Australian actor Julian McMahon has died following a private battle with cancer. He was 56.
In a statement to Deadline, McMahon’s wife, Kelly McMahon, said her husband “died peacefully this week after a valiant effort to overcome cancer”.
“Julian loved life,” she said.
“He loved his family. He loved his friends. He loved his work, and he loved his fans. His deepest wish was to bring joy into as many lives as possible. We ask for support during this time to allow our family to grieve in privacy. And we wish for all of those to whom Julian brought joy, to continue to find joy in life. We are grateful for the memories.”
McMahon has garnered international attention for his work in both television and film across a career that spanned nearly four decades, starting with stints in Home and Away and US soap Another World, as well as a lead role in Maurice Murphy’s 1993 comedy Wet and Wild Summer!
In the mid-2000s, he landed the role of Dr. Christian Troy, the charming plastic surgeon in Ryan Murphy”s Nip/Tuck, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama in 2005 and received the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in 2007.
He has since featured in Hulu’s Marvel series Runaways, BBC America’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, the miniseries adaptation of Childhood’s End, Charmed, and Shonda Rhimes’ Netflix mystery series The Residence.
On the film side, McMahon appeared as Victor Von Doom in 2005’s Fantastic Four and 2007’s sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, along with other credits, such as Faces in the Crowd, Red, Bait, and Paranoia, among others.
He recently starred opposite Nicolas Cage in Lorcan Finnegan’s The Surfer, and acted alongside an all-star female cast in Fox’s The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, based on the 2013 New York Times bestselling novel by Edward Kelsey Moore. McMahon also has a role in Rebel Wilson’s musical, The Deb, which is yet to be released.
Cage was among those to pay tribute to his co-star, telling Deadline the news was “deeply saddening”.
“I spent six weeks working with Julian, and he was the most talented of actors,” he said.
“Our scenes together on The Surfer were amongst my favourites I have ever participated in, and Julian is one of my favourite people. He was a kind and intelligent man. My love to his family.”
He is survived by his wife Kelly and daughter Madison Elizabeth McMahon.