Alan Dale

**Alan Dale** is a main actor on The CW's *Dynasty*, portraying the role of Joseph Anders.

## Biography

### Early life and work

Dale was born on 6 May 1947 in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. One of four children, Dale enjoyed his childhood, but his family was relatively poor. Growing up in New Zealand without televisions, Dale loved the theatre and amateur dramatics. His first performance was for a school concert, at the age of 13, doing an impression of comedian Shelley Berman. After moving northwards, his parents became founding members of an amateur theatre in Auckland called "The Little Dolphin Theatre". Dale often operated the stage equipment used to produce weather effects.

Dale was a skilled rugby player, but opted to move into drama instead because "the acting fraternity didn't like footballers and the footballers didn't like actors. [...] Acting gave me the same buzz and there was the chance of a longer career." He gave up rugby at the age of 21 because it was not considered a workable career at the time, and he had to support his family. Acting roles were limited in New Zealand so Dale worked in multiple jobs, including as a male model, a car salesman and a realtor. While working as a milkman he heard the disc jockey at his local radio station resign during a broadcast. Dale went over to the station and told the managers he could do a better job. They gave him a trial and then signed him up for the afternoon show. At the age of 27, he decided to become a professional actor.

### Career

Dale's first professional acting job was playing an Indian in a production of *The Royal Hunt of the Sun* at the Grafton Theatre in Auckland. His first on-screen role came in the unsuccessful New Zealand television drama *Radio Waves*. In the late 1970s, Dale moved to Australia at the age of 32, due to the limited acting work in New Zealand. He applied to the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, but was rejected because he "was a lot older than anybody else on the course." He was soon cast as Dr. John Forrest in the Australian soap opera *The Young Doctors*, where he remained for three-and-a-half years.

In 1985, Dale was cast in the continuing role of Jim Robinson in the Australian soap opera *Neighbours*. He appeared on the show from the first episode and stayed for eight years before his character was killed off in 1993. Dale and the *Neighbours* production company, Grundy Television, parted on "bad terms", although he would later go on to appear on the show again in 2018 and 2019. After *Neighbours*, Dale struggled to find work in Australia because he was typecast as Jim Robinson. His only regular sources of income were voice-overs, and publishing magazines about his former show which he "made quite a lot of money out of". He lost most of his profits investing in a failed children's magazine. In 1999, he was cast in the American television film *First Daughter*, which was filmed in Australia. After discovering he could perform a convincing American accent, Dale attended the film's premiere, finally moving with his family to the United States permanently in January 2000.

At the age of 52, he began to revive his career and started taking acting classes, something he had not thought about after being cast in *Neighbours*. The first role he was offered was a part in a series called *Sign of Life*, a show about a rock band, which eventually fell through. Dale only received a couple of auditions during his first year in America, but his break came when he was cast as the South African Al Patterson in four episodes of *ER*.

He has appeared in many television series including guest appearances on *The West Wing*, *Torchwood*, *The Lone Gunmen*, *Californication*, and *The Practice*. Many of these have been recurring roles, such as the part of Tom Morrow in *JAG* and its spin-off *NCIS*, as well as appearing in three episodes, including the series finale, of *The X-Files*, playing the "Toothpick Man". He played the recurring role of Vice President of the United States Jim Prescott for seven episodes of the second season of *24*, a part which was originally supposed to be a single scene. Dale had recurring roles in the serial *Midnight Man* and the Australian series *Sea Patrol* in 2008. He also had recurring parts on *Undercovers*, *Entourage* as John Ellis, the fictional owner of Warner Bros., and the British series *Moving Wallpaper* as a fictional version of himself. He had a recurring role as King George in the series *Once Upon a Time*, and Emmett in *Hot in Cleveland*, before joining the main cast of *Dominion* in 2014, playing General Edward Riesen.

From 2003 to 2010, Dale appeared in his longest running American roles. He starred in the Fox TV series, *The O.C.* playing Caleb Nichol, a wealthy tycoon. The producers saw that the character had further potential, and made his initially recurring role a regular character in the series. After 35 appearances, Caleb was killed off in the second-season episode "The O.Sea" in 2005. Dale was disappointed that Caleb was written out and described it as a mistake by the production staff. In 2006, Dale was cast in the starring role of Bradford Meade, the owner of Meade Publications in the ABC show *Ugly Betty*. Bradford was killed off during the show's second season. Dale appeared in the second-season finale of *Lost*, "Live Together, Die Alone", as Charles Widmore, a businessman and leader of the Others. Dale's publicist was initially worried that Widmore (who was an integral part of the show's mystery) would become a starring role, meaning it would be hard for Dale to appear in both *Lost* and *Ugly Betty* at the same time. The part became a recurring role, with Dale appearing numerous times between seasons two (2006) and six (2010).

In March 2008, Dale replaced Peter Davison in the lead role of King Arthur in the London West End production of Monty Python's *Spamalot* at the Palace Theatre. It was not his first experience in musical theatre because he appeared in a 1984 Australian production of Applause, but Dale found the comic timing of the part to be the hardest task. He was succeeded in the role by Sanjeev Bhaskar on 23 June 2008.

Dale has also made several film appearances. He appeared as the Romulan Praetor Hiren in *Star Trek: Nemesis*, a part he got after the actor originally cast fell ill, and had small parts in films such as *Hollywood Homicide*, *After the Sunset*, and the minor part of General Ross in *Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull*. Dale said his script for *Kingdom of the Crystal Skull* was printed on tin foil so it was impossible to replicate, in order to keep the film's plot a secret. He appeared in four films released in 2011: *A Little Bit of Heaven*, *Priest*, *Don't Be Afraid of the Dark*, and *The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo*, having joined late in the film's production.

From 2017 to 2021, Dale portrayed Joseph Anders in The CW's *Dynasty*, a reboot of the 1980s primetime soap opera of the same name. He was a series regular until his character's death midway through the fourth season.

### Personal life

In 1968, Dale married his girlfriend, Claire. The couple had two children, Simon and Matthew, both of whom are involved in the entertainment industry, Simon as a radio announcer at Kiss 100 and Matthew as a writer, film maker and actor. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979. At the time, Dale lived in Auckland but after the divorce he moved to Sydney with his sons.

On 8 April 1990, he married Tracey Pearson, the 1986 Miss Australia, whom he met at the 1986 Australian Grand Prix, when she was 21 and he was 39. Dale described it as "the most appropriate relationship I've ever had." Dale also has two children from this marriage, Daniel and Nick.

He and his family now live in Manhattan Beach, California and also owns property in Australia. Dale sold his holiday home in New Zealand in 2011 for $1.25m. Both of Dale's parents died in 2007. Dale describes his life philosophy as being Winston Churchill's quote "Never, never, never give up", and counts Gene Hackman as his "big acting hero".

## Trivia

* Dale's best memory on the set of *Dynasty* was watching costars Elizabeth Gillies and Nicollette Sheridan fight in a pool.
* Dale requested that the *Dynasty* writers not kill off Joseph Anders via heart attack, as they originally planned, because of the fact that many of Dale's past characters have been killed off that way.

## Gallery

### Images

* Season 1
* Season 2
* Season 3
* Season 4
* General

## External Links

* Alan Dale on Internet Movie Database
* Alan Dale on Wikipedia

## References

1. ↑ File:Capture+ 2018-10-12-12-51-22.png
2. ↑  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RQ8D8Qbw2I&t=314s