Michael Shanks

Michael Shanks

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Birth name: Michael Garrett Shanks
Date of birth: 15 December 1970
Place of birth: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Nickname: Mike
Height: 6′ (1.83 m)
Spouse: Lexa Doig (2 August 2003 – present) 2 children

Famous Quote: “There seems to be this funny beat that they seemed to have this off-camera familiarity with each other. So we started playing with it. And it became an ongoing thread throughout the show. So whenever we did a scene together, we’d throw in an extra look or an extra glance. I’ll let you guys fill in the blank of where it went from there.”

Contact Address and Autograph: Addresses and fan mail information

Michael Shanks
Jay D. Schwartz & Associates
3151 Cahuenga Blvd West, Suite 220
Los Angeles, CA 90068, USA 

Biography:  Michael Garrett Shanks (b. December 15, 1970, Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian actor who achieved fame for his role as Dr. Daniel Jackson on the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. He also provided the voice of the recurring character Thor on the same series.

Michael Garrett Shanks was born in Vancouver on 15 December 1970, the younger of two brothers. He grew up in Kamloops, British Columbia. His father would sometimes call him by his middle name, particularly when young Michael had done something naughty (such as lighting a fire in a nearby forest). His brother called him “Munko”, as he was unable to pronounce “Michael”.

Michael describes himself as “some kind of overachiever” at school, playing defense at hockey, fly-half and later wing at rugby, being a member of the Student Council, and joining the theatre group. One of the roles he played, that of The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, was a forecast of things to come: in 2006, he again took on the mantle of the King of the Forest during a parody of the 1939 movie in the Stargate SG-1 episode “200″. 

After graduating from the University of British Columbia with a B.A. in Fine Arts in 1994, Shanks played in several stage productions, serving a two year apprenticeship with the prestigious Stratford Festival in Ontario. He made guest appearances on TV series like Highlander, University Hospital, and The Outer Limits. He also played in the TV movie A Family Divided and The Call of the Wild before accepting his role in Stargate SG-1.

After leaving Stargate SG-1 at the end of season 5, Michael had a number of roles in movies such as Suddenly Naked with Wendy Crewson, Suspicious River with Molly Parker and Callum Keith Rennie, Mary Higgins Clark’s All Around The Town and the Emmy-award winning Door to Door with William H Macy, Helen Mirren and Kyra Sedgwick. He did a number of guest appearances on shows such as Outer Limits and Andromeda, and starred as Adam Wade in the reworking of Max Rohmer’s Sumuru, filmed in South Africa. In addition, he took the opportunity to meet fans at conventions in the US, Australia and Europe.

Although not part of the main cast of Stargate SG-1 during Season 6, he did reprise the role of Daniel Jackson in three episodes, “Abyss”, “The Changeling” (written by his close friend, Christopher Judge, who plays Teal’c) and “Full Circle”, the season six finale and continued to voice Thor, the Asgard leader.

During the ten-year run of Stargate SG-1, Michael also directed and written for the show. His directorial debut was the complex season 4 episode “Double Jeopardy”. While the result was an episode that was well received, for Michael the experience of directing was bittersweet. 

“Everyone was prepared for the idea of me directing, but no one, especially me, was prepared for the situation that I ended up in,” he says. “I knew I was going to be like a fish out of water, but I never imagined how much so. However I learned a lot more directing an episode like that then I would have doing a far more simpler one. It pretty much introduced me to all the ups and downs of production. I’m glad to say the experience has not discouraged me in the least from directing.”

In season 7 he further stretched his creativity by writing the episode “Resurrection”, having already received a story credit for the episode “Evolution, Part 1″. During the mid-season filming hiatus in 2006, Michael completed a made-for-TV film for the Lifetime Network, Under The Mistletoe, which aired in December 2006. 

At the end of filming for the tenth and final season of Stargate SG-1, Michael flew to Bulgaria to film MegaSnake, a movie for the SciFi Channel. Immediately upon his return to the US, he began work on a second movie for the Lifetime Channel. Judicial Indiscretion, which co-starred Academy Award nominee Anne Archer, aired in April 2007.

He then went on to a 3-episode recurring role on Fox Channel’s 24, as Mark Bishop. These aired in April and May, 2007. In mid-April he began filming the first of two Stargate SG-1 DVD movies, The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum. Both movies are slated for a Fall, 2007 release. 

In 2006, Michael, along with his friend and co-star, Christopher Judge, formed Slacktwaddle Productions. Their first creation was the 2007 Women of Sci Fi calendar, with a Men of Sci Fi to follow in 2008. Both actors are also slated to be executive producers – and to star in – a series written by Christopher Judge. The project is currently in the planning stages and as of writing not confirmed to proceed.

Michael has a daughter, Tatiana, born in August 1998, with his former partner, Vaitiare Bandera (Sha’re in Stargate SG-1). In August 2003, he married Lexa Doig, whom he met on the set of Andromeda when he guest-starred as Gabriel, in the episode “Starcrossed”. On 13 September 2004, Lexa gave birth to their daughter Mia Tabitha. 18 months later on 19 March 2006, they welcomed their first son, Samuel David, into the world.

Shanks played Daniel Jackson throughout the first five seasons of the series before leaving the show, apparently citing creative differences concerning the underuse of his character. He made several guest appearances throughout the sixth season (also working with wife Lexa Doig on Andromeda), playing his own character and voicing the Asgard character Thor. A fan campaign (Save Daniel Jackson) followed. Shanks won a Leo Award for Best Lead Performance By A Male in a Dramatic Series in 2004 for the Stargate SG-1 episode “Lifeboat”.

He returned for the seventh and subsequent seasons. He only signed up for 16 of the 20 episodes in the tenth season, taking some time off in late March 2006 for the birth of his third child (second with wife and occasional co-star Lexa Doig).

In 2002, he starred in the German/UK/South African co-production Sumuru, a science fiction movie, as the astronaut Adam Wade. He also auditioned for the role of Shinzon in Star Trek Nemesis and was a fan favorite to play the role of Tobin Dax on Star Trek: Enterprise (although it is unknown if he was ever actually approached for the role). He made a crossover appearance in the Stargate Atlantis pilot. On March 12, 2007, it was announced that he had joined the Fox Network show 24 as Mark Bishop in a 3 episode arc for season 6.

On August 2, 2003, Shanks married actress Lexa Doig, who plays Dr. Carolyn Lam, a recurring character of Stargate SG-1, of which Shanks is in the main cast. They have two children: daughter Mia Tabitha Shanks (b. September 13, 2004) and son Samuel David Shanks (b. March 19, 2006). Shanks’ eldest child is his daughter, Tatiana, (born in 1998) from his relationship with model and actress Vaitiare Bandera who portrayed Sha’re, his character’s wife, in Stargate SG-1.

Lived with Vaitiare Bandera. Daughter, Tatiana (born late 1998) with Vaitiare Bandera. Bears an uncanny resemblance to his Stargate (1994) feature film counterpart James Spader, whose character, Dr. Daniel Jackson, he portrays on “Stargate SG-1″ (1997). Favorite hockey team is the Vancouver Canucks. He was born in Vancouver and grew up in Kamloops, BC, Canada. His best friend is “Stargate SG-1″ (1997) co-star Christopher Judge. Played hockey (defense) and rugby (flyhalf then wing) in high school.

Vaitiare Bandera, the mother of his child, played his character’s wife on “Stargate SG-1″ (1997). Was inspired to pursue an acting career while watching future “Stargate SG-1″ (1997) co-star Richard Dean Anderson film an episode of “MacGyver” (1985). Along with Richard Dean Anderson, he is one of only two actors to appear in the pilots of both “Stargate SG-1″ (1997) and the spin-off series “Stargate: Atlantis” (2004).

Daughter, Mia Tabitha Shanks, with Lexa Doig, born 13 September 2004. Played three different characters in a single episode of “Stargate SG-1″ (1997): Dr. Daniel Jackson, Thor and Penegal in the second half of the Season Eight premiere ‘New Order Part II’. Has appeared in four different productions with Don S. Davis: A Family Divided (1995) (TV), “Stargate SG-1″ (1997), The Artist’s Circle (2000) and Suspicious River (2000). His character, Remiel, killed Hector, played by Christopher Judge, in the “Andromeda” (2000) episode “Day of Judgement, Day of Wrath”. In the “Stargate SG-1″ (1997) episode “Moebius Part 2″, his character, Dr. Daniel Jackson, was killed by Judge’s character, Teal’c.

Met his wife, Lexa Doig when he guest starred in the “Andromeda” (2000) Season One episode “Star-Crossed”. His character, Dr. Daniel Jackson (and various versions of him), was killed in four different episodes during the eighth season of “Stargate SG-1″ (1997) alone: “Avatar”, “Reckoning Part 2″ and “Moebius Part 2″, He was also shot several times, severely injured and tortured during the season. Appeared with Torri Higginson in “Stargate SG-1″ (1997) and “Stargate: Atlantis” (2004) who co-starred with his wife Lexa Doig in TekWar (1994) (TV), _”TekWar” (1994)_, TekWar: TekLords (1994) (TV) and Jungleground (1995).

Wife Lexa Doig gave birth to their second child together, a son named Samuel David on March 19, 2006. Michael announced it at a Vancouver Convention on March 25th. Had an emergency appendectomy when his appendix ruptured the day before filming was to begin on Stargate SG-1 Season 3 episode “Nemesis”. The script had to be rewritten to explain his character’s reduced role. The writers decided to have the character recovering from an appendectomy as well. Coincidentally enough, there is another Michael Shanks (no relation) who is a real life archaeologist, while Michael Shanks the actor portrays an archaeologist on the television show Stargate SG-1. Grew up as a huge Star Wars and Star Trek fan. Michael was also a fan off the cult television series, Xena: Warrior Princess. His character on Stargate SG1 is close to six years older then he actually is.

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