Michael Bowen (born June 21, 1953) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Nicolas Cage, various ac ...
's romantic rival, Tommy, in the
cult classic
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
''
Valley Girl
A valley girl is a socioeconomic, linguistic, and youth subcultural stereotype and stock character originating during the 1980s: any materialistic upper-middle-class young woman, associated with unique vocal and California dialect features, fro ...
'' (1983),
Danny Pickett on the
ABC series ''
Lost'', and
Jack Welker on the
AMC series ''
Breaking Bad
''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White ( Bryan Cranston), an underpaid, overqualified, and dispirited ...
''.
Early life
Bowen is the only son of
Beat painter
Michael Bowen Sr. and actress Sonia Sorel (née Henius; 1921–2004) who was Bowen's first wife. His maternal great-grandfather was biochemist
Max Henius, a Danish immigrant to America who himself was of Polish-Jewish descent, and his maternal great-grandmother was the sister of historian
Johan Ludvig Heiberg. He grew up in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
knowing "interesting characters—revolutionary-type people," which inspired his portrayal of Uncle Jack on the
AMC series ''
Breaking Bad
''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White ( Bryan Cranston), an underpaid, overqualified, and dispirited ...
''. Through his mother's other marriage he is the half-brother of actors
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, h ...
and
Keith Carradine
Keith Ian Carradine ( ; born August 8, 1949) is an American actor who has had success on stage, film, and television. He is known for his roles as Tom Frank in Robert Altman's film ''Nashville'', Wild Bill Hickok in the HBO series ''Deadwood' ...
of the
Carradine family. He is the half-uncle of actresses
Martha Plimpton and
Ever Carradine
Ever Dawn Carradine is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Tiffany Porter and Kelly Ludlow on the ABC television series ''Once and Again'' and '' Commander in Chief'', respectively and as Naomi Putnam and Janet Stein on the Hul ...
.
Career
Besides his TV work and his appearance as Tommy in ''Valley Girl'', Bowen has more than 130 film credits to his name as of 2022, including ''
The Godfather Part III'' (1990), ''
Beverly Hills Cop III
''Beverly Hills Cop III'' is a 1994 American action comedy film starring Eddie Murphy and directed by John Landis, who had previously worked with Murphy on ''Trading Places'' and ''Coming to America''. It is the third film in the ''Beverly Hil ...
'' (1994), ''
Jackie Brown'' (1997), ''
Magnolia
''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...
'' (1999), ''
Kill Bill Volume 1'' (2003), ''
Walking Tall'' (2004), and ''
Django Unchained
''Django Unchained'' () is a 2012 American revisionist Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson, with Walton Goggins, Dennis C ...
'' (2012). On November 30, 2015, Fox announced he would play
Matches Malone on ''
Gotham''.
His most recently released film is ''
A Soldier's Revenge'', which was released in 2020.
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowen, Michael
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male television actors
American people of Danish descent
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Carradine family
Living people
Male actors from San Francisco
American Ashkenazi Jews
Jewish American male actors
Place of birth missing (living people)
1953 births