Alan Dale

Alan Hugh Dale (born 6 May 1947) is a New Zealand actor.

As a child, Dale enjoyed theatre and rugby.

After retiring from the sport, he took on a number of occupations, before deciding to become a professional actor at age 27.

Dale was born on 6 May 1947 in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.

One of four children, Dale enjoyed his childhood, but his family was relatively poor.

Growing up in New Zealand without televisions, Dale loved the theatre and amateur dramatics.

His first performance was for a school concert, at the age of 13, doing an impression of comedian Shelley Berman.

After moving northwards, his parents became founding members of an amateur theatre in Auckland called "The Little Dolphin Theatre".

Dale often operated the stage equipment used to produce weather effects,

Dale was a skilled rugby player, but opted to move into drama instead because "the acting fraternity didn't like footballers and the footballers didn't like actors. [...] Acting gave me the same buzz and there was the chance of a longer career."

He gave up rugby at the age of 21 because it was not considered a workable career at the time, and he had to support his family.

Acting roles were limited in New Zealand so Dale worked in multiple jobs, including as a male model, a car salesman and a realtor.

While working as a milkman he heard the disc jockey at his local radio station resign during a broadcast.

Dale went over to the station and told the managers he could do a better job.

They gave him a trial and then signed him up for the afternoon show.

At the age of 27, he decided to become a professional actor.

Dale's first professional acting job was playing an Indian in a production of The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the Grafton Theatre in Auckland.

His first on-screen role came in the New Zealand television drama Radio Waves, which although not successful, he described as "nine months of solid work and great fun."

In the late 1970s, Dale moved to Australia at the age of 32, due to the limited acting work in New Zealand.

He applied to the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, but was rejected because he "was a lot older than anybody else on the course."

He was soon cast as Dr. John Forrest in the Australian soap opera The Young Doctors, where he remained for three-and-a-half years.

Dale subsequently moved to Australia, where he played Dr. John Forrest in The Young Doctors from 1979 to 1982.

He later appeared as Jim Robinson in Neighbours, a part he played from 1985 until 1993.

He left the series when he fell out with the producers over the pay he and the rest of the cast received.

In 1985, Dale was cast in the continuing role of Jim Robinson in the Australian soap opera Neighbours, earning him acclaim across the world.

Dale has been married to former Miss Australia Tracey Pearson since 1990 and has four children.

He appeared on the show from the first episode and stayed for eight years before his character was killed off in 1993.

He found working on Neighbours "exciting" and it enabled him to provide for his sons, but he said: "You were a totally replaceable commodity; [the production company] didn't put any value on any of the people appearing in the show."

He expanded: "I didn't like it there, they were not nice people. When we decided that we hated each other, the company and me, one of the things the company did was to market everything they could out of us and pay us nothing."

In 1999, he was cast in the American television film First Daughter, which was filmed in Australia.

His career was revitalised after he relocated to the United States in 2000.

Since then, he has had roles in many American series including prominent parts in The O.C. (as Caleb Nichol) and Ugly Betty (as Bradford Meade), as well as recurring and guest roles in Lost, 24, NCIS, ER, The West Wing, The X-Files, Entourage and Once Upon a Time.

Dale has also appeared in minor roles in films such as Star Trek: Nemesis, Hollywood Homicide, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as well as the London West End production of Spamalot.

From 2017 to 2021, Dale starred in the soap opera Dynasty as Joseph Anders.

In 2018, it was revealed that Dale would reprise his role as Jim for one episode of Neighbours, 25 years after his last appearance.

After leaving Neighbours, Dale found he had become typecast as Jim Robinson in Australia and struggled to find work.

Dale and the company (Grundy Television) parted on "bad terms", although he would later go on to appear on the show again in 2018 and 2019.

After Neighbours, Dale struggled to find work in Australia because he was typecast as Jim Robinson.

His only regular sources of income were voice-overs, and publishing magazines about his former show which he "made quite a lot of money out of".

He lost most of his profits investing in a failed children's magazine.