Early life

Flanigan was born Joseph Dunnigan III in Los Angeles. He has said that his father left his mother, Nancy, soon after he was born and that his surname was changed to Flanigan after he was adopted by his stepfather, business executive John Flanigan. When he was six years old, his family moved to a small ranch near Reno, Nevada.

From the age of 14, Flanigan attended a boarding school in Ojai, California, where he appeared in the school production of A Streetcar Named Desire. He later earned a history degree at the University of Colorado where he appeared in the play Coriolanus. On the advice of a friend, he took acting to overcome his shyness but did not plan to pursue a career in acting. As part of the Junior Year Abroad program, Flanigan spent a year studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he learned French.

Career

After graduation, he pursued a writing career. He worked on Capitol Hill and then briefly for several New York City publications, including Town & Country and Interview magazine. On the advice of some of his friends, he studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse, was coached by Gerald Gordon, and then moved back to Los Angeles in 1994 to pursue an acting career.

Flanigan had guest roles in numerous television series including Profiler, First Monday, and Sisters, until he got his breakthrough with his role on Stargate Atlantis as Lt. Colonel John Sheppard. He lived in Vancouver, Canada, where the series was filmed during the week, and flew to Los Angeles during the weekends where his wife and children resided. He additionally wrote for the series and created the stories for the Stargate Atlantis second season episode "Epiphany" and the fourth season episode "Outcast".

In September 2007, scifi.com's SciFi Wire service reported that, "Talent agency UTA filed suit on Sept. 24 against Stargate Atlantis star Joe Flanigan in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming that the actor owes $99,225 in commissions, according to The Hollywood Reporter; Flanigan's manager, John Carrabino, told the trade paper about the lawsuit: 'I had no idea they did this. This is the first time I'm hearing about this.'" UTA filed a similar lawsuit against actor Wesley Snipes who was equally surprised. This suit was settled in December 2008.

Flanigan appears in Brooks Institute photographer John A. Russo's upcoming book About Face. Part of the proceeds are to be donated to Smile Train.

In contemporary culture

Flanigan features in the contemporary public artwork, Metascifi (2015) by artist Martin Firrell. Metascifi presents social comment, and philosophical truths about living well, derived from observation of popular American television science fiction. The project features performers and characters from Stargate, Star Trek, Farscape, Firefly and Warehouse 13.

As the ‘meta’ element of the title suggests, the artwork invites Flanigan to comment on the wider social and narrative significance of his Stargate Atlantis character John Sheppard. Most notably, he speaks about the sexual attraction of the archetypal action hero, suggesting it is the impression of the hero’s agency in the world that underpins people’s attraction to characters of John Sheppard’s nature.

Personal life

Flanigan married Katherine Kousi, an actress and painter, in 1996. They have three sons. In early 2014, it was announced they had separated.

Flanigan took two prizes in the Waterkeepers' Alliance downhill skiing competition at Lake Louise in January 2006, an event fellow Stargate lead Richard Dean Anderson has attended as well. He currently resides in Malibu, California.

Filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Family Album	Lionel Thayer	TV Movie
1995	Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan	Scott Cameron	TV Movie
	A Reason to Believe	Eric Sayles
1997	Tell Me No Secrets	Adam Stiles	TV Movie
	The First to Go	Peter Cole
1998	Man Made	Tom Trey Palmer	TV Movie
1999	The Other Sister	Jeff Reed
	The Force		TV Movie
2000	Sherman's March	Pete Sherman	TV Movie
2002	Farewell to Harry	Nick Sennet
2003	Thoughtcrimes	NSA Agent Brendan Dean
	111 Gramercy Park	Jack Philips	TV Movie
2005	Silent Men	Regis
2011	Change of Plans	Jason Danville	TV Movie
	Good Day For It	Deputy Doug Brady
	Ferocious Planet	Colonel Sam Synn	TV Movie
2012	Six Bullets	Andrew Fayden
	The Secret Lives of Wives	Jared	TV Movie
2013	FANomenon	Himself	TV Movie Documentary
TV series
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995-1996	Sisters	Brian Kohler-Voss	Recurring role (15 episodes)
1997	Murphy Brown	Scott Hamon	Episode: "From Here To Jerusalem"
1998	Dawson's Creek	Vincent	Episodes: "Tamara's Return" and "Full Moon Rising"
	Cupid	Alex DeMouy	Episodes: "Meat Market", "Pick-Up Schticks", "Heart of the Matter" and "End of an Eros"
1999	Providence	Dr. David Marcus	Episodes: "Blind Faith", "Taste of Providence", "You Bet Your Life" and "Pig in Providence"
2000	Profiler	Dr. Tom Arquette	Episodes: "Besieged", "Proteus", "Paradise Lost" and "The Long Way Home"
2002	First Monday	Julian Lodge	Main role (13 episodes)
	Birds of Prey	Detective Claude Martin	Episode: "Prey for the Hunter"
	Judging Amy	Tobin Hayes	Episode: "Damage Control"
2003	Tru Calling	Andrew Webb	Episode: "Brother's Keeper"
2004	CSI: Miami	Mike Sheridan	Episode: "Slow Burn"
2004-2009	Stargate Atlantis	Major/Lt. Col. John Sheppard	Main role (100 episodes)
2006	Stargate SG-1	Lt. Col. John Sheppard	Episode: "The Pegasus Project"
2007-2008	Women's Murder Club	FBI Agent John Ash	Episodes: "To Drag & To Hold" and "FBI Guy"
2009	Warehouse 13	Jeff Weaver	Episode: "Elements"
2011	Fringe	Robert Danzig	Episode: "Neither Here Nor There"
2012	Metal Hurlant Chronicles	Hondo	Episode: "Master of Destiny"
2013	Major Crimes	Rick Marlow	Episode: "All In"
Writer
Year	Title	Episode	Notes
2005	Stargate Atlantis	Episode: "Epiphany"	Story
2008	Stargate Atlantis	Episode: "Outcast"	Story
Other
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Surgical Strike	Reed	Video Game
2013	Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel	Elliot Salem	Video Game

[ Source: Wikipedia ]