Whatever Happened to Adrian Paul?

Now and then, well, more often than that really, actors will make a huge surge in their careers and become so well-known that it’s easy to think that they’ve established themselves in such a way that they won’t be going anywhere from that point on. The truth of it though is that any actor can come and go depending on how popular their show, movie, or name is since it’s up to the fans that are notoriously fickle and will usually only stay with an actor for as long as they’re willing to entertain them in the manner they desire. Adrian Paul was a big name for a while when he took on the role of Duncan MacLeod of the clan MacLeod, the same clan that had ousted Conner MacLeod, the Highlander, years before. He had a career before taking on this role, but he did become known as the next immortal in line to take up the blade when it came to defending himself against other immortals. The movies and the show that was a part of went on to be embraced by the fans for a while until it became a bit stale and was more or less given a conclusion that wasn’t entirely satisfying but did appear to be the end of it, as much as this particular story can ever end.

For now though it would appear that Highlander is over and done with since the idea of a reboot hasn’t come around in a big way yet. Adrian has continued to act though as he’s been keeping up with his career over the years after leaving Duncan behind. It was kind of easy to see a divide that happened between the original Highlander fans and those that were willing to pass from Conner to Duncan without any loss of interest. Once the Highlander movies passed the torch so to speak things felt as though they might have had a chance of continuing forward, but it also feels as though interest really dropped off in a big way since the story started getting crazier with each new episode and movie until The Source finally came up with another explanation of how the immortals worked. Unfortunately, but that time the idea was getting pretty old and had been suffering from a serious lack of convincing storytelling since it felt as though it was being made up as the tale went along, without any real thought as to the serious development that might have allowed things to continue a reasonable manner.

He’s shown up in several other movies and many TV shows over the years and is easy to recognize most times since he did manage to become a big star at one point and has managed to retain at least a part of his renown. He even managed to show up in the CW show Arrow for a few episodes as Dante, a manipulative individual that was set on destroying Team Arrow and was a rather devious character that was killed after a while by the very person he trained. Needless to say, he’s still around and still taking on parts as he lines up one project after the next, doing what he can to stay relevant enough in the business that people will still think of him. That’s a big part of an actor’s life obviously, since if they’re well-established and can take a break now and again from acting it tends to mean that they have plenty going on that will keep people interested in them and that their reputation is great enough that it can take their absence for a while and still be maintained with ease. Actors such as Adrian sometimes have to work a little harder either because they’re not as well-known and need to keep their reputation up, or simply don’t look for high-end roles that would put them back into the public eye in a big way. It’s interesting really when an actor decides that they’re happy doing just enough to keep their career going, but if Adrian is doing this it’s hard to say since it’s been shown that he can act and therefore can take on bigger roles.

But then, action stars are unfortunately kind of plentiful since there’s always a new batch waiting to make their play in Hollywood, and trying to become the best takes a serious amount of work and requires a good deal of patience. The fact that he’s neve been seen as just an action star should work in his favor, and it kind of has since he’s taken on other roles apart from action, but it’s also easy to state that he’s been bigger on the TV movie and straight to DVD scene than anything. It keeps him busy though and it keeps him relevant, so it works.