Brandon Routh

Though still had relatively few professional credits in his resume, Brandon James Routh could as well be one of the potential actors to watch in the 2000s judging from his great achievement to successfully nab the title of the next Superman in the succession of the late Christopher Reeve. A native of Iowa, Brandon was born on October 9, 1979 in Des Moines and grew up in the city's suburb of Norwalk where he later attended Norwalk Senior High School while enthusiastically developed his acting skills at the Norwalk Theater of Performing Arts. Upon his graduation in 1997, he then enrolled in University of Iowa to pursue a degree in English, but as his desire to act became really hard to resist, the brown-eyed teen ultimately decided to give up his study after a year and so headed for Hollywood to search for good opportunity to flourish a career in entertainment industry.

Much to Brandon's delight, acting jobs were quite easy to encounter as he managed to show up in a 1999 episode of ABC TV series "Odd Man Out" followed by guest stints in MTV's "Undressed" for its 4 episodes in 2000 and another in WB's "Gilmore Girls" a year later. Going up a notch higher, he satisfyingly went steadier in the business shortly thereafter with role as Seth Anderson in the long-running soap opera of "One Life to Live" which saw him staying for about one year before leaving the series by April 2002. Afterwards gained a one-time appearance in prime-time shows namely CBS's "Cold Case" plus NBC's "Will & Grace" during the next two years, it was not until fall 2004 that this striking young man began to earn vast public notice when Warner Bros. officially announced him as the new Superman in its highly-anticipated 2006 film feature of "Superman Returns."

The story behind his appointment was a really interesting one for there had been either publication or speculations for years concerning the appropriate person to carry out the role also the director of the movie as well. The latter position finally fell into the hand of "X-Men" helmer Bryan Singer after Tim Burton, Wolfgang Petersen, McG, Brett Ratner, and Shekhar Kapur were previously considered to fill in the seat yet the former one remained unsolved though it was reported that Warner Bros. had already enlisted some popular names to play the role, including Nicolas Cage, Josh Hartnett, also Tom Welling. Nevertheless, Singer had his own consideration for he rather inclined to cast a fresh face instead and persistently working his idea, he eventually fixed his choice on Brandon, who actually had auditioned for the role in front of McG before, thereby granting this dark-haired actor to start a new phase in his life as the new world sensation for sure.

Persistently worked out his physical appearance to reach approximately 215 pounds, Brandon delightfully saw that his effort and dedication for "Returns" paid off very well as the movie instantly soared to be a box-office hit, in the end pulling a fantastic number of $391 million internationally. The result in turn not only brought the striking guy to shine under the spotlight but also scored him few honors, including the Best Superhero title at the 2006 Spike TV Awards and an Empire Award in 2007 for Best Male Newcomer. Afterwards getting signed to again play the red-caped hero in "Superman: The Man of Steel" (2009), the star next eagerly took time in between to nab different roles as seen in "Life Is Hot in Cracktown" (2008), an urban drug-addiction drama also starred by Shannyn Sossamon, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Thomas Ian Nicholas, "The Informers" (2008), and "Dead of Night" (2008).

Brandon proposed to actress girlfriend Courtney Ford in August 2006. They met for the first time at the rehearsal dinner for her brother's wedding held at the bowling alley Lucky Strike where the actor used to work as a bartender. The couple exchanged vows in a ceremony at the beautiful El Capitan Ranch in Santa Barbara on November 24, 2007.