Julian McMahon

Julian McMahon is not the typical Australian actor who arrives in Los Angeles with nothing to his name. His father was prime minister of Australia, and that gives him a distinct character. He studied law but dropped it for modeling, because traveling around Europe seemed like a much better plan than civil codes in Sydney.

In 1989, he made his television debut.

And although he was already a familiar face in his home country, breaking into the United States took patience. It took a string of supporting roles in productions nobody remembers before the industry took notice of his square jaw. Before reaching the top, he spent years on the circuit of daily auditions.

The Scalpel and the Ambition of Ryan Murphy

Joining the series Profiler in 1996 gave him stability on American television. But the real change of pace came when Ryan Murphy put a cosmetic surgery script on the table. Christian Troy in Nip/Tuck was a despicable yet magnetic guy who earned more than 200,000 dollars per episode in the final seasons.

Television gave him the money, but the movies gave him the villains.

The Procedural Farewell and a Refuge in Production

During the filming of Fantastic Four in 2005, he had to deal with a metal suit that barely let him breathe. He played Doctor Doom, and critics were not kind to the movie. But box office numbers secured a sequel in 2007, where he once again put on the metal mask (a makeup process that took hours).

After working with Sandra Bullock on Premonition, he found a new home in investigation series. In 2019, he took the lead role in FBI: Most Wanted, playing Jess LaCroix. He was an agent with considerable emotional weight, a departure from the seductive image of his younger years.

It was his decision.

In 2022, he voluntarily decided to leave the series to pursue other creative projects outside the grueling pace of network television. The writers had to kill off his character in episode 14 of season three to justify his exit. It was a brief, understated scene with no big speeches.

His contract with CBS ended with an average audience of 5.8 million viewers for his last aired episode.