(Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Happy birthday, Chris Evans, you damn physical specimen of humanity that makes every dude look inadequate to their girlfriends. Thanks for being perfect, A-hole. Appreciate it…But I digress…Evans was born on June 13, 1981, making today his 36th birthday. (pops champagne).
Evans was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but moved to New York City after graduating high school to take classes at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. Telling your parents that you legitimately are going to try and make it as an actor for a career can’t be an easy conversation, but it’s pretty obvious by now that Evans made the right call.
Evans’ first credited appearance came in a brief educational video titled Biodiversity: Wild About Life! in 1997…Boy, how far has this guy come? Evans started gaining a little more mainstream attention as the leads in Not Another Teen Movie (2001), The Perfect Score (2004) and Cellular (2004). While none of these films were runaway smash hits, they did help to raise Evans’ profile and put him at top billing.
In 2005, Evans started to really breakout with his role as Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four. Though the movie and its sequel were not well-received, Evans’ performances were seen as humorous and entertaining and put him front and center at the onset of the superhero movie boom in Hollywood. Steady acting gigs would follow for the next several years until Evans finally made his complete breakthrough.
In 2011, Evans starred as Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger and has since reprised his most famous role a whopping five times with more appearances to go. In fact, you could make the case that Evans’ Captain America has become a more crucial figure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe than even Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man.
That’s high praise.
