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Trivia
Birth name: Michael Vartan
Date of birth: 27 November 1968
Place of birth: Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France Nickname:
Mike Height: 6' (1.83 m)
Vartan grew up in France and the U.S., the son of Eddie Vartan, who was born in Bulgaria of Armenian and Hungarian descent, and Doris, a Jewish American who was born in Poland; his paternal aunt is French pop singer Sylvie Vartan.
Vartan's parents divorced when he was five and he moved to America with his mother.
Michael is an only child.
He moved back to France to be with his father until his high school years.
Wanted to be a professional pool player before deciding to act instead.
He played pool 12 hours a day, for 5 years.
At the age of seventeen, Vartan moved back in with his mother in Los Angeles, telling her that he wanted to be an artist, because he did not wish to fulfill the mandatory military service required in France.
Avid sports fan.
Michael has a tattoo of the initials SG, which stand for Shannon Gleason, who he was engaged to for around 10 years.
In Los Angeles, he attended an acting school after he was told he possessed acting talent.
Plays hockey as often as he can. This attribute has also been given to
his "Alias" (2001) character Michael Vaughn, who plays pickup
hockey occasionally with his co-worker characters.
Before becoming an actor, Michael was a pool-hall hustler and once made
$2,000 doing that in one night.
When the studio resisted casting an "unknown", Drew
Barrymore pushed to get him cast in Never Been Kissed (1999).
Speaks French and English fluently.
Michael's music tastes vary between Sinatra, Guns And Roses, Jimi
Hendrix, and The Police.
Michael dropped out of high school at age 16 because it was "too
boring."
Michael was nominated for a French Caesar Award for Best Up-and-Coming
Actor.
Turned down a role in Scream 3 (2000) because he wanted to take his
career in a different direction.
Nephew of Sylvie Vartan.
Michael is the nephew of the well-known french singer Sylvie Vartan.
Michael thinks Star Wars is one of the greatest movies of all time.
Michael also played in the movie "one-hour photo."
Cousin of French singer David Hallyday.
Michael likes to take a stuffed animal dog around with him because
"someone special" gave it to him.
In his free time Michael likes to paint and play guitar.
Appeared on Celebrity Poker Showdown.
In both Alias and Never Been Kissed Michael's characters both play hockey. In real life, Michael is a huge hockey fan and loves playing in charity hockey games.
Michael was the 2003 Choice TV Breakout Star in the Teen Choice Awards.
Michael likes the Japanese hair product Magic Move.
Was engaged to Shannon Gleason (1988-98).
Also paints and plays guitar.
Michael can speak French fluently. He grew up in the tiny Normandy village of Fleury, France, and didn't come to Los Angeles until he was a teenager.
If he had not become an actor, Michael wanted to become a professional pool player.
Although born in France, he comes from a complex ethnic background - his
Bulgarian-born father Eddie Vartan is half Armenian and half Hungarian,
while his American mother Doris Vartan was born in Poland, and is of
Jewish descent.
Michael was deeply disappointed after missing out on an internet auction--to bid for a pillowcase with his face on it.
Michael loves motorbikes and started riding a bike of the Italjet brand
when he was a kid.
His favourite NHL Hockey team is the Los Angeles Kings.
Michael played the fiancé to Jennifer Lopez in Monster-in-Law. Lopez is the ex-fiancé of
Ben Affleck who is now married to Michael’s ex-girlfriend
Jennifer
Garner.
Michael tried his hand at fantasy football in 2005. His team,
"Wizard Sleeves," got off to an awful 0-5 start.
Michael is left-handed.
Appeared in a television ad for the 2004 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. He
stated that he hadn't been nervous while acting in 3 years, yet he was
very nervous about appearing with the Stanley Cup.
Dated "Alias" (2001) co-star Jennifer
Garner. (2003-2004).
Michael dated his Alias co-star Jennifer
Garner. They had a messy break-up, but they have now worked things out, and remain good friends.
Nephew of Johnny Hallyday.
Is a huge fan of Star Wars (1977). He said in an interview that as a
child he once watched it every day for a summer and ended up memorizing
the lines from the movie.
Michael turned down a role in Scream 3 because he didn't feel it was the right move for his career.
Stepson of writer Ian La Frenais.
Michael is a baseball fan and likes to attend Dodger games from time to time.
Michael calls his friend Greg Grunberg by the nickname
"Gunny."
He is of Armenian heritage.
Michael was Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher, but refused to sign the release forms for it to air on tv. He and several other stars have threatened legal action against Kutcher for his "antics."
Michael has come to Australia to star in Rogue, the new film from Wolf Creek director Greg McLean.
Michael was recently at the 2006 Australian Open.
He is half Bulgarian.
As of 2006, Vartan lives in Los Angeles, CA.
2005–2006 was Alias's last season. Vartan returned as a guest star in a number of episodes, after his character's apparent death was revealed to have been a ruse.
He appeared as Vaughn in Sydney Bristow's dream in one episode, and in the episode broadcast on April 19, 2006, he returned to the series.
He has recently finished filming for the Australian horror film, Rogue
(2006).
Michael will be staring in the thriller Rogue along with Rahda Mitchell and Sam Worthington. Rogue is currently in production and set for release in 2007. Rogue is set in Australia.
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