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'Adrian Kayvan Pasdar' (born April 30, 1965) is an American actor and film director, known for playing Jim Profit on the cult TV series ''Profit'', for his roles in ''Near Dark'', ''Mysterious Ways'' and as Nathan Petrelli on ''Heroes'', and for directing the feature film ''Cement''.

Contents

Early years

Acting and directing

Film

Television

Marriage and family

Awards & nominations

Selected filmography (as actor)

Filmography (as director)

Interesting Facts

References

Bibliography

External links

Early years

Pasdar was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His father, Homayoon Pasdar, was a cardiac surgeon who was born in Iran and moved to the United States, working as a surgeon near Philadelphia. His mother, Rosemarie Sbresny, was born in Königsberg, Germany, and worked as a nurse before becoming an English teacher in France.
Pasdar won a football scholarship to the University of Florida[1], however he was badly injured in a car accident during his freshman year. The accident left his face scarred, his legs badly injured, and kept him in a wheelchair for several months. Pasdar finished his freshman year in a wheelchair, doing intensive physical therapy and turning his attention to campus stage productions and rediscovering a childhood interest in writing and acting. No longer able to play football, he dropped out of school and returned home, taking a job with a theater group, People's Light and Theatre Company. Here he worked on sound and lighting and also did set construction. One day, while constructing a set, he cut off the end of his left thumb. He used the resulting medical compensation to pay for attendance at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in Los Angeles.

Acting and directing

Film

At the age of 19, he auditioned for a role in ''Top Gun''. Director Tony Scott was so impressed that he wrote the part of "Chipper" just for him. This led to bigger roles in ''Solarbabies'' (1986), ''Streets of Gold'' (1986), and Kathryn Bigelow's 1987 cult vampire movie ''Near Dark'' (1987), with Pasdar in the lead role of Caleb Colton. Other major roles include ''Vital Signs'' (1990). Pasdar got his biggest break in in movies, when he starred as a beautiful woman opposite Julie Walters in the Brtish movie ''Just Like A Woman''. In 1992, he left Hollywood and returned to New York, working as a cashier for room and board, while taking the occasional small part, such as Frankie in Brian De Palma's ''Carlito's Way'' (1993).
Adrian Pasdar wrote and directed the short film ''Beyond Belief'' and directed his first feature film, the art-house neo-noir ''Cement'', a contemporary re-telling of ''Othello'', in 1999. The $1.7 million independent feature, which won Best Picture awards on the festival circuit, starred Chris Penn, Jeffrey Wright, Sherilyn Fenn, Henry Czerny and was written by ''Farscape's screenwriter Justin Monjo.

Television

Pasdar's major break into television came in 1996, when he was cast as the title character on the short-lived Fox series ''Profit''. From 2000 to 2002, Pasdar played the lead role of Anthropology Professor Declan Dunn in the spooky cult drama series ''Mysterious Ways'' on PAX.
Pasdar played David McClaren in the final two seasons of the long-running CBS drama Judging Amy, from 2003 through 2005. In 2006, he had a high-profile guest role as Gabrielle Solis's sleazy lawyer in ''Desperate Housewives''.
He currently stars in the NBC superhero drama ''Heroes'' as Nathan Petrelli. He bases his mysterious character on "the most morally liquid characters" that he's encountered in his life. The character is not based on one particular political figure, but on a conglomerate of different ones, both good and bad.^[1]

Marriage and family

Anamarie "Pinky" Pasdar is the younger sister of Adrian Pasdar. She is an actress and appeared in the Mysterious Ways episode ''Handshake''^[2].
Pasdar married lead singer Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks in June 2000. The couple first met in May 1999, with Maines as a bridesmaid to her bandmate Emily Robison and Pasdar as a groomsman to his friend singer-songwriter Charlie Robison. They were married in Las Vegas's Little White Wedding Chapel, in a $55 no-frills ceremony officiated by the chapel's "Pastor Ann." They have two children, Jackson Slade Pasdar (born March 15, 2001) and Beckett Finn Pasdar (born July 14, 2004) and live in Los Angeles, California and Austin, Texas.

Awards & nominations

★ '2000': Grand Remi Award (WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival): ''Cement'' ^[3]

★ 2000: AngelCiti film festival: Audience Award, ''Cement''

Selected filmography (as actor)

'Year'	'Title'	'Role'	'Director/Series creator'	'Other notes'
1986	''Top Gun''	Chipper	Tony Scott
	''Solarbabies''	Darstar	Alan Johnson
	''Streets of Gold''	Timmy Boyle	Joe Roth
1987	''Made in USA''	Dar	Ken Friedman
	''Near Dark''	Caleb Colton	Kathryn Bigelow
1989	''Cookie''	Vito	Susan Seidelman
1990	''Torn Apart''	Ben Arnon	Jack Fisher
	''The Lost Capone'' (TV)	Ricard Hart/Jimmy Capone	John Gray
1991	''Shanghai 1920'' (上海1920, Shang Hai yi jiu er ling)	Dawson Cole	Po-Chih Leong
	''Grand Isle''	Robert Lebrun	Mary Lambert
1992	''Just Like a Woman''	Gerald Tilson/Geraldine	Christopher Monger
1993	''The Killing Box''	Captain John Harling	George Hickenlooper
	''Carlito's Way''	Frankie Taglialucci	Brian De Palma
1994	''The Last Good Time''	Eddie	Bob Balaban
	''Shadows of Desire'' (TV)	Jude Snow	Sam Pillsbury
1995	''Slave of Dreams'' (TV)	Joseph	Robert M. Young
	''A Mother's Gift'' (TV)	William Deal	Jerry London
1996	''Profit'' (TV series)	Jim Profit	David Greenwalt, John McNamara	lead
	''The Pompatus of Love''	Josh	Richard Schenkman
1997	''Feds'' (TV series)	C. Oliver Resor		regular
	''Wounded''	Hanaghan	Richard Martin
	''Love in Another Town'' (TV)	Jake Cantrell	Lorraine Senna
	''House of Frankenstein 1997'' (TV)	Detective Vernon Coyle	Peter Werner
1998	''The Outer Limits'' (TV series) (4.5 ''In the Zone'')	Tanner Brooks	David Warry-Smith
2000-2002	''Mysterious Ways'' (TV series)	Declan Dunn	Peter O'Fallon	lead
2003-2005	''Judging Amy'' (TV series)	David McClaren	Amy Brenneman, Bill D'Elia, John Tinker	recurring role (seasons 5-6) 2004 in MoviesTraveling Salesman in SecondHand Lions
2005	''Desperate Housewives'' (TV series) (2.4 ''My Heart Belongs to Daddy'', 2.5 ''They Asked Me Why I Believe In You'', 2.6 ''I Wish I Could Forget You'')	David Bradley	Marc Cherry	guest appearance (3 episodes)
2006-present	''Heroes'' (TV series)	Nathan Petrelli	Tim Kring	regular

Filmography (as director)

'Year'	'Title'	'Writer'	'Producer'	'Main cast'	'Other notes'
1999	''Cement''	Justin Monjo	D.J. Paul, Adrian Pasdar	Chris Penn, Jeffrey Wright, Sherilyn Fenn, Anthony DeSando, Henry Czerny	also co-producer and composer

Interesting Facts

★ His film company is Bobcat Films. He has a Bobcat tattoo on his upper right arm.

★ He also has a tattoo of the Chinese character for Strength, which he got while filming ''Shanghai 1920'' (上海1920, Shang Hai yi jiu er ling) (1991).

★ He also has a tattoo of an anchor on his arm. His children's names are written on it. It symbolizes that his family is his anchor and support in life.

★ He played football for one season for the Florida Gators.[4]

References

1. Heroes Season Finale: Adrian Pasdar
2. [2]
3. [3]

Bibliography

★ Bridget Byrne. "Adrian Pasdar's television, film career working in ''Mysterious Ways''" ''Chicago Sun-Times''. August 13, 2000.

External links

★

★ Adrian Pasdar at Yahoo!Movie

★ Adrian Pasdar VS Kyle MacLachlan: Battle of the Fortress-Chinned Weirdmeisters

★ Heroes Season Finale: Adrian Pasdar

★ Heroes Gallery: Adrian Pasdar as Nathan Petrelli

★ Heroes Gallery: Adrian Pasdar (Before Heroes)

★ The Vanishing Tattoo: Adrian Pasdar's Tattoos

★ Adrian Pasdar Tribute Site