Alan Hugh Dale (born 6 May 1947) is a New Zealand actor. As a child, Dale developed a love of theatre and also became a rugby player. After retiring from the sport he took on a number of professions to support his family, before deciding to become a professional actor at the age of 27. With work limited in New Zealand, Dale moved to Australia, where he played Dr. John Forrest in The Young Doctors from 1979 to 1982. He later appeared as Jim Robinson in Neighbours, a part he played for eight years. He left the series when he fell out with the producers over the pay he and the rest of the cast received.After leaving Neighbours, Dale became typecast as Robinson in Australia and struggled to find work. His career was revitalised after he relocated to the United States in 2000. Since then he has had roles in many American series including prominent parts in The O.C. (as Caleb Nichol) and Ugly Betty (as Bradford Meade), as well as recurring and guest roles in Lost, 24, NCIS, ER, The West Wing, The X-Files, Entourage and Once Upon a Time. Dale has also appeared in minor roles in films such as Star Trek Nemesis, Hollywood Homicide, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as well as the London West End production of Spamalot. Dale has been married to former Miss Australia Tracey Pearson since 1990 and has four children.
Frequently plays directors, powerful executives or successful businessmen
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Quote
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When you're tied to one show, you are very much at the mercy of the writers, so you can suddenly get a script where you have a heart attack and die.
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I was doing a late-night round as a milkman in 1978 when I heard a radio DJ announce that he was leaving. I marched straight to the radio station and told them I could do better. For some reason, they gave me a go.
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When I moved to Los Angeles, aged 54, I printed out Winston Churchill's phrase, 'Never, never, never give up', and stuck it on my fridge. I had no idea what was going to happen, but I knew I had to keep on going.
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My wife says I'm much happier when I'm not a regular on a TV show.
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I did a production of Macbeth in the 1960s in which I had a swordfight in the final scene. But the blade fell off my sword just as I was stabbing the guy. I ended up having to hammer him to death.
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I came to the United States to see what would happen in 2000 after working for 20 years in Australia and asked my agent to look out for the nasty roles because I'd become famous for playing the nicest man in Australia. So I wanted to play bad guys.
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Fact
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Is one of only 26 actors to have speaking roles in both the Star Trek and Doctor Who franchises. He played Praetor Hiren in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) and Dr. Aaron Copley in Torchwood: Reset (2008).
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All three of his best known characters (Jim Robinson of Neighbours (1985), Caleb Nichol in The O.C. (2003) and Bradford Meade in Ugly Betty (2006)) were written out of their respective series through fatal heart attacks.
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Son Simon Dale is a radio presenter for one of London's most popular stations "Kiss 100" (3-6pm).
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Has two young sons with his second wife, Tracy Dale - Nick and Dan.
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Former milkman.
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Is the only actor to have appeared in the fictional television Cabinets of both President Jed Bartlet (The West Wing (1999), played by Martin Sheen) and President David Palmer (24 (2001), played by Dennis Haysbert). On "The West Wing", he plays Mitch Bryce, the Secretary of Commerce. On "24", he played Jim Prescott, the Vice President, who voted to remove the President from office temporarily using the 25th Amendment, on "The West Wing", he agreed to the President's temporary resignation.
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Children - Matthew Dale is an actor, musician and writer, dividing his time between Los Angeles, California and Melbourne, Australia where he is working in the theatre. Simon Dale is a radio announcer in the United Kingdom.
$8 Million
