#COOLBOY TRAVIS FIMMEL
Another week, another #coolboy, and this one’s been featured in BANGTALK twice, one was actually not too long ago. It’s male model and actor Travis Fimmel. You may recognise this guy for a few main points in his career. One was modelling for a top underwear brand, and the other is for his portrayal of a badass legendary leader. If you’re a keen reader of this blog though, you’ll recognise him from our feature on Bearded Bald Men or for The History Of Calvin Klein Ads
Born in Australia, Fimmel is the youngest of three brothers and was raised on a dairy farm. He obviously wanted a life outside of milking cows and aspired to be a professional Aussie rules footballer. He pursued this career for a while and moved to Melbourne to play for the AFL. Unfortunately for him, fate intervened and a broken leg saw him retire from the pitch before the season even began! Luckily for him, he wasn’t destined to show off his tackle on the pitch, his destiny was for him to show his tackle off in underwear!
Fimmel’s modelling career first began when he was spotted working out at a gym in the Melbourne by a talent scout for the prestigious Chadwick Models agency. He headed to America and was snapped up by LA Models in 2002. It worked out extremely well for Travis, and he was signed up to front the Calvin Klein campaign. He was the face of CK’s Crave men’s fragrance and modelled the brand’s famous underwear. He was the first ever male model to command a six figure salary from the American brand!
His campaigns were so infamous and according to popular legend (although Fimmel himself insists it is just a rumour) one of his billboards in London had to be pulled down after it received complaints from an auto club of traffic congestion and accidents- apparently women were ‘staring’ and caused a few bumps along the way! Whoops!
He was named one of the world’s sexiest bachelors by America’s People magazine in 2002 and at the time was regarded as “the most in-demand male model in the world”. It’s even been suggested that Fimmel was the inspiration for the Sex And The City character Smith Jerrod, who was a budding actor, and Samantha Jones’ main squeeze throughout the final season and the first movie. It seems that Smith inspired Fimmel too as he decided to pursue a career next in acting. After all, a model does have a shelf life we guess!
He landed the title lead in the series Tarzan in 2003, in which he did most of his own stunts. It was described by CNN as one of the “five hottest things happening in entertainment right now”. He had consistent work for the new few years but it wasn’t until 2010 that he got his teeth into a role alongside Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker and Cam Gigandet in The Experiment.
Following this he was cast in various TV shows and thrillers until Vikings in 2013. He plays the lead role of Ragnar Lothbrok, who is based on the legendary Viking leader who is frustrated by the unadventurous tendencies of his local chieftain and strikes out to pillage new lands. USA Today described Fimmel’s performance as “engaging”, while the Huffington Post called it his “breakout role”. In 2016, Fimmel will be starring in Warcraft, a live action adaptation based on the famous video games. He was star as Sir Anduin Lothar, the lead protagonist and a knight who has sacrificed everything to keep the Kingdom safe. If the film is half as successful as the games, we can imagine we’ll be seeing Fimmel a lot more in the next year!