Alan Dale

Dale was born on 6 May 1947 in Dunedin, New Zealand. One of four children, Dale enjoyed his childhood, but his family was relatively poor. Growing up in New Zealand without television, Dale loved rugby union, the theatre and amateur dramatics. His first performance was for a school concert, at the age of 13, doing an impression of comedian Shelley Berman. After moving northwards, his parents became founding members of an amateur theatre in Auckland called 'The Little Dolphin Theatre'. Dale often operated the stage equipment used to produce weather effects, Dale was a skilled rugby player, but 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 he could do a better job. They gave him a trial and then signed him up for the afternoon show. 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. He was appearing in a small role in the series Possession when he was offered the part of Jim by producer John Holmes. He replaced actor Robin Harrison, who had originally been cast in the role and had already filmed some scenes before his contract negotiations broke down. The scenes featuring Harrison's performance were re-shot with Dale. The character had intrigued Dale, who thought that parts of Jim's life echoed his own life at the time. appearing in 1064 episodes. Of his return, Dale stated that it had "laid a load of ghosts to rest for me", regarding his original exit. After Neighbours, Dale struggled to find work in Australia because he was typecast as Jim Robinson. In 1999, he was cast in the American television film First Daughter, which was also 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. as well as appearing in three episodes, including the series finale, of The X-Files, playing the "Toothpick Man" in 2002. on which he reprised the role on recurring basis until its third season. He returned for several appearances between the show's tenth and thirteenth seasons. He starred in the Fox TV series, The O.C. from 2003 to 2005, playing Caleb Nichol, a wealthy tycoon. The producers saw that the character had further potential and made his initially recurring role part of the main cast in the series. As part of the cast, Dale was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2007 and 2008. The part remained a recurring role, with Dale appearing numerous times throughout the remainder of the show's run, between seasons two (2006) and six (2010). Dale was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Guest Starring Role on Television for his performance in 2008. Dale had recurring roles in the British serial Midnight Man and the Australian series Sea Patrol in 2008, and also reprised the role in the film adaptation in 2015. Dale also had a recurring role as King George in the series Once Upon a Time, and Emmett in Hot in Cleveland. Dale's other guest roles include: Torchwood in 2008, In 2017, Dale was cast in The CW drama Dynasty, a remake of the 1980s soap opera of the same name. He played Joseph Anders the majordomo of the Carrington family, remaining part of the main cast until the show's fourth season in 2021, when Anders was killed off. Dale received praise for his performance, and Maureen Ryan of Variety called him "the best aspect of the new version of Dynasty", noting that "Dale improves every scene he's in." Patrick said, "Alan Dale is amazing as Anders. From the beginning, everybody wanted to be in a storyline with him." Three years after leaving Dynasty, Dale appeared in the second season of the BBC comedy horror series Wreck in 2024, playing Owen Deveraux. The following year he appeared as Aaron Cross in the Amazon Prime Video series The Assassin. Dale has also made several film appearances. He appeared as the Romulan Praetor Hiren in Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002, a part he got after the actor originally cast fell ill, and had small parts in films such as Hollywood Homicide, After the Sunset, He played World Security Council member Councilman Rockwell in the 2014 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Captain America: The Winter Soldier. On stage, 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 huge fan of Monty Python and considered that "life's too short" for him to have turned down a West End part. ==Popularity and acting style==

Despite his mainstream success upon his move to America, Dale remained primarily known for his role as Jim Robinson in Neighbours in the United Kingdom and Australia for several years. 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. Dale's characters on most of the American television shows he has appeared on have shared similar character traits, which Dale describes as the "go-to powerful guy". Maureen Ryan of TV Squad wrote that it was "lovely to see Alan Dale playing a typically Alan Dale-ian character. He's always so great at playing That Sketchy Wealthy Guy With a Hidden Agenda, which he has now played on, I believe, 87 different shows. And he always does it well." Coincidentally, Dale's characters in Neighbours, The O.C. and Ugly Betty have all been killed off by a fatal heart attack. Christopher Rosen of The New York Observer wrote in 2008 that "with his square jaw and seemingly no nonsense attitude, Mr. Dale is the go-to actor when casting directors need a conservative-looking authoritarian. When he comes onto the screen, audiences immediately take him seriously, since he radiates rich, smug and serious. He demands your respect." Rosen says that Dale is "not even...a particularly good actor" but is "fine enough" and "bring[s] a no frills, no gimmicks style to his roles," and "manages to give a consistent performance in every show he appears on." Jayne Nelson, writing in magazine SFX, named Dale the second most "serial" science-fiction guest star after Mark Sheppard. She wrote: "The thing is, soap-opera origins aside, Dale is always good. Which is why he keeps getting so much work....Dale never lets you down, always (well, usually) summoning up a pitch-perfect accent, too. There's something comforting about his presence on a show, as though the fact he's in it has lent it some weight." In a profile of his work on "cult shows", Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy called Dale an "institution". Writing for The Spinoff in 2016, Katie French called Dale "New Zealand's greatest living television actor" and "to the small screen what Sam Neill is to the big. A pioneer in the first wave of high concept American television, he is one of our most precious, prolific and lucrative exports." ==Personal life==

In 1968, Dale married his girlfriend, Claire. The couple had two children, Simon and Matthew, 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. He and his family live in Manhattan Beach, California and also owns property in Australia. Both of Dale's parents died in 2007. 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==

Films Television Video games Theatre ==References==