  3. ^ SyfyPortal Awards. Retrieved on 2006-10-08.
  4. ^ Fillion, Nathan. Here's How It Was: The Making of Firefly [Firefly: The Complete Series (DVD)].
  5. ^ "Nathan Fillion nominated at Fango Chainsaw Awards 2006". Fangoria. Whedon,info (28 August 2006). Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  6. ^ "'Waitress: Summary". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  7. ^ "'Waitress: DVD/Home Video". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  8. ^ White Noise 2: The Light. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  9. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0883770/plotsummary Lost I Do episode plot summary
  10. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0883770/fullcredits Lost I Do episode full credits
  11. ^ Andreeva, Nellie. "'Drive' time for Fillion at Fox", The Hollywood Reporter, 2006-12-15. 
  12. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770521/ imdb.com Drive page
  13. ^ Schneider, Michael (April 25, 2007). Drive runs out of gas. Variety. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  14. ^ Ausiello, Michael (April 25, 2007). Fox cancels Drive. TV Guide. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  15. ^ http://www.timminear.net/archives/drive/000147.html
  16. ^ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PGYV4A Drive episodes on Amazon Unbox
  17. ^ http://apple.com/itunes/store/tvshows.html itunes
  18. ^ "Fillion back to OLTL", Soap Opera Digest, Vol. 32, No. 31, 31 July 2007, page 5.
  19. ^ [http://truckermovie.net/tribeca-film-festival-trucker-schedule/32/ New York 2008 Tribeca Film Festival Trucker Schedule
  20. ^ TaraDi (21 March 2008). "Update: Buffy The Vampire - Where Are They Now". Fancast. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  21. ^ Whedon, Joss (16 March 2008). "March 15 2008 (The bag is catless)". Whedonesque. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  22. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1212971/IMDB Repo Brothers (2008)
  23. ^ http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=nathan_fillion_the_fannish_inquisition SFX article
  24. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219024/ IMDB Castle (2008) (TV)
  25. ^ http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/primetime-pilot-panic-the-hot-shows/ Primetime Pilot Panic: Updated Hot List
  26. ^ http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20190207_15,00.html Nathan Fillion one of EW's "50 Actors We'd Watch in Anything"
  27. ^ http://imdb.com/name/nm0277213/ Nathan Fillion "Writer: "Repo Brothers" (2008) TV series"

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Persondata
NAME Fillion, Nathan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH