CHRISTOPHER ATKINS

as Daniel Dodd

Atkins was born in Rye, New York, to Donald Bomann and Bitsy Nebauer. While in high school, Atkins was a lifeguard and sailing instructor when a friend pressured him to audition for The Blue Lagoon. He won the role over 4,000 other actors. He was nineteen years old and had no previous interest or experience in acting.

The romance adventure remake The Blue Lagoon , opposite Brooke Shields, was released in 1980 and became a huge box office success. The movie cost $4.5 million, but has grossed over $58 million. The Blue Lagoon still remains a classic of romantic fantasy and adventure. Atkins appeared fully nude on screen at a time when male frontal nudity in films was rare. The role allowed him to show off his swimming abilities, innocent good-looks and he was established as a teen idol . After the success of the film, Atkins was recognized and mobbed everywhere. Female fans literally tore off his clothes.

He went on to star as Frederic in The Pirate Movie (1982), an update of Gilbert and Sullivan 's operetta The Pirates of Penzance . He hit #71 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with the song "How Can I Live Without Her?", which appeared in The Pirate Movie . The film has become a cult classic . Renowned for his boy next door looks, Atkins created a buzz among girls of all ages who loved to see him on screen. Though it led to typecasting, the athletic Atkins did not disappoint his fans, and was shirtless in almost all his movies and television appearances. Atkins commented, "What do you mean as soon as I get a job where I don't have to wear a loincloth, I will be wearing a speedo swimsuit! Will I ever have an acting job when I don't have to be shirtless?"

In A Night in Heaven (1983), also starring Lesley Ann Warren , Atkins played Rick Monroe, an outspoken and overconfident student working his way through college as a male stripper. For one season (1983-1984), Atkins had a recurring role on the hit CBS prime time soap opera , Dallas as "Peter Richards," who had an affair with Sue Ellen Ewing played by Linda Gray .

Atkins has been the cover boy of innumerable teen magazines and has appeared in several television commercials representing big brand names such as Coke and Adidas , all of which capitalized on Atkins' youth and appearance. He appeared on the cover of the September 1983 Playgirl magazine, and posed nude for a pictorial. He posed nude for the magazine again in December of the same year but was not fully exposed in either issue.

In the 1990s and 2000s, he drifted into made-for-network and cable movies, such as Fatal Charms , Project Shadowchaser III and Angel Flight Dawn . Recent projects include Caved In , Spiritual Warriors , 13th Child , The Employee of the Month , Tequila Express , Quigley and True Legends of the West . Comic roles include Mortuary Academy (1988), Shoot (1992) and he even re-united with Brooke Shields on her show Suddenly Susan as a fellow journalist who is uninterested in her.

In 2007, he starred in the Sci-Fi movie "100 Million BC".

He currently appears on VH1 's Confessions of a Teen Idol , a reality show in which former teen idols attempt to revitalize their entertainment careers.

 

VH1 Confessions of a Teen Idol
www.imdb.com

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