Casper Van Dien

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Casper Van Dien

Van Dien at the 2007 Scream Awards
Born Casper Robert Van Dien, Jr.
December 18, 1968 (1968-12-18) (age 39)
Ridgewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Official website

Casper Robert Van Dien, Jr. (born December 18, 1968) is an American actor, best known for his role as Johnny Rico in Starship Troopers and most recently as bodyguard Andre in My Network TV's Watch Over Me.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Casper was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey,[1] the son of Diane, a retired nursery school teacher, and Casper Robert Van Dien, Sr., a retired U.S. Navy commander and fighter pilot.[2] The name Casper is a family tradition, given to the eldest son of his family for more than 11 generations. There is a long military tradition in Van Dien's family. Aside from his father, his grandfather was a Marine during World War II. Van Dien is a descendant of an old Dutch family long settled in the New York area; his other heritage includes Swedish, French, English and Native American.[3]

Van Dien grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The street on which he grew up in New Jersey, Van Dien Avenue, was named after his great great grandfather. He grew up on the same block as actor Robert Sean Leonard, and raced go-carts in their neighborhood.[citation needed] In high school, he was often referred to as "Ken doll" due to his good looks, and got into many fights for that reason.[4] Coincidentally, he was later described as a "perfect life-sized Ken doll."[5] When he was older, his family returned to Florida, where he enrolled at the St. Petersburg branch of the Admiral Farragut Military Academy, graduating 3rd in command. Next, he went to Florida State University in Tallahassee, enrolling in pre-med. Looking for college electives, he began taking theater classes. Soon acting began to overshadow medicine, and he dropped out of FSU to pursue a career in the field.

[edit] Career

Moving to L.A., he landed a number of small parts in various television series and movies. Two early breaks were recurring roles on One Life To Live and Beverly Hills 90210. This was followed by parts in several straight-to-video releases, including Night Eyes 4, Beastmaster III: The Eye of Braxus, Night Scream and, ironically, Casper: A Spirited Beginning.

Van Dien as Johnny Rico in Starship Troopers
Van Dien as Johnny Rico in Starship Troopers

He achieved more notice as the lead in the biopic James Dean Race with Destiny. Soon after, he got the breakthrough role of Johnny Rico in Paul Verhoeven's science fiction action film Starship Troopers. This directly led to his being cast as the "Lord of the Jungle" in Tarzan and the Lost City[6] Soon following was the role of Brom von Brunt in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, a reworking of the classic Washington Irving tale. He played a suitor of Katrina van Tassel in Sleepy Hollow. In fact, Van Dien's family are cousins to the van Tassels.

Returning to his television roots, in 2000 he appeared in the Aaron Spelling's short-lived NBC series Titans with Yasmine Bleeth, John Barrowman, Perry King and Victoria Principal. He filmed several scenes as Patrick Bateman, Sean's brother, in 2002's The Rules of Attraction. This was the same character that Christian Bale played in American Psycho. However, the scenes wound up on the cutting room floor.

In 2005, he produced and appeared in the reality series, I Married a Princess, about his professional and personal life with Catherine Oxenberg, whose mother is Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia. In 2006 through 2007, Van Dien was cast in the My Network TV telenovela Watch Over Me as Andre, bodyguard to bio-terrorist Michael Krieger (played by Marc Menard). His wife Oxenberg also co-starred in the series as Leandra Thames.

[edit] Personal life

Van Dien was married to Carrie Mitchum (the granddaughter of Robert Mitchum) from 1993 to 1997. They had two children: Cappy (Casper Robert Mitchum Van Dien) and Gracie (Caroline Dorothy Grace Van Dien). The only time the couple worked together was near the end of their marriage, in James Dean: Race with Destiny, which also starred Robert Mitchum.

He dated Denise Richards for a short time, while they were making Starship Troopers.

During the filming of The Collectors, he met Catherine Oxenberg. They worked together again in the Christian thriller The Omega Code. The two married in May of 1999. Oxenberg has a daughter, India Riven Oxenberg (born June 7, 1991), whose father has never been publicly identified, from a previous relationship. Van Dien and Oxenberg have two daughters of their own: Maya Van Dien (born September 20, 2001) and Celeste Alma Van Dien (born October 3, 2003).

In 2006, Van Dien was a guest on Larry King Live, where he admitted that he was sexually abused by a female babysitter at the age of eight. The abuse was a secret he kept until he was 32.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] TV work

[edit] References

  1. ^ Casper Van Dien Official Biography
  2. ^ Casper Van Dien Biography (1968-)
  3. ^ Casper Van Dien: Cast in conflict
  4. ^ People Magazine interview November 13, 2000
  5. ^ Casper Van Dien bio at Tribute.ca
  6. ^ Tarzan and the Lost City official site Michael Lake, producer

[edit] External links

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Preceded by
Wolf Larson		 Actors to portray Tarzan
1998		 Succeeded by
Alex D. Linz / Tony Goldwyn