David William Duchovny ( ; born ) is an American actor, writer, producer, director, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He is known for portraying
FBI agent Fox Mulder on the television series ''
The X-Files'' (1993–2002, 2016-2018) and as writer
Hank Moody on the television series ''
Californication'' (2007–2014), both of which have earned him
Golden Globe
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
awards. Duchovny appeared in both ''X-Files'' films, the 1998 science fiction-thriller of the
same name and the supernatural-thriller ''
The X-Files: I Want to Believe'' (2008). He executive-produced and starred in the
historically based cop drama ''
Aquarius'' (2015–2016).
His film work includes minor roles in the coming-of-age black comedy ''
Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead'' (1991), and the family comedy ''
Beethoven'' (1992). Also in 1992, he played
Roland Totheroh
Roland Herbert Totheroh (November 29, 1890 – June 18, 1967) was an American cinematographer most notable for being the regular cameraman on the films of Charlie Chaplin. He worked with Chaplin from 1915 until the 1940s in over 30 films. He was ...
in the biographical comedy-drama ''
Chaplin Chaplin may refer to:
People
* Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), English comedy film actor and director
* Chaplin (name), other people named Chaplin
Films
* '' Unknown Chaplin'' (1983)
* ''Chaplin'' (film) (1992)
* ''Chaplin'' (2011 film), Ben ...
'' with
Robert Downey Jr. In the 2000's, he starred in ''
Return to Me'' with
Minnie Driver (2000), ''
Evolution'' with
Seann William Scott (2001), ''
Connie and Carla'' with
Nia Vardalos (2004), ''
House of D'' with
Robin Williams (2004), and ''
The Joneses'' with
Demi Moore (2009).
Duchovny holds a
B.A. in
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
from
Princeton University, and a
M.A. in English literature from
Yale University, and has since published five books: ''
Holy Cow: A Modern-Day Dairy Tale'' (2015), ''Bucky F*cking Dent'' (2016), ''Miss Subways'' (2018), ''Truly Like Lightning'' (2021), and ''The Reservoir'' (2022).
Early life
Duchovny was born in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, in 1960. He is the son of
Amram "Ami" Ducovny (1927–2003), a writer and publicist who worked for the
American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish org ...
, and his wife Margaret "Meg" (''
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
'' Miller), a school administrator and teacher.
[Stated in interview on '' Inside the Actors Studio''] He is the second son and the middle child of three children. He has an elder brother, Daniel (born 1956) and a younger sister, Laurie (born 1966). Duchovny's mother is a Scottish immigrant from
Aberdeen,
Scotland. His father was Jewish, and his mother was Lutheran. His father dropped the ''h'' in his last name to avoid the sort of mispronunciations he encountered while serving in the Army.
In the
Polish language, ''
duchowny'' means 'clergyman'. Duchovny's paternal grandfather was a Jewish emigrant from
Berdychiv
Berdychiv ( uk, Берди́чів, ; pl, Berdyczów; yi, באַרדיטשעװ, Barditshev; russian: Берди́чев, Berdichev) is a historic city in the Zhytomyr Oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center ...
,
Ukraine, and Duchovny's paternal grandmother was a Jewish emigrant from
Congress Poland
Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...
(now in Poland).
Duchovny attended
The Collegiate School For Boys in
Manhattan (where he was a classmate of
John F. Kennedy Jr.) from which he graduated as
head boy in 1978. He then attended
Princeton University where he graduated
Phi Beta Kappa and ''
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
'' in 1982 with an
A.B. in
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
.
He was a member of
Charter Club, one of the university's
eating clubs
A dining club (UK) or eating club (US) is a social group, usually requiring membership (which may, or may not be available only to certain people), which meets for dinners and discussion on a regular basis. They may also often have guest speakers. ...
. In 1982, his poetry received an honorable mention for a college prize from the
Academy of American Poets. The title of his senior thesis was ''The Schizophrenic Critique of Pure Reason in
Beckett's Early Novels''.
[Duchovny, David William. ]
The Schizophrenic Critique of Pure Reason in Beckett's Early Novels.
'' 1982. He played junior varsity basketball at Princeton.
He earned a
Master of Arts in English Literature from
Yale University and subsequently began work on a
Ph.D. that remains unfinished.
The title of his uncompleted doctoral thesis is ''Magic and Technology in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry''.
Career
Duchovny appeared in an advertisement for
Löwenbräu beer in 1987. The next year he appeared in ''
Working Girl'' (1988). He had a small recurring role as
Denise Bryson
The following is a list of characters from the television series '' Twin Peaks'', the film '' Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me'', and the 2017 revival.
Overview
Concepts
Bob
Frank Silva was a set decorator who worked on the pilot episode ...
, a
transgender DEA agent on the series ''
Twin Peaks'' and played the narrator and host in the
Showtime softcore erotica TV series ''
Red Shoe Diaries''. In 1992, he played the role of
Rollie Totheroh in the biographic film ''
Chaplin Chaplin may refer to:
People
* Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), English comedy film actor and director
* Chaplin (name), other people named Chaplin
Films
* '' Unknown Chaplin'' (1983)
* ''Chaplin'' (film) (1992)
* ''Chaplin'' (2011 film), Ben ...
'', directed by
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, (; 29 August 192324 August 2014) was an English actor, filmmaker, and entrepreneur. He was the president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Academy of Film and Televisio ...
and based on the life of
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
. In 1992 he had a small role in the family film ''
Beethoven''.
In 1993, Duchovny began starring in the
science fiction series ''
The X-Files'', as FBI Special Agent
Fox Mulder, a
conspiracy theorist who believed his sister had been abducted by
aliens
Alien primarily refers to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country
** Enemy alien, the above in times of war
* Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth
** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...
.
The show evolved into a cult hit and became one of
The Fox Network's first major television hits. According to ''The X-Files'' creator Chris Carter, Duchovny turned out to be one of the best-read people he knew. After getting the role, Duchovny thought the show would not last for long or make as much impact as it did.
Executive producer
Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...
Frank Spotnitz called Duchovny "amazingly smart". Spotnitz further stated that Duchovny was behind some of the main characteristic ideas behind Mulder. Also in 1993, Duchovny was cast alongside
Brad Pitt
William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. ...
and
Juliette Lewis
Juliette Lake Lewis (born June 21, 1973) is an American actress and alternative rock singer. She is known for her portrayals of offbeat characters, often in films with dark themes. Lewis became an "it girl" of American cinema in the early 1990s, ...
, in the
Dominic Sena-directed thriller ''
Kalifornia''.
During ''
The X-Files'' run, in between the fifth and sixth seasons, Duchovny co-starred alongside
Gillian Anderson in a 1998 film also titled ''
The X-Files'' that continued the storyline.
He remained with the series until leaving the show in 2001, partly because of a contract dispute that occurred after season seven finished filming. Duchovny appeared in half of the season eight episodes, but did not appear in season nine until the series finale in 2002. He also provided the voice for a parody of his Mulder character in the episode "
The Springfield Files
"The Springfield Files" is the tenth episode of the eighth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 12, 1997. In the episode, Homer believes he has d ...
" of the animated comedy series ''
The Simpsons''. Duchovny has been nominated for four
Emmy Awards
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
.
Duchovny caused controversy when it became public that he was the primary reason for ''The X-Files'' moving filming locations from
Vancouver,
British Columbia to Los Angeles in 1998. Many residents of Vancouver were upset with Duchovny over scripted jokes on ''
Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' about the city's heavy rainfall, including one where he joked, "Vancouver is a very nice place if you like 400 inches of rainfall a day." (Duchovny's character Mulder would later reference this joke in the Season 5 episode "
Schizogeny.") He also stated, "Of course, I'm tired of the rain. But if I wasn't married to a woman that lives in L.A., I'd stay in Vancouver. It's a lovely city." During the run of ''The X-Files'', he also made several guest appearances in the cult TV satire ''
The Larry Sanders Show'', playing a fictionalized version of himself who is very attracted to Sanders. In the final episode of the series, he performed a parody of
Sharon Stone's '
flashing' scene from ''
Basic Instinct'' and a parody of
Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a Character (arts), fictional character created by the novelist Thomas Harris. Lecter is a serial killer who Human cannibalism, eats his victims. Before his capture, he was a respected Forensic psychiatry, forensic psychi ...
being introduced to Agent
Clarice Starling in ''
The Silence of the Lambs''.
Duchovny has guest-hosted ''
Saturday Night Live'' twice (May 13, 1995, and May 9, 1998). Both shows were season finales. In 2000 he starred in the feature film ''
Return to Me'', a romantic comedy/drama directed by
Bonnie Hunt and co-starring
Minnie Driver and
Carroll O'Connor. In 2001, Duchovny starred as Ira Kane in the sci-fi comedy film ''
Evolution'', alongside
Seann William Scott, and had a cameo as hand model J.P. Prewitt in the
Ben Stiller comedy ''
Zoolander''. He appeared in a celebrity edition of ''
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' in May 2000. He got to the $250,000 question but answered his $500,000 question incorrectly and lost $218,000, leaving him with $32,000. He appeared on ''
Celebrity Jeopardy!'' in 1995 and 2010.
Duchovny provided the voice of Ethan Cole in the 2005 video game ''
Area 51'', as well as that of the title character in the 2003 video game ''
XIII''. In 2003 Duchovny starred in the 84th episode of the
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
show ''
Sex and the City''. He played the role of Jeremy,
Carrie Bradshaw's high-school ex-boyfriend, who has committed himself to a
Connecticut mental health facility. In 2005, Duchovny provided the voice-over for a PSA radio campaign for Act Against Violence. In 2005, Duchovny, who had already made his directorial debut with an episode of ''The X-Files'', wrote, directed, and appeared in the feature film ''
House of D''.
The film starred
Anton Yelchin
Anton Viktorovich Yelchin ( rus, Антон Викторович Ельчин, p=ɐnˈton ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtɕɪn; March 11, 1989 – June 19, 2016) was an American actor. Born in the Soviet Union to a Russian Jewish family, he emigr ...
,
Robin Williams, and Duchovny's then-wife
Téa Leoni in a coming-of-age tale.
It received mostly poor reviews and little box office success. Duchovny also directed "
Judas on a Pole
The second season of the American television series ''Bones'' premiered on August 30, 2006, and concluded on May 16, 2007, on Fox. The show aired on Wednesdays at 8:00 pm ET for the entire season and consisted of 21 episodes. The season averaged 9 ...
," an episode of ''
Bones'', during the show's second season.
From 2007 to 2014, Duchovny played the troubled,
womanizing novelist,
Hank Moody, in the
Showtime series, ''
Californication''. The portrayal landed him a
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
for
Best Actor in a Television Comedy or Musical in
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
.
In March 2014, NBC announced that a new TV series, entitled ''
Aquarius'', would be produced starring Duchovny. Duchovny portrayed a 1960s police sergeant investigating small-time criminal and budding cult leader
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...
. In March 2015, Duchovny was announced as returning in a six-episode
continuation of ''
The X-Files''. It premiered on January 24, 2016, on
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelv ...
.
In 2017, he decided to put his acting career on hold so he could focus on his career as a novelist and singer/songwriter. Duchovny's then last acting job was in the 11th season of ''The X-Files'' in 2018. He made his return to acting in ''
The Craft: Legacy'', the 2020 film sequel to ''
The Craft''.
Personal life
Duchovny married actress
Téa Leoni on May 13, 1997. They have two children, a daughter born in April 1999
and a son born in June 2002.
In 2008, the couple separated; Duchovny received treatment for
sex addiction from August to October.
Claims by the ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' that he had an affair with Hungarian tennis instructor Edit Pakay led to legal threats and a retraction by the paper on November 15. In 2009, Duchovny and Leoni reunited but separated again on June 29, 2011.
Duchovny filed for divorce in June 2014, and the couple had agreed to settlement terms by that August.
Duchovny is a
vegetarian or
pescetarian and is supportive of environmentalism, and an enthusiast of
electric vehicle
An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes cha ...
technology. He made an appearance at the
2011 Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was ...
in support of the film ''
Revenge of the Electric Car''.
Acting credits
Film
Television
Video games
Audiobooks
* 2015: Audiobook ''To Legend He Goes: A Tale from The Legend of Drizzt''
* 2017: Audiobook ''X-Files - cold cases'' - an Audible original
* 2017: Audiobook ''X files - stolen lives'' - an Audible original
Discography and tours
Studio albums
Tours
* The Hell or Highwater Tour (2015–2016)
* Every Third Thought Tour (2018–2019)
Works
* 2011: Introduction to: ''Coach: 25 Writers Reflect on People Who Made a Difference'' .
* 2015: ''
Holy Cow: A Modern-Day Dairy Tale'',
Farrar, Straus and Giroux .
* 2016: ''
Bucky F*cking Dent'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux .
* 2018: ''Miss Subways: A Novel'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux .
* 2021: ''Truly Like Lightning: A Novel'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux .
* 2022: ''The Reservoir: A Novella'', Akashic Books .
References
External links
*
*
*
*''
The Washington Post'' Interview with David Duchovny, April 200
David Duchovny and the Drama of Television
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duchovny, David
1960 births
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male television actors
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American people of Scottish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American television directors
Television producers from New York City
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock singers
Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (television) winners
Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (television) winners
Collegiate School (New York) alumni
Film directors from New York City
American indie rock musicians
Living people
Male actors from New York City
People from Fire Island, New York
People from the Upper East Side
Princeton University alumni
Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
People from the Upper West Side
Jewish singers