Julian McMahon, the Australian actor known for his roles in Nip/Tuck and two Fantastic Four movies from 2005 and 2007, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 56.
McMahon died Wednesday in Clearwater, Florida, his rep David Schiff, founder of MGMT Entertainment, told The Hollywood Reporter.
McMahon, born in Sydney on July 27, 1968, was the son of former Australian prime minister William McMahon and Lady Sonia McMahon.
He began acting on Australian soaps The Power, the Passion as well as Home and Away and appeared on the U.S. soap Another World in 1993. He transitioned to primetime TV with a role on NBC’s Profiler and spent three seasons on the WB’s Charmed.
He memorably starred alongside Dylan Walsh in Ryan Murphy’s FX plastic surgery drama, Nip/Tuck, which ran for six seasons and earned him a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Dr. Christian Troy.
On the film side, he played Dr. Doom in Tim Story’s two Fantastic Four movies, 2025’s Fantastic Four and 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer. His other film credits include roles in Premonition, Red, Paranoia and, last year, The Surfer and The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat.
His other TV credits include roles on FBI: Most Wanted, Runaways and the recently canceled murder mystery comedy The Residence.
Reflecting on being an Australian in Hollywood, McMahon told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2017, “It’s a funny town and there’s a bit of a last man standing theory to it sometimes.” Early on, he recalled, often feeling “like you’re not cutting it, you’re never going to and nothing is happening for you and you’re just the wrong person and maybe you should go and do something else or go home to Australia, which a lot of people did.”
Of his role in FBI: Most Wanted, McMahon told Soap Opera Digest that the part was a “really fascinating character.”
“I was thinking of going back to network television at the time, and I had read a lot of scripts and I was quite surprised, to be honest, that this is the one that stuck with me the most, but it was and here I am,” he said of joining the CBS series, which had a backdoor pilot in the first season of FBI.
Reflecting on his career with Soap Opera Digest, McMahon credited the “commitment” he picked up from working on The Power, The Passion and Nip/Tuck.
“I’ve never lost my passion for what I do,” he said. “And so I think that is something that I’ve carried throughout my whole career and I think it’s been an important facet of what I consider being successful, that I’ve stayed committed to my craft and evolving that craft, and enjoying working in that space.”
Survivors include his third wife, Kelly, who he married in 2014, and his daughter, Madison, with his second wife, American game show host Brooke Burns. His first wife was Australian singer-actress Dannii Minogue, sister of Kylie Minogue.
McMahon even had a funny moment with his ex-sister-in-law, filming a scene in which he and Kylie Minogue kiss, when he returned to Australia to make Swinging Safari in 2018.
“That was an impromptu moment,” McMahon told the Herald Sun. “[Director] Steph [Elliott] said ‘Do what you want, Julian!’ and I thought, ‘Bugger it, I’ll get up and snog my ex sister-in-law’ … She had this great reaction, like she was being attacked by some kind of creature. It was very funny.”
Mike Barnes contributed to this report.
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