The first decade of Ben Patrick Dunne's life reads like the backstory of a soap opera character. His parents, Oliver Dunne and Suzanne Perko, were more or less kids themselves when he was born, and neither was at all prepared for parenthood. Suzanne especially wasn't prepared - there were many things she wanted to do with her life, and being tied down to a screaming infant wasn't among them. One day, with no warning, she up and left her boyfriend and their sixteen month old son, only getting in contact in order to terminate her parental rights.
Oliver, meanwhile, had been diagnosed with both major depressive and bipolar disorders as a teenager, and struggled with life despite the help of medication and therapy, a struggle that got worse after Suzanne left. He managed to hold himself together for a surprisingly long time, until a car accident in 1997 led to a dependence on painkillers. Despite his best efforts, the addiction started a downward spiral for Oliver, and less than a year after the car accident he committed suicide by overdose. In his will Oliver apologized to his family and asked his brother, Warren, to take guardianship of his son.
It was difficult for Ben to understand what his father had done, and in some ways he still doesn't understand it, but the support of his uncle and his uncle's family helped him deal with the grief in more-or-less healthy ways. His therapist strongly recommended he take up a hobby, to do something constructive and social, and Ben (who had never been into any kind of group activity such as sports, and much preferred to read) found he was fascinated with his uncle's work. Well, not his work exactly, writing was so slow and it was hard to translate what he thought into words, and he had no interest in directing others and telling them what to do - but what everyone around his uncle did. He could pretend to be other people? As a career?
He joined a children's acting class to test the waters, and with his uncle's support was soon auditioning for roles. He landed a few forgettable commercials (truly forgettable, he couldn't tell you what they were for now if you paid him), and when he was eleven, he landed his first real role as the annoying little brother on a Disney Channel series. He took to it like the proverbial duck to water, although his career didn't exactly 'explode'. He got a tiny guest role on an episode of one of his uncle's shows (to this day he, mostly jokingly, thanks nepotism) that would have been as forgettable as his commercials if the show hadn't gone on to become a cult classic. While still starring in Lizzie McGuire, he also picked up numerous movie roles playing the younger version of main characters in flashbacks or prologue sequences.
Ben celebrated his entry into teenagedom by changing his professional name. He had never gone by Bennet, after all, so it would make more sense to just be credited as Ben Dunne. Except that edged too close to a pun - Ben Dunne, been done - for his taste (not that he didn't make that joke constantly in day-to-day life), so he went with the triple name and became Ben Patrick Dunne.
After Lizzie McGuire ended, he continued his career of playing parts in ensemble casts, something he honestly enjoyed more than anything else. It allowed him to do the acting he loved, without all the uncomfortable fame that might come if he played central roles. He's reached 'hey, it's that guy' status, has a Wikipedia page that is more than a stub, and gets to go to Comic-Con, and that's exactly the level of fame he'd always dreamed of when he started acting.
He would really like to return to television at some point - he misses the sense of community that builds up over the years - but for now he's happy where he is.
 stage name occupation age & dob current residence family |
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(2016) x-men: apocalypse (pre-production) (2015) band of robbers (post-production) (2014) american sniper (2014) x-men: days of future past (2013) odd thomas (2012) much ado about nothing (2010) scott pilgrim vs the world (2009) 17 again (2009) jennifer's body (2009) terminator salvation (2008) jumper (2006) alpha dog (2005) go figure (tv movie) (2005) the pacifier (2004) the butterfly effect (2004) national treasure (2003) the lizzie mcguire movie (2002) sweet home alabama (as bennet dunne) (2002) "firefly" (as bennet dunne) (2001-2004) "lizzie mcguire" (as bennet dunne)
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