Eric Braeden is known as a television and film actor. He is most famous for portraying Victor Newman on the popular daytime soap opera program, the Young and the Restless.


Background

Eric Braeden is of German-American nationality and he was born in the year 1941. He was born in Hans-Jorg Gudegast, Germany. After leaving Germany, he went on to attend the University of Montana in the city of Missoula. He was a good student and he was very into sports. He liked to compete with his friends but never had any dreams of aspirations of becoming a professional athlete. He didn’t have the natural talent for it but enjoyed being a spectator and occasional participate.

There was something else in his life that got most of his attention. Starting from an early age, he liked to perform and act for his friends and family. It was something that he enjoyed and liked the idea of pursuing a career in acting.

Acting Career

Eric is a talented actor known for many performances that he performed on television ever since the 1960s.  In 1965, he appeared in a film called Morituri that also featured Yul Brynner and Marlon Brando. He had a guest appearance in the T.H.R.U.S.H TV series and in Man from U.N.C.L.E. He was a guest star in many TV series such as Discotheque Affair, Twelve O’clock High, Day of Reckoning, The Rat Patrol, and Blue Light.

He played a role in Rat Patrol where he was the character of Hans Dietrich. He was the man known as Victor Newman in The Young and Restless. He played John Jacob Astor IV in the popular movie, Titanic starring Kate Winslett and Leo DiCaprio. He was in the role of Dr Charles Forbin in the movie, The Forbin Project.  He also appeared in other popular movies like The Planet of The Apes.

Out of all his roles, his lead performance in the Young and Restless where he was Victor Newman was his most notable. The famous role got him the Daytime Emmy Award in 1998 in the Drama Series category. In 2009, after working on the Young and the Restless for over 30 years, he decided to leave the show. There was no bitter end but he just felt that it was time to leave the show. He was very grateful for the time he spent on the show and how much the show brought to his life.

Eric has made appearances in films and TV shows for over three decades in America. His list of guest roles number over an impressive one hundred appearances.

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Getting His Memoir Out To The Fans

In an interview with Soap Opera Digest, Eric spoke about his memoir called “I’ll Be Damned”.  He went on a book tour to promote the title to his fans and readers around the country. He was asked about the feedback he received about his memoir when he went out to meet fans and market it, “The problem with book tours is that people stand in line to get a signature in their books, so you don’t really get to listen to their comments. It’s rare there’s a forum to exchange ideas about the content of the book. But you hear comments, obviously, in passing about how much they like this or that or whatever, and over the months you sort of begin to understand what they reacted to and what they liked.”

One common piece of praise that he received about his memoir is how readers were touched about his story of chasing the American Dream, “I think overall it’s a notion that this is really an example of the life of many, many, many immigrants who have come to this country at one time or another, and who have, against all odds accomplished something, that it’s actually quintessentially sort of an American story. Your parents or grandparents came to America with nothing in their pockets with the kind of anticipatory anxiety that everyone has when they set foot in a foreign country. That’s something that somehow, every American has in his memory, through stories told by grandparents or great-grandparents, handed down from one generation to the other.”

Eric enjoyed getting up close and personal with his fans and sharing stories with each other but there was one aspect of the tour that he didn’t like, “It was very pleasant, but traveling can be a pain in the ass, as you know. On the whole, though, it was very encouraging, very pleasant, and sometimes inspiring but I’m not going to do any more [traveling] for a while!”

Personal Life

Eric was married to Dale Russell Gudegast in 1996. When it comes to the subject of children, he has one child. He keeps a good relationship with his wife and it is hard to say that they will ever get a divorce because of how much love they share with each other.

From his memoir, it is known that he is a person who likes to keep up with his health. He has a good height and a good appearance that has made him perfect for an acting career. He has an imposing profile of a six feet height. Because of having a good work life balance and regular exercising, he often feels alive, energetic, and healthy. The shooting schedule of soap operas has been favorable to him. He doesn’t have to travel much because they shoot a lot of episodes at one location and on compact days. He doesn’t think he would have had a long career if he had to travel a lot.

He got a good salary from acting and his net worth is 25 million dollars. He has a net worth that reflects how he had been successful in his acting career. He has been in the industry for a long period and this shows that he has been able to have a large number of fans. He is available on social media platforms and fans can get to know him better on his Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Last Modified: Apr 6, 2020


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