Adrian Pasdar

Adrian Kayvan Pasdar (Persian: آدریان کیوان پاسدار;^[1][2] April 30, 1965) is an American film, television, and voice actor. He is known for his roles in Profit, Near Dark, Carlito's Way, Mysterious Ways, Desperate Housewives, Burn Notice, Heroes and as Glenn Talbot / Graviton on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Additionally, he directed the feature film Cement. He is also known as the voice of Tony Stark / Iron Man in Marvel Anime, as well as in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel, and Avengers Assemble, and in the Lego Marvel Super Heroes and Disney Infinity videogames.^[3] He also played district attorney Alec Rybak on The Lying Game. He has appeared on the American TV drama Grand Hotel as Felix.

Early life

Pasdar was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.^[1] His father, Homayoon Pasdar (Persian: هومایون پاسدار; born 1935), was an Iranian-American cardiac surgeon, with a practice near Philadelphia. His mother, Rosemarie Sbresn, who immigrated from Germany, worked as a travel agent.^[4][5][2] Pasdar grew up in West Philadelphia, which he described as primarily Black. His family later moved to Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Marple Newtown High School, where he went by his middle name Kayvan and where he played football and studied acting.^[6][7] Pasdar attended the University of Florida on a football scholarship, turning to acting after an injury.^[8]

His sister, Anamarie Pasdar, is a theatrical artistic director and producer.^[2]

Career

Early career

Pasdar turned his attention to campus stage productions and rediscovered an early 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. There, he worked on sound and lighting as part of the stage crew responsible for set construction. He had a painful accident on the set, cutting off the end of his left thumb. His resulting medical compensation paid for attendance at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in New York City.

Pasdar was also selected to play a bit part as a police officer in the Dixie Chicks video for their song "Goodbye Earl". The music video won both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association's Video of the Year Awards in 2000.

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.^{[citation needed]} This led to bigger roles in Solarbabies (1986), Streets of Gold (1986), and Kathryn Bigelow's cult vampire movie Near Dark (1987), with Pasdar in the lead role of Caleb Colton. His other major roles include Vital Signs (1990). Pasdar got his biggest break in movies, when he starred as a beautiful woman opposite Julie Walters in the British 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 retelling 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, and Henry Czerny, and was written by Farscape screenwriter Justin Monjo. "I've used every ounce of energy and every drop of money I had to make Cement," Pasdar said.^[9]

Television

Pasdar's major break into television came in 1996, when he was cast as the title character on the Fox series Profit. He also guest-starred in the two-hour season finale of the fourth season of Touched by an Angel. 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 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 starred as Nathan Petrelli in the NBC superhero drama Heroes. Pasdar based 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 melange of different ones, both good and bad.^[10] Pasdar's character was killed off in an episode that aired November 30, 2009.^[11]

Pasdar voices Hawkeye in the animated series The Super Hero Squad Show and voiced Captain America in the Black Panther animated series. Having also voiced Iron Man in the English dub of the Iron Man anime series, Pasdar reprised the role in Marvel's Avengers Assemble (seasons 1–3), Ultimate Spider-Man, and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H..^[12]

Pasdar also played a role on The Lying Game as Alec Rybak, a corrupt district attorney. In 2013, Pasdar guest-starred in the seventh and final season of Burn Notice as Randall Burke for three episodes. From 2014 to 2018, he played the recurring role of Glenn Talbot / Graviton on the Marvel TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and from 2016 to 2017, recurred as Nolan Burgess on the series Colony. He also starred in the pilot of the Amazon Studios series The After.^[13] He also portrays the DC Comics character Morgan Edge in season 3 of The CW's Supergirl.^[14]

Personal life

Pasdar married musician Natalie Maines of The Chicks on June 24, 2000.^[2] They have two sons, born in 2001^[15] and 2004.^[16] On July 5, 2017, Maines announced that she and Pasdar were divorcing after 17 years of marriage. The divorce was finalized on December 19, 2019.^[17][18][19]

Pasdar is a guitarist for charity rock band Band from TV. Part of the proceeds from the band's concerts go to his nominated charity, the Rush Epilepsy Center.^[20]

Awards and nominations

Acting

• 2009: Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films: Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in Television, Heroes^[21]

Directing

• 2000: AngelCiti film festival: Audience Award, Cement

Other

• 2009 (ensemble): Hollywood Note Foundation's Change the World Awards, Humanitarian Award of Inspiration: Band From TV^[22]

Filmography

Television

Director

Video Games

Audiobook narration

In 2010, Pasdar narrated an audiobook edition of the cult novel Queer Fish in God's Waiting Room by the British writer Lee Henshaw. It was released in early 2011.^[24]

Further reading

• Bridget Byrne. "Adrian Pasdar's television, film career working in Mysterious Ways" Chicago Sun-Times. August 13, 2000.
• Adrienne Papp. "Heroes Among Us". Westside Today. Retrieved on May 5, 2008.

References

1. ^ "Adrian Pasdar Biography". TVGuide.com. Archived November 17, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
2. ^ "Adrian Pasdar Biography (1965?-)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved June 15, 2010. Source notes that some sources gives birth year as 1967.
3. ^ "'Iron Man': 'Heroes' flying man Adrian Pasdar takes on anime". Hero Complex.
4. ^ "Adrian Pasdar's a real high flier"
5. ^ Luaine Lee - McClatchy. "Adrian Pasdar's life experiences could make a mini-series". www.kentucky.com
6. ^ "MN Grad Pasdar Ends Run on Desperate Housewives". October 30, 2005.
7. ^ Rys, Richard. "Exit Interview: Adrian Pasdar," Phillymag.com (June 19, 2007).
8. ^ "Adrian Pasdar | Globalnews.ca"
9. ^ Pasdar, quoted in "Adrian Pasdar's television, film career working in Mysterious Ways" Archived March 27, 2007 at the Wayback Machine by Bridget Byrne. Chicago Sun-Times. August 13, 2000.
10. ^ Maddox, Dante. "Heroes Season Finale: Adrian Pasdar". Craveonline.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2007. Retrieved June 15, 2010.
11. ^ Keveney, Bill (November 30, 2009). "Adrian Pasdar 'never better,' 'Heroes' character never deader". Usatoday.com. Retrieved June 15, 2010.
12. ^ "Marvel Television Announces Adrian Pasdar & Milo Ventimiglia For Iron Man & Wolverine Anime Series To Air On G4 July 2011" (Press Release). Anime News Network. April 3, 2011.
13. ^ "Amazon Not Moving Forward with Chris Carter's The After - Dread Central". www.dreadcentral.com. January 5, 2015.
14. ^ Bucksbaum, Sydney (July 22, 2017). "DC TV Watch at Comic-Con: All the Highlights From 'Supergirl,' 'Black Lightning,' 'Arrow' and More". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
15. ^ "Names &". The Washington Post. March 17, 2001. Archived July 4, 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
16. ^ "Natalie Maines gives birth to baby boy". Today. Associated Press. July 23, 2004. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
17. ^ "Dixie Chicks Singer Natalie Maines Settles Divorce From Adrian Pasdar". E! News. December 20, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2022. According to documents obtained by E! News, the Dixie Chicks singer's marriage to Adrian Pasdar was officially dissolved on Dec. 19, 2019.
18. ^ "Natalie Maines, Adrian Pasdar Divorce: What Went Wrong?". www.christianpost.com. July 5, 2017.
19. ^ "Natalie Maines Files For Divorce From Adrian Pasdar After 17-Year Marriage". July 4, 2017.
20. ^ "Band From TV Charities". Bandfromtv.org. Archived July 29, 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 15, 2010.
21. ^ "Saturn Award Winners 2009". Archived from the original on July 11, 2009. Retrieved June 15, 2010.
22. ^ "Band From TV News". Bandfromtv.org. May 31, 2009. Archived from the original on January 6, 2010. Retrieved June 15, 2010.
23. ^ "Adrian Pasdar (visual voice guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved January 20, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
24. ^ "Listen to Queer Fish audio book read by Adrian Pasdar!". legendpress.co.uk. February 20, 2010. Archived from the original on August 16, 2011. Retrieved February 27, 2011.