Childhood & Early Life
Travis Fimmel was born on July 15, 1979, near Echuca, Victoria in Australia. He was raised on a dairy farm in Lockington. He is the youngest of three sons born to Jennie, a recreation officer for the disabled, and Chris, a cattle farmer.
Aspiring to be a professional footballer, he headed for Melbourne to play football for the St Kilda Football Club in the AFL at the age of 17. There he studied project management at RMIT University. However, he was injured not long after and a broken leg put an end to his hopes of pursuing a football career. He then dropped out from RMIT University to travel the world.
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Career
Travis Fimmel’s modeling career began when he was spotted at a gym in Hawthorn, a suburb in the Melbourne, by a talent scout for Chadwick Models agency.
Soon he moved to the US to pursue his passion. A broke and barefooted Travis walked into the office of LA Models in 2002, and was signed on the spot. He then secured a six-figure deal to model exclusively for Calvin Klein for a year. He modeled CK's Crave men's fragrance campaign and the brand's famous underwear.
It did not take long for the good-looking young man to become the most in-demand male model in the world. He was named one of the world's sexiest bachelors by America's People magazine in 2002. He appeared on various magazine covers like France's ‘Numero Homme’ and America's ‘TV Guide.
In 2003, he appeared on top-rating American TV shows including ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’, ‘Live with Regis and Kathie Lee’, ‘The Sharon Osbourne Show’, MTV's ‘Total Request Live’ and entertainment TV news program ‘Extra’.
He also appeared in a video clip for Janet Jackson's ‘Someone to Call My Lover’, and in Jennifer Lopez's ‘I'm Real’.
A well-established model by now, he decided to pursue acting as well. He studied acting under Ivana Chubbuck and landed the title lead in Warner Bros 2003 TV series ‘Tarzan’, in which he did most of his own stunts. He played a diverse spectrum of characters on both the small and big screens in the coming years.
In 2005, he appeared in ‘Rocky Point’ with Lauren Holly, and in 2006 he starred in the Fox movie ‘Southern Comfort’ with Madeleine Stowe.
He portrayed a murderer in ‘Restraint’ in 2008, and a party boy in ‘Surfer, Dude’ with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. In 2010, he played a compassionate cowboy in ‘Pure Country 2: The Gift’, and a forensic photographer in Australian horror movie ‘Needle’, alongside Ben Mendelsohn.
Travis Fimmel portrayed a classical pianist in ‘Ivory’, an independent film that was an official selection in the 2010 Montreal World Film Festival and the Strasbourg International Film Festival.
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In ‘The Experiment’, he depicted the role of Helweg, a cheeky and brutish prison guard, opposite Academy Award winner Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker in 2010. The film is based on a real-life experiment on Stanford University volunteers.
On the small screen his career received a boost when he appeared opposite Patrick Swayze in A&E's series ‘The Beast’, in which he played a rookie undercover FBI agent Ellis Dove. The series ended after 13 episodes due to Swayze's death from pancreatic cancer.
He also portrayed fugitive Mason Boyle in two episodes of NBC's action-adventure ‘Chase,’ produced by Emmy Award-winning Jerry Bruckheimer. He depicted a dangerous man on the run, tracked down by US marshals who later try to take his help in nabbing a serial killer.
In 2011, he appeared in the film ‘The Big Valley’ with Richard Dreyfuss and Jessica Lange. He also appeared in FX's TV pilot ‘Outlaw Country’ in the same year.
He played the lead in 2012's ‘Harodim’, which was originally called ‘The Lazarus Protocol’. Displaying a penchant for tough characters, he acted with Peter Fonda as a former intelligence officer tracking down the world's most wanted terrorist.
In 2013, he co-starred with Billy Bob Thornton and Eva Longoria in the comedy flick ‘The Baytown Outlaws’.
He featured in BlackBoxTV’s ‘Reawakening’ in 2012 where he was cast with a Calvin Klein model-turned-actor, Dylan Bruno. He bagged the lead character in the television series ‘Vikings’, in which he co-starred with Jessalyn Gilsig, Katheryn Winnick and Gabriel Byrne. He played Ragnar Lothbrok, the legendary Viking leader.
In 2016, he starred in ‘Warcraft’, a live-action adaptation of the video game of the same name. In 2017, he appeared in ‘Lean on Pete’ a British-American drama film, directed by Andrew Haigh, based on the novel of the same name by Willy Vlautin.
His future projects include ‘Finding Steve McQueen’ an upcoming American heist thriller film directed by Mark Steven Johnson and written by Keith Sharon and Ken Hixon.
Personal Life
Travis Fimmel has been linked with several women throughout his career. His rumored girlfriends include his ‘Warcraft’ co-star Paula Patton.
He feels awkward doing intimate scenes in front of the production people. “I'm all for the free kisses, but it's very uncomfortable. It's not a natural thing for me,” he says.
In an interview he said that he wants to get back to the simple life and living on a farm. Right now he is acting and modeling to make some big money to get his own farm.
His favorite recreational activities are Australian rules football, surfing, riding motorbikes, camping, and going to the beach. He played a celebrity cricket match in 2009 in Australia vs England Hollywood Ashes with fellow Australian celebrities Jesse Spencer and Cameron Daddo.
