Alan Dale

At 77 years old, Alan Dale has this physical status:

Alan Hugh Dale (born 6 May 1947) is a New Zealand-born actor.

Dale, a child, loved theatre and rugby.

He began working in various fields before deciding to become a professional actor at age 27.

Dale left New Zealand because his job was limited, and he moved to Australia, where he appeared in The Young Doctors from 1979 to 1982.

Jim Robinson appeared in Neighbours later in 1985, a role he played from 1985 to 1993.

He left the series after he fell out with the producers over the amount of money he and the remainder of the cast received.

Dale will reprise his role as Jim for one episode on December 25, 25 years since his last appearance. Dale, Neighbours, discovered he had become Jim Robinson in Australia, and was struggling to find work.

Since he migrated to the United States in 2000, his career was resurgent.

Since then, he has appeared in numerous American series, including prominent roles in The O.C. (as Caleb Nichol) and Ugly Betty (as Bradford Meade), as well as other recurring and guest appearances in Lost, 24, NCIS, The West Wing, Entourage, and Once Upon a Time.

Dale has appeared in minor films including Star Trek Nemesis, Hollywood Homicide, Indiana Jones, and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as well as Spamalot's London West End production.

Dale has been married to former Miss Australia Tracey Pearson since 1990 and has four children.

Early life and work

Dale was born in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand, on May 6, 1947. Dale, one of four boys, loved his childhood, but his family was very poor. Dale grew up in New Zealand without televisions, and adored the theatre and amateur dramatics. He appeared at a school concert in the age of 13, doing an impression of comedian Shelley Berman. His parents became founders of "The Little Dolphin Theatre" in Auckland after moving northwards. Dale also operated the stage equipment used to create weather effects.

Dale was a good rugby player but decided against drama because "the acting fraternity didn't like footballers and footballers didn't like actors," says the footballers. [...] Acting gave me the same buzz, but there was also the possibility of a long career." He stopped playing rugby at the age of 21 because it wasn't considered a lucrative profession at the time, and he had to care for his families. In New Zealand, acting roles were limited, so Dale served in a variety of professions, including as a male model, a car dealer, and a realtor. During a broadcast, the disc jockey at his local radio station resigned. Dale went to the station and told the boss that he could do a better job. He was given a hearing and then signed up for the afternoon show. He wanted to become a professional actor at the age of 27.

Personal life

Dale married Claire in 1968. Simon and Matthew, the couple's two children, are both of whom are active in the entertainment industry, and Simon as a radio announcer at Kiss 100 and Matthew as a writer, film director, and actor. In 1979, the couple divorced. Dale was born in Auckland at the time, but after the divorce, he and his sons moved to Sydney.

Tracey Pearson, the 1986 Miss Australia, was 19 years old when she first arrived in Brisbane on April 8, 1990. Dale referred to it as "the most appropriate relationship I've ever had." Daniel and Nick, Dale's two children from this union, also have two children from this marriage.

He and his family now live in Manhattan Beach, California, and also owns a house in Australia. Dale bought his holiday home in New Zealand in 2011 for $1.25 million. Both of Dale's parents died in 2007. Dale's life philosophy includes Winston Churchill's "Never, never give up" and his favorite actor Gene Hackman is his "big acting hero."

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Acting career

In a performance of The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the Grafton Theatre in Auckland, Dale's first professional acting work was as an Indian. "Nine months of solid work and great fun" was his first on-screen role in the New Zealand television drama Radio Waves, which, although not fruitful, was his first on-screen role. Dale moved to Australia at the age of 32 due to the lack of acting work in New Zealand in the late 1970s. He applied to the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney but was turned down because he was "a lot older than anyone else on the program." He was soon cast as Dr. John Forrest in the Australian soap opera The Young Doctors, where he stayed for three and a half years.

Dale was cast in Jim Robinson's continuing role in the Australian soap opera Neighbours in 1985, earning him acclaim around the world. He appeared on the first episode and stayed for eight years until his character was written off in 1993. He found working on Neighbours "exciting" and he was able to provide for his sons, but "you were a completely disposable product" and he couldn't put any value on any of the people on the show," he said. "I didn't like it there," he said, because they weren't curteous people." One of the things the business did was to sell everything they could out of us and pay us nothing" when we decided that we hated each other, the company and me. Dale and the company (Grundy Television), on "poor terms," although he would later return to appear on the program again in 2018 and 2019.

Dale, Neighbours, was unable to find work in Australia because he was typecast as Jim Robinson. Voice-overs, and print and online magazines about his former show, which he "earned a lot of money out of," were his only regular sources of income. He lost the bulk of his money invested in a failing children's magazine. In 1999, he appeared in the American television film First Daughter, which was shot in Australia. Dale and his family migrated to the United States permanently in January 2000 after learning he could do a convincing American accent. Dale, his second marriage Tracey, and their then two-year-old son Nick moved into a "awful little house" in Los Angeles and found an agent. Dale recalled telling his wife in Melbourne that "there's no way this is going to work." If it does, it shows that you can do anything."

He began to re-engage his work and began attending acting lessons, something he hadn't considered after being cast in Neighbours. He cited his age, unidentified status, and willingness to work for a relatively low salary as his key success in seeking jobs in America. His drama teacher, who has been with him for as long as possible, told him "that you may want to perform well, but that you will be cast as a particular type." Work out your style. I was a bit Anthony Hopkins and a bit Sean Connery, according to the others in the class, and that put me right into my head. I'm sure to get them if I go for roles like those guys' go for. He was first given a part of Sign of Life, a film about a rock band, but unfortunately, he did not perform well. Dale's first year in America was limited to a few auditions, but his break came when he was cast as the South African Al Patterson in four episodes of ER. Dale has been "busier than ever" since that time.

He has appeared in numerous television shows, including guest appearances on The West Wing, Torchwood, The Lone Gunmen, Californication, and The Practice. Many of these include reprised roles, including the role of Tom Morrow in JAG and its spin-off NCIS, as well as being cast in three episodes, including the series finale of The X-Files, playing the "Toothpick Man." He appeared in Vice President Jim Prescott's recurring role for seven episodes of the second season of 24, a portion that was not originally intended to be a single scene. In 2008, Dale appeared in the serial Midnight Man and the Australian series Sea Patrol. He appeared on Undercovers, Entourage, as John Ellis, the fictional owner of Warner Bros., and the British film Moving Wallpaper as a fictionalized version of himself. Before joining the main cast of Dominion in 2014, he appeared in the series Once Upon a Time, and Emmett in Hot in Cleveland.

Dale appeared in his first American roles from 2003 to 2010. In the Fox TV series The O.C., he appeared. Caleb Nichol, a wealthy tycoon, is playing Caleb Nichol. The designers decided that the character had more potential and made his first appearance in the series a regular character. Caleb was killed off in 2005's second-season episode "The O.Sea" after 35 appearances. Dale was dissatisfied that Caleb was written out and referred to as a manufacturing error. In the ABC program Ugly Betty, Dale was cast in the starring role of Bradford Meade, the founder of Meade Publications. Despite impressing the producers in his audition, he ultimately lost the role to a "larger star" in the role. Dale was given the role after the actor began "causing trouble" and was dismissed. Bradford was killed off during the show's second season. Dale appeared in the second season of Lost, "Live Together, Die Alone" as Charles Widmore, a businessman and leader of the Others. The publicist in Dale was worried that Widmore (who was a central part of the show's mystery) would play a leading role, which meant it would be impossible for Dale to appear in both Lost and Ugly Betty at the same time. Dale appeared on several occasions throughout seasons two (2006) and six (2010), with the character becoming a recurring role. He loved the role but it was difficult due to his character's instability.

Dale replaced Peter Davison in the lead role of King Arthur in Monty Python's Spamalot at the Palace Theatre in March 2008. He accepted the role because he was a huge fan of Monty Python and believed that "life is too short" for him to have turned down a West End role. Dale has seen all of the Flying Circus sketches and Life Of Brian, but he 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 performance in musical theatre because he appeared in a 1984 Australian production of Applause, but Dale found the part's comedic timing to be the most difficult challenge. "The challenge on stage is to find all of the amusing scenes rather than avoiding them." [...] Python humour is an art form, and I'm trying to get every single joke exactly right." On June 23, 2008, Sanjeev Bhaskar took over Sanjeev Bhaskar's role.

Dale has appeared in multiple films. In Star Trek: Nemesis, he appeared as Romulan Praetor Hiren, a role he obtained after the actor initially appeared in films such as Hollywood Homicide, After the Sunset, and the little part of General Ross in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Dale's script for the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was printed on tin foil, so it was impossible to duplicate in order to keep the film's plot under wraps. He appeared in four films released in 2011: A Little Bit of Heaven, Priest, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, who was born late in the film's development.

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