Biography
Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod of the Highlander television series.
Adrian Paul Hewitt (born May 29, 1959), known as Adrian Paul, is an actor best known for his role on the television series Highlander: The Series as Duncan MacLeod. He was born in London, England in 1959, the first of three brothers to an Italian mother and a British father. Paul, who fluently speaks 10 different languages: English, French, Russian, Persian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Japanese, Finnish and Italian, first became a model, then a dancer and choreographer. In 1985, he left Europe for the United States to pursue a dance and modeling career.
He studied martial arts for 7 years including the kung fu forms Choy Li Fut and Hung Gar, Tae Kwon Do, and boxing. He is also a master swordsman with not only the Japanese katana but other weapon's & swords such as the rapier, the sai, the nunchaku & the bo staff.He also played semi-pro soccer and is still huge a soccer fan. Paul, who was named "Sexiest Action Star" by People Magazine in 2000, divorced wife Meilani in 1997.
He was cast in the role that would bring him to the most prominence to date, that of Duncan MacLeod in the syndicated television series Highlander: The Series, in 1992. Paul also starred in the spin-off movie, Highlander: Endgame and is as of 2005 filming the 5th Highlander movie entitled Highlander: The Source in Lithuania.
His first role was on the ABC television series, The Colbys as the Russian expatriate ballet dancer, Kolya (1987-1988). This was followed by guest appearances on the television shows Beauty and the Beast (1987), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Tarzan (1991), Relic Hunter (1999) and as himself in WWF SmackDown! (1999). He appeared in a January 2003, episode of Charmed and on Broadway in the play Bouncers. He also appeared in the made for TV movies Shooter (1988) and The Cover Girl Murder (1993) which starred Lee Majors.
He appeared in a regular role in the second season of the television series War of the Worlds, three episodes of Dark Shadows (1991) as Jeremiah Collins and made a pilot for CBS Television for a series called The Owl (1991). In 2001, he starred in Tracker.
Paul's first film appearance was in the 1989 film Last Rites with starred Tom Berenger. He starred in the remake of The Masque of the Red Death (1989), a re-telling of the Edgar Allan Poe tale. Other movies which he has starred or co-starred are Dance to Win (1989), Love Potion No. 9 (1992) as Enrico Pazzoli, Dead Men Can't Dance (1997), Susan's Plan (also known as Dying to Get Rich) (1998), Merlin: The Return (1999) as Lancelot, Convergence (also called Premonition) (1999), The Void (2001), The Breed (2001), Code Hunter (2002) and Phantom Below (2005).
