Michael Pare

09 Oct, 1958 | Brooklyn, New York

Actor

Biography

Michael Kevin Pare is an American actor. Early life Paré was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Joan, a homemaker, and Francis Paré, who owned print shops. He had six sisters and three brothers. Paré\'s father was of French-Canadian ancestry and his mother of Irish ancestry. His father died from leukemia when Paré was 5 years old, leaving his mother to raise the large family of children. A good athlete, his primary sport in high school was wrestling. Paré first studied to be a chef at the Culinary Institute of America, and was working in that trade when he was approached to work as a male model. This opened the door into acting, having been discovered by agent and casting director Joyce Selznick, and in the 1980s he studied acting under Uta Hagen. Acting career His first starring role was as Tony Villicana on the television series The Greatest American Hero. He developed a cult following for his B-movie roles, with several of these films developing into cult classics. His most well known film roles were as Eddie Wilson in Eddie and the Cruisers (1983) and its sequel Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives (1989), as well as his lead role in The Philadelphia Experiment (1984). Other films included Streets of Fire (1984), Moon 44 (1990), Deadly Heroes (1994), Village of the Damned (1995), Bad Moon (1996), 2103:The Deadly Wake (1997), Hope Floats (1998), and The Virgin Suicides (1999). "Gargoyles: Wings of Darkness" (2004). Despite the rumor, he was not the original choice to portray the Marvel Comics character Frank Castle, AKA: The Punisher, in the 1989 film adaptation The Punisher (the part eventually went to Dolph Lundgren). He starred in the short lived science fiction TV series called Starhunter in 2001, and appeared in the 2006 film BloodRayne, and it\'s 2007 direct to DVD sequel BloodRayne II: Deliverance. He is set to appear in Uwe Boll\'s film adaptation of the video game Far Cry as well as Seed and Postal. He recently appeared against Dolph Lundgren in Direct Contact set for release in 2009. Personal life Having developed a considerable popularity in some countries outside the US, he has starred in numerous television commercials in Japan. He has married three times. His first wife, from 1980 to 1982, was BAFTA nominated film producer Lisa Katselas Paré, who produced Richard III in 1995, and who is producing the 2008 film The Colossus, starring Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon. He was married to Marisa Roebuck from 1986 to 1988, and in 1992 married his present wife, Marjolein, a former fashion model. Between films he lives in Amsterdam.