David Duchovny
DAVID DUCHOVNY
Birth Name: David William DuchovnyDate of Birth: August 7, 1960
Educated at Princeton and Yale, and "this far" from earning a Ph.D. in English Literature before shunning academia to become a star, David Duchovny has been called "The Thinking Woman's Sex Symbol" (and we know what they're thinking).
His seductive intelligence made him a natural for TV commercials, and he was able to parlay that into a small role in his first feature, Working Girl. After that, Duchovny alternated work with cult director Henry Jaglom with small parts in mainstream fare like Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead and Beethoven. Playing Fox Mulder in the hit TV series The X Files wasn't the first time he played an FBI agent—Duchovny was lovely as transsexual agent Dennis/Denise Bryson on two episodes of David Lynch's Twin Peaks.
Duchovny's breakout performance came in Kalifornia, a hip "guns & cars" thriller that also starred Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis. But it's FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder that has made Duchovny a phenomenon.
His first "star" vehicle to hit the big screen was 1997's Playing God. If half the people who watch X Files had gone to see it, it would have been a huge hit. But they didn't—and it wasn't.
However, The X Files movie was seen and was a box office hit. Although the show ended in 2002, his intelligence and charm ensure that there is life after Mulder. As pal Bonnie Hunt (who directed him in Return to Me) told People Magazine, "...If he fell on his head tomorrow and lost his memory, he'd still be a pretty sexy guy."
Not that Duchovny craves any more fame than that which has already come his way. "Because I'm famous," he says, "there's nothing casual about my life. I don't feel a need to get up in front of people and have them love me as much as I used to. Now I feel like: 'Enough. Just leave me alone.'"
In 2007, he returned to TV in Showtime Network's critically-acclaimed series Californication, which went on to be a big hit, winning David a Golden Globe in 2008 for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy."David, who is a vegetarian, was chosen by People magazine in 1996 as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World." In 2005 he made his feature film directorial debut with House of D, from a screenplay he wrote.
He and his wife, actress Téa Leoni, have a daughter, Madelaine West and a son, Kyd Miller. In 2008, they separated and David checked into a facility to be treated for sex addiction, but they have recently reconciled.
Filmography (actor):
Goats (2012)The Joneses (2009)
The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)
Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)
The TV Set (2006)
Trust the Man (2006)
House of D (2005)
My Dark Places (2004)
Connie and Carla (2004)
Full Frontal (2002)
Zoolander (2001)
Evolution (2001)
Return to Me (2000)
The X Files: The Movie (1998)
Playing God (1997)
Kalifornia (1993)
Beethoven (1992)
Chaplin (1992)
Ruby (1992)
Venice/Venice (1992)
Denial (1991)
Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead (1991)
Julia Has Two Lovers (1991)
The Rapture (1991)
Bad Influence (1990)
New Year's Day (1989)
Working Girl (1988)
Filmography (director):
House of D (2005)