Michael Shanks/Daniel Jackson bio

Date of Birth
15 December 1970, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Birth Name
Michael Garrett Shanks

Height
6' (1.83 m)
Spouse

Lexa Doig (2 August 2003 - present) 2 children
Trivia
Lived with Vaitiare Bandera

Daughter, Tatiana (born late 1998) with Vaitiare Bandera.

Bears an uncanny resemblance to his Stargate (1994) feature film counterpart James Spader, whose character, Dr. Daniel Jackson, he portrays on "Stargate SG-1" (1997).

Favorite hockey team is the Vancouver Canucks.

He was born in Vancouver and grew up in Kamloops, BC, Canada.

His best friend is "Stargate SG-1" (1997) co-star Christopher Judge.

Played hockey (defense) and rugby (flyhalf then wing) in high school.

Vaitiare Bandera, the mother of his child, played his character's wife on "Stargate SG-1" (1997).

Was inspired to pursue an acting career while watching future "Stargate SG-1" (1997) co-star Richard Dean Anderson film an episode of "MacGyver" (1985).

Along with Richard Dean Anderson, he is one of only two actors to appear in the pilots of both "Stargate SG-1" (1997) and the spin-off series "Stargate: Atlantis" (2004).

Daughter, Mia Tabitha Shanks, with Lexa Doig, born 13 September 2004.

Played three different characters in a single episode of "Stargate SG-1" (1997): Dr. Daniel Jackson, Thor and Penegal in the second half of the Season Eight premiere 'New Order Part II'.

Has appeared in four different productions with Don S. Davis: A Family Divided (1995) (TV), "Stargate SG-1" (1997), The Artist's Circle (2000) and Suspicious River (2000).

His character, Remiel, killed Hector, played by Christopher Judge, in the "Andromeda" (2000) episode "Day of Judgement, Day of Wrath". In the "Stargate SG-1" (1997) episode "Moebius Part 2", his character, Dr. Daniel Jackson, was killed by Judge's character, Teal'c.

Met his wife, Lexa Doig when he guest starred in the "Andromeda" (2000) Season One episode "Star-Crossed".

His character, Dr. Daniel Jackson (and various versions of him), was killed in four different episodes during the eighth season of "Stargate SG-1" (1997) alone: "Avatar", "Reckoning Part 2" and "Moebius Part 2", He was also shot several times, severely injured and tortured during the season.

Appeared with Torri Higginson in "Stargate SG-1" (1997) and "Stargate: Atlantis" (2004) who co-starred with his wife Lexa Doig in TekWar (1994) (TV), _"TekWar" (1994)_ , TekWar: TekLords (1994) (TV) and Jungleground (1995).

Wife Lexa Doig gave birth to their second child together, a son named Samuel David on March 19, 2006. Michael announced it at a Vancouver Convention on March 25th.

Had an emergency appendectomy when his appendix ruptured the day before filming was to begin on Stargate SG-1 Season 3 episode "Nemesis". The script had to be rewritten to explain his character's reduced role. The writers decided to have the character recovering from an appendectomy as well.

Coincidentally enough, there is another Michael Shanks (no relation) who is a real life archaeologist, while Michael Shanks the actor portrays an archaeologist on the television show Stargate SG-1.

Grew up as a huge Star Wars and Star Trek fan. Michael was also a fan off the cult television series, Xena: Warrior Princess.

Personal Quotes
[about his character Daniel's relationship with his love interest Janet began] "There seems to be this funny beat that they seemed to have this off-camera familiarity with each other. So we started playing with it. And it became an ongoing thread throughout the show. So whenever we did a scene together, we'd throw in an extra look or an extra glance. I'll let you guys fill in the blank of where it went from there