Biography

He once considered becoming a Rugby player but had to stop playing at the age of twenty-one as this wasn't considered a workable career at the time, and he had to support his family.

Is the only actor to have appeared in the fictional television Cabinets of both President Jed Bartlet (The West Wing (1999), played by Martin Sheen) and President David Palmer (24 (2001), played by Dennis Haysbert). On "The West Wing", he plays Mitch Bryce, the Secretary of Commerce. On "24", he played Jim Prescott, the Vice President, who voted to remove the President from office temporarily using the 25th Amendment, on "The West Wing", he agreed to the President's temporary resignation.

He worked as a male model, car salesman, Realtor and milkman before he began acting. He decided to become a professional actor at the age of twenty-seven, but has no formal acting training.

All three of his best known characters (Jim Robinson of Neighbours (1985), Caleb Nichol in The O.C. (2003) and Bradford Meade in Ugly Betty (2006)) were written out of their respective series through fatal heart attacks.

Describes Gene Hackman as his ''huge acting hero''.

I came to the United States to see what would happen in 2000 after working for 20 years in Australia and asked my agent to look out for the nasty roles because I'd become famous for playing the nicest man in Australia. So I wanted to play bad guys.

I did a production of Macbeth in the 1960s in which I had a swordfight in the final scene. But the blade fell off my sword just as I was stabbing the guy. I ended up having to hammer him to death.

My wife says I'm much happier when I'm not a regular on a TV show.

When I moved to Los Angeles, aged 54, I printed out Winston Churchill's phrase, 'Never, never, never give up', and stuck it on my fridge. I had no idea what was going to happen, but I knew I had to keep on going.

I was doing a late-night round as a milkman in 1978 when I heard a radio DJ announce that he was leaving. I marched straight to the radio station and told them I could do better. For some reason, they gave me a go.