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Dean Cain
Cain in Iraq, May 13, 2005
Born	Dean George Tanaka July 31, 1966 (1966-07-31) (age 43) Mount Clemens, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, presenter, producer, writer, voice actor, director
Years active	1976–present

Dean Cain (born July 31, 1966) is an American actor, known for his role as Clark Kent/Superman in the American television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

Biography

Early life

Cain was born Dean George Tanaka in Mount Clemens, Michigan, the son of actress Sharon Thomas and U.S. Army serviceman Roger Tanaka, who divorced before he was born. Cain is of Japanese (from his paternal grandfather), French Canadian, Irish and Welsh descent.¹ His last name, Tanaka, is a Japanese family name. In 1969,² Cain's mother married film director Christopher Cain, who adopted Dean and his brother (musician Roger Cain), and the family moved to Malibu, California. The couple later had a daughter, Dean's half-sister, actress Krisinda Cain who also attended Santa Monica High.

At Santa Monica High School, Cain excelled in sports. He played on the baseball team, and Chad and Rob Lowe and Charlie Sheen—who played on the baseball team—were among his classmates. Cain graduated high school in 1984 and was offered athletic scholarships to 17 universities, but decided to attend Princeton University.^{citation needed} At Princeton, he was captain of the volleyball team and played free safety (Defensive Back) on the football team, where he had 12 interceptions in a single season.^{citation needed} He was also a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity and the Cap & Gown eating club.^{citation needed} While at Princeton, he dated actress Brooke Shields, who was one year ahead of him at the university. Cain graduated from Princeton in 1988 with a BA in History; his senior thesis was titled "The History and Development of the Functions of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences."

Career

Immediately after graduating, Cain signed on as a free agent with the Buffalo Bills, an NFL football team, but a knee injury during training camp ended his football career before it began. With little hope of returning to sports, he turned to screenwriting and then acting, shooting dozens of commercials and appearing on popular television shows like Grapevine, A Different World and Beverly Hills 90210. In 1993, Cain took on his biggest role to date as Superman in the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, which ran until 1997.

In 1998, Cain started the Angry Dragon Entertainment production company, which produced the TBS Superstation television series Ripley's Believe It or Not!. He has also starred in several films, including The Broken Hearts Club (2000), Out of Time (2003) and Bailey's Billions (2004). In 2004, he portrayed Scott Peterson in the fact-based made for television movie The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story. He has also appeared in a recurring role as Casey Manning in the television series Las Vegas. Recently, Cain guest-starred in a seventh season episode of Smallville as the immortal Dr. Curtis Knox. He's #33 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the '90s. Cain has also made an appearance in the new comical Internet Explorer 8 commercials.

Personal life

Cain and Teri Hatcher at the 1993 Emmy Awards.

Cain rehearsing with his Lois & Clark co-star Teri Hatcher at the 45th Emmy Awards, September 19, 1993

Dean Cain, 1993

Dean has a son named Christopher Dean Cain (b. June 11, 2000) with former girlfriend and Playboy model Samantha Torres. His son is named after his stepfather, film director Christopher Cain. He was previously engaged to country singer Mindy McCready in the late 1990s.

While promoting the television show, Ripley's Believe It or Not, on the Howard Stern Show on January 10, 2001, Cain said that his biological father lied to the National Enquirer by saying that Dean's mother left him while he was serving in the Vietnam War. Dean stated that the truth is his father never served in the war but instead cheated on his mother, with this being the real reason why they divorced.

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dean Cain

• Dean Cain at the Internet Movie Database
• Dean Cain at Allmovie
• Dean Cain at TV.com
• Dean Cain on Yahoo movies