Sometimes when I'm swimming, I think that maybe someday I'll put my red Speedo up for auction. Or maybe I'll donate it to the Smithsonian. They can stuff it with two plums and a gherkin and put it on display.

- David Duchovny

Duchovny was born in New York City to a Russian-Jewish father and a Scottish mother. As a child, he was so reserved that his older brother enjoyed telling people he was retarded. He wasn't. In fact, Duchovny won a scholarship to the prestigious Collegiate Prep School in New York — his classmates included John F. Kennedy Jr. and actors Zach Galligan (Gremlins) and Jason Beghe (Monkey Shines: An Experiment in Fear). He went on to graduate from Princeton ("I discovered what preppie really was. A level of Biff-dom I'd never seen before."), where he played both baseball and basketball, and eventually received a master's degree in English literature from Yale. Duchovny has said his initial drive to succeed and his subsequent desire to act were both a result of his parents' divorce when he was 11. "I was always supposed to be the one who didn't have any problems. And when I got to act, it was like all of a sudden I could have problems."

Duchovny made his feature-film debut with a small role as a partygoer in Working Girl (1988) and quickly gained notice playing sleazoids in Henry Jaglom's New Year's Day and in Bashar Shbib's Julia Has Two Lovers. He did a brief stint on TV's Twin Peaks as cross-dressing D.E.A. agent Dennis/Denise Bryson, before taking on supporting roles in less trashy movies like Chaplin and Ruby, and starring roles in The Rapture and Kalifornia. But it was his recurring role as Jake, the cuckolded narrator of women's fantasies, on Showtime's Red Shoe Diaries that cemented his reputation as a sensitive sex symbol. Duchovny's break-out role, of course, was that of F.B.I. Agent Fox Mulder, alongside Gillian Anderson's ever-cynical Agent Dana Scully, on Fox's The X-Files, a paranormal drama in which the pair investigated all things spooky. In addition to eight seasons of the drama, he brought the insanely popular character to the big screen for a 1998 feature, The X-Files: Fight the Future. Also on the big screen, Duchovny received positive notices for his lead performance in the romantic comedy Return to Me (2000), starring as a widower who unwittingly falls in love with the recipient (Minnie Driver) of his deceased wife's heart. The following year he appeared in the so-so sci-fi comedy Evolution, playing a burn-out Pentagon researcher intent on saving the planet from rapidly multiplying extraterrestrial life forms.

Hearts were heard breaking across the land in May 1997, when Duchovny married Téa Leoni, star of the (now defunct) sitcom The Naked Truth. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Madelaine West, two years later.


Extras

Brother of Daniel Ducovny

Has filed a $25 million lawsuit against the producers and syndicators of X-Files alleging he's been cheated of his contractual share of profits from series.

(24 April 1999) Daughter, with Leoni, Madelaine West Duchovny born

(1996) chosen by People (USA) magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world

(1996) Rumored to have dated Winona Ryder

Briefly dated singer Lisa Loeb (mid-1990s)

Dated Sheryl Lee

When he isn't in Vancouver to shoot X-files he resides in Malibu, California.

Played scholarship-level basketball during some of his high school and college career. He is known to be a sports fan, and has appeared on MTV's "Rock n' Jock Softball Game"

Has a brother, Daniel, and a sister Laurie.

(June 1994 to 1996) Dated actress Perrey Reeves

His fathers name is Amram. He is a Brooklyn born publicist for the American Jewish Commitee.

His mothers name is Margaret. She is Scottish.

Duchovny means 'spiritual' in Russian

Tried out for the replacing role (for Val Kilmer) of Batman in Batman & Robin (1997)

He had an accident while playing basketball in high school which damaged his right eye. He uses dye to keep the color right and to keep the pupil from dilating too much.

Is a vegetarian.

While at Yale, he was classmates with Jennifer Beals, whom Duchovny suggested for a part on The X-Files (it eventually went to Gillian Anderson).

 

Salary

The X Files in 1998 $6,000,000

Movie Credits

Evolution  — 2001   ...  Dr. Ira Kane
Return to Me  — 2000   ...  Bob Rueland
X-Files, The  — 1998   ...  FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder
Playing God  — 1997   ...  Dr. Eugene Sands
Red Shoe Diaries 4: Auto Erotica  — 1994   ...  Jake/Narration
Kalifornia  — 1993   ...  Brian Kessler
Ruby  — 1992   ...  Officer Tippit
Beethoven  — 1992   ...  Brad
Chaplin  — 1992   ...  Rollie Totheroh
Venice/venice  — 1992   ...  Dylan
Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead  — 1991   ...  Bruce
Julia Has Two Lovers  — 1991   ...  Daniel
Rapture, The  — 1991   ...  Randy
New Year's Day  — 1989   ...  Billy
Working Girl  — 1988   ...  Tess's Birthday Party Friend

TV Credits
The Simpsons — 1997 (Series appearance; voice only)
Frasier — 1996 (Series; voice only)
Space: Above and Beyond — 1996 (Series; appearance)
The Larry Sanders Show — 1996 (Series; appearance)
Saturday Night Live — 1995 (Host)
The Larry Sanders Show — 1995 (Appearance)
Duckman — 1994 (Guest voice)
The X-Files — 1993-2001 (Series)
The Red Shoe Diaries — 1992 (Series)
Twin Peaks — 1990 (Series)

Commercial Credits
Saks Fifth Avenue
Lowenbrau
AT&T