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Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion
Information
Character Richard Castle
Birthday March 27, 1971
Birth Place Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Appearances Richard Castle - List of Appearances

Nathan Christopher Fillion (born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian actor, known for his lead role as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the television series Firefly and its film continuation Serenity, Caleb in the final five episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, voice acting for Halo 3 as Gunnery Sergeant Reynolds, and Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, and Halo 5: Guardians as Edward Buck, and his current lead role as Richard Castle on the ABC series Castle. In 2018, Fillion will play John Nolan in ABC crime drama series The Rookie.

Nathan is also known for playing Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Early life[]

Fillion was born in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, the son of Cookie and Bob Fillion. They were both schoolteachers who had retired by the time of their son's birth. He has an older brother, Jeff, and attended Holy Trinity Catholic High School, Concordia University College of Alberta, and the University of Alberta, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society. According to Fillion, he is descended from Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early.

Career[]

Early career and Firefly[]

After working in several theatre, television and film productions, including Theatresports with Rapid Fire Theatre and the improvised soap opera Die-Nasty, Fillion moved from Edmonton to New York City in 1994 where he acted in the soap opera One Life to Live as Joey Buchanan, for which he was nominated in 1996 for a Daytime Emmy Award in the 'Outstanding Younger Actor' category. In 1997, he left the series to pursue other projects (but would return for a brief guest appearance in 2007). After moving to Los Angeles, he played a supporting role in the sitcom Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place and was cast as James Frederick Ryan, or The Minnesota Ryan, in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan.

Fillion had a recurring role as Caleb in the final season of Joss Whedon's series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and auditioned for the role of Angel in early 1996.

In 2002, Fillion starred as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the Joss Whedon science fiction television series Firefly, for which he won the 'Cinescape Genre Face of the Future — Male' award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA. Fillion also won the Syfy Genre Awards in 2006 for 'Best Actor/Television' and was runner-up for 'Best Actor/Movie'. Fillion considered his time on Firefly to be the best acting job he ever had. Although the show was cancelled, it was adapted to the big screen; Fillion reprised his role as Mal in Whedon's movie Serenity (2005).

Fillion lent his voice to the animated series King of the Hill in 2001, the video game Jade Empire (as the voice of Gao the Lesser), and the animated series Justice League Unlimited (as Vigilante in the episodes "Hunter's Moon" and "Patriot Act") in 2005 and 2006. Fillion starred in James Gunn's 2006 horror film Slither. For his starring role as Bill Pardy, he garnered a 2006 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards nomination in the category of Dude You Don't Wanna Mess With. Fillion starred in the romantic comedy film Waitress, written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelly, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival January 21, 2007 and opened in theaters on May 2, 2007. According to Box Office Mojo, Waitress grossed $22,125,001 in worldwide sales as of May 13, 2008, and $29.22 million in rentals as of January 28, 2008. Fillion also starred in White Noise 2: The Light. He has made one appearance in the 2006–2007 season of the television show Lost, as Kevin, Kate's ex-husband.

In October 2006, Fillion signed a talent holding contract with the Fox Broadcasting Company, and in December 2006, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Fillion was cast in the lead role of Alex Tully in the series Drive, which debuted on Fox in the spring of 2007. Drive was created by Fillion's longtime friend and former Angel and Firefly writer Tim Minear. Ivan Sergei played Alex Tully in the original pilot episode of Drive. The first two Drive episodes premiered on April 13, 2007 in Canada (April 15, 2007 in the United States). However, the show did not deliver the ratings Fox desired, and on April 25, 2007, the network announced that the series was cancelled. The final two produced episodes were supposed to air back-to-back on Fox in July 2007, but did not actually become available until July 15 when they were posted on the Drive MySpace page. Fox has since removed Drive episodes from that Myspace. All six episodes are now available for download from Amazon.com and iTunes.

Fillion reprised his 1990s role as One Life to Live's Joey for the series' 9,999th and 10,000th episodes, aired August 16, 2007 and August 17, 2007.

Fillion joined the cast of ABC's Desperate Housewives at the beginning of the Fall 2007 season as Dr. Adam Mayfair, a gynecologist. His first appearance was in the episode "Now You Know", which aired on September 30, 2007.

Fillion plays the voice of a Marine Sergeant in the Xbox 360 game Halo 3. He is joined by his Firefly co-stars Adam Baldwin and Alan Tudyk who both voice marines. At one point early in the first mission, he identifies himself as "[Sergeant] Reynolds" over the radio, referring to his character's name from the TV series Firefly. All three actors are given personalities in the game that match those of their characters from Firefly. He provides the voice and portrayed likeness for Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck in the Halo 3 expansion, Halo 3: ODST, a role he briefly reprised in another Halo game, Halo: Reach.

The independent feature film Trucker, in which Fillion played the character Runner, premiered at the New York 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. Trucker was released on October 9, 2009.

On March 21, 2008, Fillion finished filming Joss Whedon's Internet-distributed short Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog starring Fillion as Captain Hammer, Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible and Felicia Day as Penny. It was first available on the Internet as three episodes (14 minutes each) starting on July 15, 2008.

Trivia & Facts[]

  • At 2012 Comic-Com it was revealed that Nathan is deaf in his left ear, he lost his hearing in the ear back in 1973.[1]
  • Named number 1 in the top 10 cult actors and actresses of all time in February 2013 by ScottFeinberg.com[2]
  • He is 6'2" (1.87 m)

References[]

Gallery[]

For a complete gallery for image and video of Nathan Fillion, go here.

External links[]

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