Who is Michael Vartan?
An actor who gained international fame thanks to his role as Agent Michael Vaughn in the popular crime-drama series “Alias”, Michael Vartan has over 40 acting credits to his name, and besides his role in the mentioned series, is perhaps known best as Sam Coulson in the movie “Never Been Kissed”.
This romantic comedy-drama brought Michael the Music Television (MTV) Movie +TV Award nomination for Best Kiss, which he shares with his co-star, Drew Barrymore.
Early life and education
Michael S. Vartan was born under the zodiac sign of Sagittarius on 27 November 1968, in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France, and holds both French and American nationality.
He comes from a family of Armenian, Bulgarian and Hungarian-Jewish descent on his father’s side, while through his mother he has Polish-Jewish heritage. His parents, Edmond ‘Eddie’ Vartan, a musician, and Doris Pucher, an artist, divorced when he was five.
Michael moved to the US with his mother, but after a while moved back to France to live with his father, and grew up as a farm kid, in Fleury, Manche, Normandy. When he was 18 years old, he moved to his mother in Los Angeles, California, where he attended acting classes, since he dreamed of becoming a famous actor.
Speaking of his educational background, he matriculated from high school in 1986, and afterwards attended the prestigious Lycée Français de Los Angeles. Michael is fluent in both French and English.
Roles in movies
Michael made his acting debut playing a supporting role as a Motorcycle Boy in the 1989 TV movie “Black Leather Jacket”, followed by his role as Fred in “A Man and Two Women” in 1991. In the following years, he starred in European movies such as “Promenades d’été” (1992), and “Fiorile” (1993).
His first significant role came in 1995, when he was seen as Tommy in “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar”, followed by his roles in “The Pallbearer” (1996), “The Myth of Fingerprints” and “Touch Me” in 1997.
In the following year, Michael was cast to play Chris in “Dead Man’s Curve”, and he then starred as Sam Coulson in the 1999 movie “Never Been Kissed”. An interesting fact about this role is that at that time Michael was an ‘unknown’ actor, so the studio resisted casting him, and he got the role thanks to Drew Barrymore.
The year 2000 saw Michael in “It Had to Be You”, “The Next Big Thing”, and “Sand”, while his next role came in 2002, in “One Hour Photo”. He followed with roles in “Monster-in-Law” (2005), “Rogue” (2007), and “Jolene” (2008).
Michael acted in two movies in 2011, entitled “Demoted” and “Colombiana”, and then, he was seen in “Nina” and “The Witches” in 2016, followed by his role as Detective Crawford in “Small Town Crime” in 2017, which was his most recent movie role.
Roles in series
Michael made his first television appearance portraying Paul Ducheyne in an episode of the series “Spender” in 1993. In the same year, he was seen in an episode of the series “Fallen Angels”, and he then guest-starred as Doctor Tim Burke in the popular sitcom “Friends” in 1997.
In 2000, Michael had a guest role as Jonathan Bassett in “Ally McBeal”, and then appeared as Lancelot in the TV mini-series “The Mists of Avalon” in 2001. The same year, he was cast to play his most notable television role to date, as Michael Vaughn in “Alias”, which brought him three Teen Choice Award nominations, and one for the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA-Saturn Award for Best Actor in a Television Series in 2004; the series was broadcast from 2001 until 2006.
In the following year, Michael was cast to play James Walker in “Big Shots” until 2008. From 2009 until 2011, he was seen as Doctor Tom Wakefield in “Hawthorne”. He followed with roles in “Ring of Fire” (2012), “Bates Motel” (2014), and “Satisfaction” (2014) – his most recent TV role was his portrayal of Terence Anderson in “The Arrangement”, from 2017 until 2018.
Never count out Terence Anderson. 😬 #TheArrangement pic.twitter.com/wWamdZ0D1e
— The Arrangement (@the_arrangement) May 29, 2018
Love life and wife
There have been various rumors concerning both Michael’s love life and his sexual orientation, however, he’s straight, and has dated women from the entertainment industry. He was engaged for 10 years (1988-1998) to Shannon Gleason, an actress, known for her role in “Shakespeare in… and Out”. The two seemed a happy couple, and many fans believed that they’d marry, and Michael even has a tattoo on his shoulder with her initials, however, this love story ended, but and the two haven’t shared the reason for their split.
In 2003, Michael began dating his co-star from “Alias”, Jennifer Garner, and were known as ‘one of the hottest Hollywood couples’, but after a year news about their break-up floated on the internet and in newspapers.
https://www.facebook.com/MikeVartan/photos/a.10150899708317293/10153467778152293
In 2009, Michael met his future wife, Lauren Skaar, a real estate agent, in a Whole Foods Market parking lot in Los Angeles. They soon started dating, he proposed to her in March 2010, and they exchanged their wedding vows on 2 April 2011 – and the wedding ceremony was held at the Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Beach, California.
In July 2014, Lauren filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences, and according to court documents, the couple was already separated since 5 April of that same year.
As of August 2022, Michael seems to be single, he’s twice been engaged and once married, and doesn’t have children.
Age, height, and net worth
Michael’s age is 53, he has brown-grey hair and piercing blue eyes, which is his trademark; he weighs around 165lbs (75kgs) and is 6ft (1.83m) tall.
Many of his fans assumed that Michael has retired from acting, and wanted to know, if this is true, what happened since his most recent role was back in 2018. He hasn’t commented about his future roles, however, he is active on his Instagram account, so his fans can keep track of his life and work.
If you wondered about the wealth that Michael accumulated during his more than 30 years-long acting career, according to sources, as of August 2022, his net worth has been estimated at over $8 million.
