Jonathan Goldsmith

Jonathan Goldsmith
Goldsmith at Susan G. Komen's 8th Annual Fashion For The Cure on September 24, 2009
Born	(1938-09-26) September 26, 1938 (age 78) New York City, New York, U.S.
Residence	Manchester, Vermont
Nationality	American
Other names	Jonathan Lippe
Alma mater	Boston University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1963–present
Home town	New York City, New York, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Barbara Goldsmith (2006)
Children	David

Jonathan Goldsmith (born September 26, 1938) is an American actor. He began his career on the New York stage, then started a career in film and television. He appeared in several TV shows from the 1960s to the 1990s. He is best known for appearing in television commercials for Dos Equis beer, from 2006 to 2016, as the character The Most Interesting Man in the World.

Goldsmith was born on September 26, 1938, in New York. His mother was a Conover model and his father was a track coach at James Monroe High School. His parents were Jewish American. Goldsmith left home at 17 to attend Boston University and pursue a career in acting.

Jonathan has made over 350 television appearances in his career. Among them was the role of Marvin Palmer in the 1964 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Blonde Bonanza." To advance his acting career, Goldsmith moved to California from New York in 1966. Like many aspiring actors, he found it difficult to gain enough acting work to survive and wound up working various jobs, including driving a garbage truck and working in construction, to help make ends meet.

During his early years in film, Goldsmith performed as "Jonathan Lippe", having taken the name of his stepfather at the age of six. He subsequently changed his professional name back to his birth name, later recalling, "It always made me feel bad for my father, who never caused me any grief about it.... As my career grew and my son was born, I changed my name back to my real name, Goldsmith, so my father could enjoy his son's success and have a grandson to carry his name as well."

Goldsmith first established himself as an actor in Western films, with 25 such appearances. In the 1976 film The Shootist, Goldsmith played a villain who was shot between the eyes by hero John Wayne, who fired blood capsules from a special pellet gun at pointblank range into Goldsmith's face for seven painful takes.

Goldsmith also made guest appearances on 45 television series, including Gunsmoke, Adam-12, Knight Rider, CHiPs, Eight Is Enough, The Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-O, Barnaby Jones, MacGyver, Murder, She Wrote, Charlie's Angels, Manimal, The Fall Guy, Dynasty, T.J. Hooker, Hardcastle and McCormick, Magnum, P.I., Knots Landing, The A-Team, as well as a few made-for-TV movies. His longest run in a television series was on Dallas, in which he appeared 17 times.