Adrian Pasdar

Adrian Pasdar (born April 30, 1965)[1][2] is an American actor and voice artist. He is known for playing Jim Profit on the TV series Profit, for his roles in Near Dark, Carlito's Way, Mysterious Ways and as Nathan Petrelli on Heroes. Additionally, he directed the feature film Cement. Pasdar is the voice of Iron Man in Marvel Anime as well as in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers Assemble.[3] He also played district attorney Alec Rybak on The Lying Game and had a recurring role as Glenn Talbot on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. He has appeared on the American TV drama Grand Hotel as Felix.

Adrian Pasdar
Pasdar at ComicCon in July 2008
Born	April 30, 1965 Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1986–present
Spouse(s)	Natalie Maines ​ ​ (m. 2000; div. 2019)​
Children	2

Early years

Pasdar was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.[1] His father, Homayoon Pasdar (born 1935), was an Iranian immigrant who was a cardiac surgeon, with a practice near Philadelphia. His mother, Rosemarie Sbresny,[4] worked as a travel agent.[2] He graduated from Marple Newtown High School where he played football and studied acting.[5]

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. 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. 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 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 screenwriter Justin Monjo. "I've used every ounce of energy and every drop of money I had to make Cement," Pasdar said.[6]

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 2 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.[7] Pasdar's character was killed off in an episode that aired November 30, 2009.[8]

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..[9]

Pasdar also played a role on The Lying Game as Alec Rybak, a corrupt district attorney. From 2014 to 2018, he played the recurring role of Glenn Talbot 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.[10] He also portrays the DC Comics character Morgan Edge in season 3 of The CW's Supergirl.[11]

Personal life

Pasdar married musician Natalie Maines of The Chicks (formerly The Dixie Chicks) on June 24, 2000.[2] They have two sons, Jackson Slade Pasdar (born March 15, 2001)[12] and Beckett Finn Pasdar (born July 14, 2004).[13] 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.[14][15] The divorce took over 2 years as Pasdar was contesting the validity of the pre-nuptial agreement and attempted to plead poverty to the court to obtain spousal support, despite reporting over $400,000 in income in 2018, according to court documents.[16] Maines said that The Chicks' 2020 album Gaslighter includes songs with deeply personal themes, written during the divorce. The album surrounds the topic of a husband gaslighting and cheating on his wife, ending with the dissolution of the marriage.[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

Award Wins for Acting

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

Award Wins for Directing

• 2000: AngelCiti film festival: Audience Award, Cement

Other Award Wins

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

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1986	Top Gun	Lieutenant Charles "Chipper" Piper	Film Debut
	Solarbabies	Darstar
	Streets of Gold	Timmy Boyle
1987	Made in U.S.A.	Dar
	Near Dark	Caleb Colton
1989	Cookie	Vito
1990	Torn Apart	Ben Arnon
	The Lost Capone	Ricard Hart / Jimmy Capone	Lead
	Vital Signs	Michael Chatham
1991	Shanghai 1920	Dawson Cole
	Grand Isle	Robert Lebrun
1992	Just Like a Woman	Gerald Tilson / Geraldine
1993	Ghost Brigade	Captain John Harling
	Carlito's Way	Frankie Taglialucci
1994	The Last Good Time	Eddie
	Shadows of Desire	Jude Snow
1995	Slave of Dreams	Joseph
	A Mother's Gift	William Deal
1996	Profit	Jim Profit	Lead role
	The Pompatus of Love	Josh
1997	Feds	C. Oliver Resor	Recurring role
	Wounded	Hanaghan
	Love in Another Town	Jake Cantrell
	Touched by Evil	Jerry Braskin	Television film, co-starred with Paula Abdul
	House of Frankenstein 1997	Detective Vernon Coyle
1998	The Outer Limits	Tanner Brooks	Guest appearance: 4.5 – "In the Zone"
1999	Mutiny	Lt. Maravich	Television film
2000–2002	Mysterious Ways	Declan Dunn	Lead
2002	The Twilight Zone	Andrew Lomax	Season 1 – Episode 4 – "Dream Lover"
2003–2005	Judging Amy	David McClaren	Recurring role (Seasons 5–6)
2003	Secondhand Lions	Traveling Salesman
2005	Desperate Housewives	David Bradley	Guest appearances: 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"
2006–2009	Heroes	Nathan Petrelli	Main cast
2008	Home Movie	David Poe
2009	The Super Hero Squad Show	Clint Barton / Hawkeye	Voice role
2010	Black Panther	Steve Rogers / Captain America
2011	Castle	Mark Fallon	Guest Appearance: 3.16 "Setup" & 3.17 "Countdown"
2011	Chasing Leprechauns	Michael Garrett	Lead
2011	Marvel Anime: Iron Man	Tony Stark / Iron Man[3]	Voice role; English dub
2011–2013	The Lying Game	Alec Rybak	29 episodes
2011	Young Justice	Hugo Strange	Voice role
2012	Ultimate Spider-Man	Tony Stark / Iron Man[23]
2012	Political Animals	President Paul Garcetti
2013–2017	Avengers Assemble	Tony Stark / Iron Man / Iron Patriot,[24] Space Phantom,[25] Strongman[26]	Voice role (Seasons 1–3); Replaced by Mick Wingert as Tony Stark / Iron Man from Seasons 4–5
2013	Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.	Tony Stark / Iron Man	Voice role
2013	Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel
2013	Lego Marvel Super Heroes
2013	Burn Notice	Randall Burke	Season 7; 4 episodes
2013	Iron Man & Captain America: Heroes United	Tony Stark / Iron Man	Voice role
2014–2018	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	Glenn Talbot / Graviton	Recurring role
2015–2017	Transformers: Robots in Disguise	Micronus Prime	Voice role
2015	Disney Infinity 3.0	Tony Stark / Iron Man	Voice role[27]
2016–2017	Colony	Nolan Burgess	Recurring role
2016–2019	Milo Murphy's Law	Mr. Chase	Voice role
2017–2018	Supergirl	Morgan Edge	Recurring role
2019	Grand Hotel	Felix	3 episodes
2020	A Fall from Grace	Prosecutor Bradley Tankerton	Netflix film

Director

Year	Title	Other notes
1999	Cement	Also co-producer and composer

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.[28]

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 from the original on November 17, 2015. 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. "Pittsfield's Grammy girls". Berkshire Eagle, The. February 13, 2007.
5. /amp/s/www.phillymag.com/news/2007/06/19/exit-interview-adrian-pasdar/%3famp
6. 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.
7. Maddox, Dante. "Heroes Season Finale: Adrian Pasdar". Craveonline.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2007. Retrieved June 15, 2010.
8. Keveney, Bill (November 30, 2009). "Adrian Pasdar 'never better,' 'Heroes' character never deader". Usatoday.com. Retrieved June 15, 2010.
9. "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.
10. "Amazon Not Moving Forward with Chris Carter's The After - Dread Central". www.dreadcentral.com. January 5, 2015.
11. 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.
12. "Names &". The Washington Post. March 17, 2001. Archived from the original on July 4, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
13. "Natalie Maines gives birth to baby boy". Today. Associated Press. July 23, 2004. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
14. "Natalie Maines, Adrian Pasdar Divorce: What Went Wrong?". www.christianpost.com.
15. "Natalie Maines Files For Divorce From Adrian Pasdar After 17-Year Marriage".
16. Whitaker, Sterling. "Natalie Maines Asks Court to Validate Prenup in Ongoing Divorce". Taste of Country. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
17. Naumann, Ryan (March 4, 2020). "Natalie Maines Trashes Ex-Husband Adrian Pasdar On New Dixie Chicks Song 'Gaslighter'". TheBlast.com. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
18. Rowles, Dustin (March 9, 2020). "The Dixie Chicks' 'Gaslighter' Is About Natalie Maines' Divorce, But She Can't Talk About It". Pajiba.com. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
19. Shaffer, Claire (September 20, 2019). "Natalie Maines Details New Dixie Chicks Album Inspired By Her Divorce". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
20. "Band From TV Charities". Bandfromtv.org. Archived from the original on July 29, 2010. 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. "Flight of the Iron Spider". Ultimate Spider-Man. Season 1. Episode 5. April 22, 2012. Disney XD.
24. "The Avengers Protocol". Avengers Assemble. Season 1. Episode 1. May 26, 2013. Disney XD.
25. "Ghost of a Chance". Avengers Assemble. Season 1. Episode 3. July 7, 2013. Disney XD.
26. "Crime and Circuses". Avengers Assemble. Season 1. Episode 24. May 11, 2014. Disney XD.
27. Avalanche Software. Disney Infinity 3.0. Scene: Closing credits, 5:39 in, Featuring the Voice Talents of.
28. "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.

External links

• Adrian Pasdar at IMDb