Favorite Birthday Boy for February 24th

Billy Zane
From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things

 The great Billy Zane turns 48 today.

 William George "Billy" Zane, Jr. (born February 24, 1966) is an American actor and producer.

He is best known for playing Kit Walker / The Phantom in The Phantom, Caledon Hockley in Titanic, Hughie in Dead Calm, John Wheeler in Twin Peaks and Mr. E in CQ.

 Zane was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Thalia and William George Zane, Sr., both of whom were amateur actors and founders of a school for medical technicians. Both of his parents are of Greek descent (Chios on his mother's side and Mani on his father's side), and his family's original surname, "Zanetakos" (Greek: Ζανετάκος), was anglicized to "Zane" by his parents, who also raised him Greek Orthodox. He has an older sister, Lisa Zane, who is an actress.

 After completing a year abroad at the American School in Switzerland, Zane graduated from Francis W. Parker School and attended Harand Camp of the Theater Arts, located in Evanston, Illinois.

 Zane was married to actress Lisa Collins from 1989, until the couple divorced in 1995. He was also engaged for a time to Chilean actress, Leonor Varela, his costar in the 1999 television film Cleopatra. Zane was engaged to marry British model turned actress, Kelly Brook, whom he met in 2005 when starring with her in the movie Survival Island, also known as Three. They split in April 2008, got back together again shortly thereafter, then ended the relationship in August 2008. Zane dated the Croatian model Jasmina Hdagha in 2010, but they broke up later that year. Through a friend he met Candice Neil an American model. Zane and Neil are parents to Ava Katherine who was born on February 20, 2011.

Zane participated in the first Gumball 3000 rally in 1999, driving a 1964 Aston Martin DB5. He was featured in the music video of Staind's "Epiphany". Zane executive-produced a CD by bluesman Tim O'Connor that includes three songs from Dead Calm, in which Zane had one of the lead roles.

In November 2010, he was awarded an honorary degree honoris causa from Lium University, Bellinzona, Switzerland, for his contribution to cinematography. He is the chairman of the Francesco Fucilla Film production company 21st Century Filmworks.