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| Real Name: David Duchovny | ||||
| Birthday: August 7, 1960 | ||||
| Place of Birth: New York, NY | ||||
| Education: Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University and Master of Arts in English Literature from Yale University. | ||||
| Pets: A dog named Blue | ||||
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David Duchovny Biography: Actor David Duchovny shot to recognition in the early 1990s as FBI agent Fox Mulder on the hit television series “The X-Files” (1993-2002). Duchovny’s discreet but believable delivery helped make him an star among television viewers and conspiracy nuts. Duchovny tried to land a project with an equally large audience after leaving his still trendy show in 2001. Nevertheless, he kept busy with an assortment of movies and television shows, including “House of D” (2005), which he wrote and directed, and the Showtime series “Californication” (Showtime, 2007- ).
At Yale, he worked as a graduate assistant (and a bartender during the summers), teaching literature classes while working on his doctorate thesis. But he also gained a curiosity for acting and started traveling to New York to audition for off-Broadway projects. A role in a beer commercial in 1987 led to a small role in “Working Girl” (1988), which was followed by a bigger role in independent director Henry Jaglom’s “New Year’s Day” (1989) with Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver. Duchovny’s biggest project came with a four episode run on David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” with Lara Flynn Boyle (ABC, 1990-91), as FBI Agent Dennis Bryson, who hid a cross dressing fixation. This led to more supporting roles in films and television, including the interesting “The Rapture” (1991) as Mimi Rogers’ sex hungry lover. The next year, Duchovny played the love stirred narrator and host of Zalman King’s lustrous and sexy “Red Shoe Diaries” (1992) and its future series (Showtime, 1992-99). More supporting roles in features followed, including “Chaplin” with Robert Downey Jr. (1993), but he did leave a mark with his leading role next to Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis in “Kalifornia” (1993), about a team of documentary filmmakers who become entwined with a pair of hillbilly killers. The movie was strained under its own fake coolness, but Duchovny’s performance impressed writer and producer Chris Carter enough to ask him to audition for the lead role in a new supernatural alien based television show he was creating at FOX. And the rest is television alien history.
The FOX television show, which ultimately became “The X-Files,” focused on two FBI agents, one, an obsessed conspiracy truth-seeker with a private interest in getting to the bottom of mystical claims, and the other (Gillian Anderson) a born doubter whose beliefs were always challenged by the cases she undertook as Dana Scully with Duchovny’s Fox Mulder. After a slow beginning in 1994, “The X-Files” soared as a smash hit for everyone involved with the project, with Duchovny instantly finding himself the desire of millions female fans, attracted by his good looks and sarcastic charisma. At the height of the series, Duchovny found himself the target of two pop music tributes, including Bree Sharp’s classic hit, which contained the unforgettable line “Why won’t you love me David Duchovny?” He also garnered numerous awards for his role, including a Golden Globe and TV Guide award in 1993. Duchovny’s first adventure away from “The X-Files” was a amusing role as himself on “The Larry Sanders Show” (HBO, 1992-98), with one small twist, he carried a large onscreen torch for Garry Shandling’s character, late night talk show host, Larry Sanders. The appearance was followed by widespread demand by three more shows including the series finale in 1998, in which, much to Sanders’ terror, Duchovny gaffed about the investigation room “leg uncrossing” scene from “Basic Instinct.” Duchovny and Shandling seemed to have had a great time trying to trick their viewers senses, taking the fake “gay thing” to a new level for their disturbingly comical scenes together. In the middle of playing the angry agent Mulder, the “Larry Sanders” appearances, was a great stage for the actor’s dry comedy, and gained him an Emmy nomination and an American Comedy Award in 1999.
The expected “X-Files” feature film showed up in theaters in 1998, but it was a dull copy of the television show’s best stories. Even while doing well financially at the box office, the movie showed that the television show had lost its way in an effort to straighten out its maze of conspiracy theory plots and story lines. David filed suit against FOX and the show’s producers for money owed from the syndication of the show. The producers and network finally settled the suit, but the event was the end of Duchovny’s involvement in the show. He left the series in 2001, but returned twice in 2002, once to direct the episode “William”, and once in a cameo in the season cliff-hanger, where Scully and Mulder finally become romantically involved. Despite his anger with Fox executives and his fear in being typecast as Mulder, Duchovny later admitted that it was his likeness for the show itself and his devotion to his own character’s story line, his co-stars like Anderson and Mitch Pileggi, and to the show’s viewers, which kept him involved “X-Files” projects, despite any bad vibes during that period. In the meantime, Duchovny gave more time to his growing family and to expanding his career into movies. His first move into that era came with the 2000 romantic comedy “Return To Me,” in which he played a widower who falls in love with Minnie Driver. This was followed by the Ivan Reitman comedy “Evolution” (2001), which played on his Mulder personality in the story about aliens coming to Earth, and Steven Soderbergh’s “Full Frontal” with Julia Roberts (2002), as a producer with an intensely unpleasant sex fetish. None of the movies showed off much at the box office, though Duchovny gained great reviews for his work. In 2003, Duchovny returned to television for an episode of “Sex and the City” (HBO, 1998-2004) as a boyfriend of Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) who had a nervous breakdown. He journeyed once again into the movie world with “Connie and Carla” (2004), the doomed sequel to “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” for writer-producer Nia Vardalos. The following year, Duchovny made his feature film debut as writer and director with the independent film “House of D” (2005), in which he also starred as an American artist relocated to Paris who comes to grips with his unfortunate past. The film, which also featured Robin Williams, singer Erykah Badu, and Duchovny’s wife Tea Leoni, received some good reviews from critics and tabloid press, and enjoyed a moderate return at the box office.
In 2006, Duchovny appeared with Julianne Moore and Billy Crudup in the drama “Trust the Man” (2006), which focused on a team of couples as they contend with the ups and downs of relationships. This was a busy period for the Duchovny, as he starred in a new television series, “Californication,” about a playwright who works to keep his career and life with his daughter and girlfriend, and starring in several films, including the comedy “The TV Set” (2007), about a writer who sees his extraordinary script turned into a idle Hollywood comedy. He also lent his voice talents to a television advertising campaign for Pedigree foods. Then came news from Duchovny, of all people, that after frequent false starts and legal problems between Fox and Chris Carter, a script for a sequel to the “X-Files” movie was in the pre-production for a reported 2008 release date. Duchovny and Anderson are the stars, as was Carter behind the scenes to continue his creation’s intricate but still gripping story of whether the “truth is still out there.” Next in 2007 was the drama "Things We Lost In The Fire" (2007) starring Halle Berry about a recent widow who invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss. During 2008, David appeard in the long awaited X-Files movie sequel "The X-Files: I Want to Believe"(2008) with Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in the starring roles.
Family
Significant Others
Education
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Born David William Duchovny in New York City, NY, on Aug. 7, 1960, he was
reared with his brother and sister by his father, Amram, a writer, and
mother Meg, a school administrator. After his parents’ divorce, Duchovny
stayed in New York with his mother and siblings, and later won a
scholarship to the fashionable Collegiate School in Manhattan, where he did
well at both studies and sports. He graduated in 1978 as class
valedictorian, choosing Princeton University for his undergraduate degree.
An English Lit major, he graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and
after a six month vacation through Southeast Asia, he relocated Yale
University with a teaching fellowship.
Unfortunately, his big screen
attempts were less successful, even with his successful Mulder role. It was almost as if
viewers could not see Duchovny any way other
than in anguish, chasing aliens in the dark and continually yelling at the
sky for folks to believe in his supernatural journey. His first movie after “X-Files”
spotlight was less successful. “Playing
God” (1997) was a dull thriller that was noteworthy as an early, pre
celebrity movie for 