From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things
I love me some Kelso! Actor Ashton Kutcher turns 36 today.
Christopher Ashton Kutcher (/ˈkʊtʃər/; born February 7, 1978), known professionally as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, and former model. He is known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show. He also created, produced, and hosted Punk'd and had lead roles in the Hollywood films Jobs, Dude, Where's My Car?, Just Married, The Butterfly Effect, The Guardian, and What Happens in Vegas.
Kutcher currently stars as Walden Schmidt on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, since Charlie Sheen's firing from the show in 2011.
Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is the son of Diane (née Finnegan), a Procter & Gamble employee, and Larry M. Kutcher, a factory worker. His father is of Bohemian (Czech) descent and his mother is of Irish, German, and Bohemian ancestry. Kutcher was raised in a conservative Roman Catholic family, with an older sister, Tausha, and a fraternal twin, Michael, who had a heart transplant when the brothers were young children. His twin brother also has cerebral palsy and is a spokesperson for the advocacy organization Reaching for the Stars.
Michael's cardiomyopathy caused his home life to become increasingly stressful. He has stated that he "didn't want to come home and find more bad news about" his brother, and "[I] kept myself so busy that I didn't allow myself to feel". Kutcher stated that when he was 13, he contemplated committing suicide in order to save his brother's life with a heart transplant; when he told his father he was considering jumping from a Cedar Rapids hospital balcony, his father dissuaded him from doing so shortly before doctors announced that a transplant had become available from an accident victim in another state. Kutcher attended Washington High School in Cedar Rapids for his freshman year, before his family moved to Homestead, Iowa, where he attended Clear Creek Amana High School. During high school, he developed a passion for acting and appeared in school plays. However, Kutcher's home life worsened as his parents divorced when he was 16. During his senior year, he broke into his high school at midnight with his cousin in an attempt to steal money; he was arrested leaving the scene. Kutcher was convicted of third-degree burglary and sentenced to three years' probation and 180 hours of community service. Kutcher stated that although the experience "straightened him out", he lost his girlfriend and anticipated college scholarships, and he was ostracized at school and in his community.
Kutcher enrolled at the University of Iowa in August 1996, where his planned major was biochemical engineering, motivated by the desire to find a cure for his brother's heart ailment. At college, Kutcher was kicked out of his apartment for being too "noisy" and "wild". Kutcher stated, "I thought I knew everything but I didn't have a clue. I was partying, and I woke up many mornings not knowing what I had done the night before. I played way too hard. I am amazed I am not dead." To earn money for his tuition, Kutcher worked as a college summer hire in the cereal department for the General Mills plant in Cedar Rapids, and sometimes donated blood for money. During his time at UI he was approached by a model scout at a bar called "The Airliner" in Iowa City and was recruited to enter the "Fresh Faces of Iowa" modeling competition. After placing first, he dropped out of college and won a trip to New York City to the International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) Convention. Following his stay in New York City, Kutcher returned to Cedar Rapids, before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting.
In 2003, Kutcher began dating actress Demi Moore. Moore and Kutcher married on September 24, 2005, in a private ceremony conducted by a Rabbi of the Kabbalah Center. The wedding was attended by about 150 close friends and family of the couple, including Bruce Willis, Moore's ex-husband. Kutcher and Moore met with co-director of the Kabbalah Center Rabbi Yehuda Berg in Israel in October 2010. On November 17, 2011, Moore released a statement announcing her intention to end her marriage to Kutcher. The announcement followed weeks of media speculation about the state of the couple's marriage. After over a year of separation, Kutcher filed for divorce from Moore on December 21, 2012, in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences. Moore filed her response papers in March 2013, requesting spousal support and payment of legal fees from Kutcher. On November 27, 2013, his and Moore's divorce was finalized.
Kutcher began dating his former That '70s Show co-star, Mila Kunis, in April 2012.
Kutcher is a self-described fiscal conservative and social liberal. He has been a student of Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah), for several years. His No Strings Attached co-star, Natalie Portman, stated in 2011 that Kutcher "has taught me more about Judaism than I think I have ever learned from anyone else". In trips to Israel, Kutcher visited Kabbalah centers in Tel Aviv and in Tsfat. In 2013, Kutcher remarked that “Israel is near and dear to my heart...coming to Israel is sort of coming back to the source of creation – trying to get closer to that. And as a creative person, going to the source of creation is really inspiring. And this place has been really inspiring for me - not only on a spiritual level, but also on an artistic and creative level.” Kutcher has invested in an Italian restaurant, Dolce (other owners include Danny Masterson and Wilmer Valderrama) and a Japanese-themed restaurant named Geisha House located in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York City. On September 17, 2008, Kutcher was named the assistant coach for the freshman football team at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. However, he was unable to return in 2009 because he was filming Spread. In February 2011, Kutcher sold his Hollywood Hills home, which he originally bought in 2004. In April 2012, Kutcher became the 500th paying customer to sign up to ride Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo.
On April 16, 2009, Kutcher became the first user of Twitter to have more than 1,000,000 followers, beating CNN in the "Million followers contest". Kutcher announced via Twitter that he would be donating $100,000 to a charity to fight malaria. However, there have been several reports that Twitter manipulated the contest's results by preventing users from "unfollowing" Kutcher or CNN. In November 2011, Kutcher received much criticism for his Tweet in response to the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal calling the firing of Penn State Nittany Lions football coach Joe Paterno in "poor taste". Kutcher subsequently turned over management of his Twitter account to his team at the Katalyst Media company.
In April 2011, Kutcher and wife Demi Moore began a public service announcement campaign claiming that "Real Men" do not engage the services of child prostitutes who are the victims of human trafficking. Kutcher's claims that 100,000 to 300,000 American children were sold into sexual slavery were criticized by newspaper the Village Voice, which gave evidence refuting the claims. Kutcher may have understood a study referring to minors "at risk" for sexual exploitation as referring to children actually being prostituted. Experts estimate the true numbers to be in the hundreds, not the hundreds of thousands. Kutcher reacted to the criticism by accusing the Village Voice of promoting child prostitution and using Twitter to request that Village Voice advertisers including American Airlines, Disney, the City of Seattle, and Domino's Pizza withdraw their advertising from publications owned by the Voice's parent company.
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