Adrian Pasdar

Apr 30, 1965

Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA

Adrian Pasdar was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, but at the age of 2, his father, a prominent heart surgeon, moved the family to Powelton, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. In high school, he excelled at football, eventually leading to a football scholarship at the University of Florida in 1983. Football may have been a promising future, had it not been for a terrible accident during his freshman year that left his face scarred and his legs badly injured. A very driven Adrian finished ... ... (read more...) his freshman year in a wheelchair, doing intensive physical therapy and turning his attention to campus stage productions and redicovering a childhood 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. Here he worked on sound and lighting and also did set construction. One day, while constructing a set, he cut off the end of his left thumb. Adrian, having the ability to turn tragedy into triumph, used his medical compensation to pay for attendance at the famous "Lee Strasberg Theater Institute". At the age of 19, he auditioned for a role in Top Gun (1986). 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 1987 cult vampire movie Near Dark (1987), with Adrian in the lead role of Caleb Colton. Other major roles include Vital Signs (1990). Adrian has always been an actor ahead of his time, opting for roles in independent and cable movies long before they were considered fashionable for feature actors to do. In 1992, feeling completely out-of-touch with reality, Adrian left Hollywood and returned to New York. He worked 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). Another major break came in 1995, when Adrian was cast as the title character on the short-lived Fox series _Profit (1996)_. He continues to act in supporting roles and has now added directing to his already impressive body of work. He wrote and directed the short film Beyond Belief and also directed a feature film Cement (1999).