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Biography
Neal
McDonough was born on February 13, 1966, in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
He grew up on Cape Cod where his parents, Frank and the late Kitty
McDonough (both born in Ireland), owned a small mom-and-pop motel. The
youngest of six children (with four older brothers), he quickly
realized that he had two options: he could get up on the table and
dance and sing and make everyone laugh or he could get beat up by his
brothers. He opted for a life in show business. "From a very young age,
I was this ham."
As a
freshman in high school, Neal played Snoopy in a senior-class
production of "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" and says, "I
knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life". Although, he
received scholarships to play baseball at several colleges including
Connecticut and Maine; he chose to attend Syracuse University because
"I really wanted to be an actor. My dad thought I was nuts." Neal
graduated in 1988 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and was a
knuckleball pitcher for the University's club team. Still a "sports
junkie", he plays tennis, golf and is a regular on the celebrity hockey
circuit, playing benefit games with stars such as Jason Priestley,
Denis Leary and David Boreanaz.
Neal trained at the London Academy of Arts and
Sciences. His many theatre credits include "Away Alone". His
big-screen debut was a bit part in the 1990 film, "Darkman". Other
movie credits include "Ravenous", "Star Trek: First Contact", "Minority
Report" and "A Perfect Little Man". He is probably best known for
his role as Buck Compton in the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks mini-series
"Band of Brothers".
Neal won the
1991 Dramalogue Award for Best Actor for his performance
in "Away Alone"; he won the Best Actor Award at the 2000 Atlantic City
Film Festival for his role in "A Perfect Little Man"; he was nominated
for a Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement
in Drama for his portrayal of David McNorris in "Boomtown"; and he was
voted one of Variety's 10 Actors to Watch in 2002. Neal, also,
wrote a script for a feature film called "Ice" about the life of hockey
play Eddie Shore and co-wrote the script for a movie called "Heartbreak
Hill" with Bill Johnson.
Neal spent 10 months in London filming "Band of
Brothers" and on the night of his arrival in Great Britain, he met
Ruvé Robertson, a 6-foot-3-inch tall former model from South
Africa. On March
17th, 2002, St. Patrick's Day, they celebrated their third anniversary
together. Neal proposed on Christmas Day, 2002, while kneeling in
front of a small church on Cape Cod. They were married in a Beverly
Hills church on December 1, 2003. The wedding reception was held at a
local country club.
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