Michael Kevin Pare was born on October 9, 1958 in Brooklyn, New York City to Francis and Joan Pare. His father died of leukemia when Pare was five, leaving his mother to raise their large family of children. Pare was working as a chef in New York City when an agent, Yvette Bikoff, convinced him to try acting. Pare's first starring role was as Tony...
Streets of Fire, Eddie and the Cruisers, Bad Moon, Traded, The Philadelphia Experiment, Village of the Damned, The Virgin Suicides, Hope Floats, Maximum Conviction, BloodRayne: The Third Reich, The Lincoln Lawyer, Rampage, Komodo vs. Cobra, Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!, Moon 44, Bone Toma...
TV Shows
The Greatest American Hero, Houston Knights, Starhunter
Star Sign
Libra
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Trademark
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Muscular physique
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Hooded blue eyes
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Deep raspy voice
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Quote
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[on Streets of Fire (1984)] They told me that it was going to be a trilogy. What happened was that all of the people that made Streets of Fire left Universal Studios and went to 20th Century Fox. It was made at Universal, so they owned the rights to the story. So it was left behind. I was told by Joel Silver that the sequel was going to be set in the snow, and the following film would be set in the desert.
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[on Rick Moranis] Here is the thing... in movies you aren't supposed to do things for real. You can't really hit someone, you can't really stab someone. Someone will get hurt. A comedian can go at you full bore because he can't inflict any physical damage. He drove me nuts. Some people say that our relationship is the best work in the film. It was a very antagonistic relationship. When I looked at him, I had some very serious anger towards him. In reality, what I should've done was punched him right in the face the minute that he got into the car in that first scene. It would've been funny to have Rick wear a bandage across his nose the end film.
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[on Bad Moon (1996)] I was living in Holland and I happened to be in L.A. and I got a call that Eric [Red] wanted to meet me. So I met him on the Warner Brothers lot and it was with his producer, I think. And I had read the script a couple times... especially the transformation sequence, you know, in the Blue Room or whatever that restaurant is on the lot. And I told him I loved it, I loved the story and I'd love to be in a werewolf movie. I then went on specifically about the transformation sequence and he's like, "Yep, yep, uh huh. We shoot in Vancouver." And so I said, "Okay, what's the next step, what do I have to do to get this?" and he said, "Just say yes.".
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[on Streets of Fire (1984)] It was a big action movie that they were going to shoot in Hollywood. Eddie and the Cruisers had been made for five million dollars. So that wasn't really a big film budget wise. Streets of Fire was going to be a big studio movie. It had Walter Hill as director and Diane Lane had signed on and that was all I needed.
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[on typecasting] You know, I think it's a mistake to not do what Hollywood wants to market you as. Because then they say, "Okay fine, we'll get someone else.".
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[on director Walter Hill] I think Walter is a writer at heart. Writers aren't always that good at communicating in person. He's also a tough son-of-a-bitch. He's like a cowboy. His director's chair was made out of leather and on the back of it read "Lone Wolf". He used to frequent gun clubs and he wasn't a very delicate guy. I can remember on Streets of Fire, we were doing some ADR for the film. We were doing a love scene. When they said, "We need to ADR the love scene." I really freaked out. I had never done a love scene before Streets of Fire. I was really a new actor, and I really needed help to get through it. I panicked, and the producer on Streets of Fire, Joel Silver, called Walter and somehow persuaded him to come over and direct me through the ADR. Streets of Fire was a big picture for me, and I was overwhelmed. I think that bothered Walter. I think he thought that I was a needy guy. He was used to working with actors who had experience like Nick Nolte or David Carradine. I've always wondered why Walter has never wanted to work with me again. I think he was too much of gentlemen to tell me that I was too needy at the time.
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[on working with John Carpenter] John is another one of these guys like David Lynch where nobody questioned or added or had anything to say except "Yes John." That's very comforting for an actor to be working for a director who knows exactly what he wants.
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[on his favorite movie role] I always say it was Eddie and the Cruisers (1983) because the director had come to me and said, "Listen, if you fuck this up we're gonna fire you. We'll get Rick Springfield, he's waiting to do the role." So there was a tremendous amount of pressure.
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Fact
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His father, Francis Paré, owned print shops, and his mother, Joan Paré, was a homemaker.
When he is not working on films, he lives full time in Los Angeles, California with his wife Marjolein, a former fashion model.
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Contrary to persistent rumors, he was not the original choice to play the Punisher/Frank Castle in The Punisher (1989).
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Has made a lucrative living appearing on the side in Japanese commercials and in print ads.
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Was on the wrestling team in high school.
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Has three brothers and six sisters. His father died of leukemia when Michael was about five years old. Michael's paternal grandparents, who were from Quebec, were French-Canadian, and Michael's maternal grandparents were Irish.
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Trained with acting guru Uta Hagen in the early 1980s.
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Studied at the Culinary Institute of America in his "salad" days and was working as a chef when his strikingly hunky looks opened the door for modeling work.
$2 Million
