Just who is Oded Fehr? He was reared in Tel Aviv,
Israel. His father is of German descent and his mother is Dutch-Spanish
descent. His older siblings were born in the United States while his
father was a scientist here. He was born after the family moved to
Israel. His parents divorced when he was 15 and his father moved to
Frankfurt, Germany.
At age
18 and after high school he finished his compulsory service in the
Israel Defense Forces Army/Navy and qualified for three different
universities: "Tel Aviv University for business and Haifa for psychology
and Jerusalem for something else, just in case," he said in an
interview. While in the Navy he spent most of his time doing
intelligence and counter-intelligence work though he never did anything
physically dangerous. This unknowingly helped in his present career of
acting when he played ‘Frank Donovan’
in UC Undercover. “I loved
the work - a lot of it applies to my job on
UC Undercover. I know how to
infiltrate small groups, gather information and set up security
procedures and use all kinds of surveillance equipment,” Oded said in an
interview with TV Close Up, November 2001.
After
his tour of duty was over following the Gulf War Oded decided to spend
some time with his father while studying business administration at a
local university there. “I was convinced that I would work for my
father’s marketing and communications company but lost interest six
months later,” he recalls in the same interview with Close Up TV. “The
only thing that kept my sanity was a drama course at the English Theatre
in Frankfort.” He decided he wanted to be an actor from the moment he
stepped on the stage in a production of David Mamet’s
“Sexual Perversion in Chicago”.
His father surprised him by approving of his career choice.
Telling him to go to the best school there was.
So he
chose the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England. He enrolled from
1994-1997 at the school then moved to London to ply his acting classes
in an obscure stage production of
“Don Juan Comes Back From The War”.
He got bit parts in to British series The
Knock and Killer Net,
but that was not giving him enough income to live on so he worked odd
jobs including security and El Al, the Israeli Airlines. He felt his
acting career was not getting off to a good start and decided he had
nothing to lose in auditioning for the character of
‘Ardeth Bay’.
He auditioned in front of director, Stephen Sommers and got the
part changing his life and giving him a fresh start in his career of
acting.
Oded has said in many interviews that he owes his career to Stephen
Somers. He had the ending of The Mummy
rewritten just so he could keep Oded for the sequel,
“The Mummy Returns”. Oded
thinks that everyone will figure out one day he can’t act and his career
will be over. Although he has had been in two cancelled TV show (due to
the networks not giving them a chance; not because of his acting
abilities) plus has been in such movies as “Deuce
Bigalow: Male Gigolo”, “Texas Rangers”, “Cleopatra”, “Arabian Nights”
and the soon to be released “Resident
Evil 2”, Oded is slowly establishing himself as a
memorable actor.
Oded
has a large fan following and many fan fiction stories are out there
using the characters he has portrayed and has even inspired a few
original characters. He has made quite an impression on the lady fans
especially with his handsome looks and incredible smile. He also made
quite an impression on Rhonda Tollefson. They met at a dinner party
following the premiere of the Los Angeles Opera season; Oded claims that
it was not as romantic as it sounds. "We ended up sitting next to each
other, chatting and we became friends," he said in the article for TV
Close Up. “By the time I proposed, I kind of knew she would say yes. And
we got married about a year later.”
He
did have a difficult time convincing Rhonda he was a regular guy. Not
like some actors who would like to date a producer just to get work.
Oded did win her over though and says this about his wife. “She’s a
wonderful woman and I’m a very lucky man.” They
married in December 2000.
When
asked the question by NYPOST.COM: What
he would be doing if not acting, he said the following. “I love kids so
I think I would be a kindergarten teacher. I actually think some days of
chucking it all and opening a preschool.”
Oded
and Rhonda both love children and in January of 2003
their first child Atticus was born. Named after the lead
character in the book "To Kill A Mockingbird"
Oded's favorite book. Oded now has a daughter as well who they named
Finley who was born in February of 2006. Origin of the name
is unknown at this time. Oded and Rhonda are also active with the charity
‘Kid’s Cancer Connection’, the
children there are his heroes. He had this to say about them in the
NYPOST.COM article.
“The
kids from the ‘Kids Cancer Connection’
are my heroes. These children fight the worst enemy of all, cancer. One
time a 13 year old said about a 5 year old. ‘ It is sad that he never
got to experience life as I did.’”
To see an
article on how Rhonda got involved in Kids Cancer Connection.
Click here.
