Julian McMahon

Julian McMahon was an Australian‑American actor whose career spanned over three and a half decades, beginning with his breakout role as soldier Ben Lucini on the Australian soap Home and Away in 1989. Born on 27 July 1968 in Sydney, New South Wales, he was the only son of Sir William McMahon, the 20th Prime Minister of Australia, and Sonia McMahon, a noted socialite and fashion icon, giving him a privileged yet highly scrutinized upbringing. After brief studies in law at the University of Sydney and economics at the University of Wollongong, he entered the modelling world at seventeen, travelling through major fashion capitals before turning to acting, a move accelerated by a series of Levi’s commercials filmed after his father’s death in 1988. His early television work in the United States included a short‑lived soap The Power, The Passion and a memorable stint on Another World in 1993, where he emerged from a pool in a speedo—a scene he later described as “pretty magical.” McMahon won widespread recognition in the late 1990s and 2000s with iconic roles such as Detective John Grant in Profiler, the sorcerer Cole Turner in Charmed, and the charismatic yet damaged Dr. Christian Troy in Nip/Tuck, the latter earning him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Television Drama Series. He further cemented his status as a Hollywood leading man by portraying the iconic villain Doctor Doom in the Fantastic Four duology (2005, 2007) and later appeared in films like Premonition, Red, and Bait 3D. In his later years he returned to Australia for the 2018 comedy Swinging Safari and headed the CBS crime series FBI: Most Wanted as Jess LaCroix, before his final role in The Residence in 2025. Throughout his life he balanced dual citizenship, having become a naturalised U.S. citizen while retaining his Australian roots, and he was known for his deep affection for both cultures. His personal life saw three marriages—first to Dannii Minogue (1994‑1995), then to Brooke Burns (1999‑2001) with whom he had a daughter, and finally to Kelly Paniagua in 2014—before his untimely death from lung metastasis caused by head and neck cancer on 2 July 2025 in Clearwater, Florida, at age 56.