Julian McMahon, ‘Charmed’ and ‘Fantastic Four’ star, dies at 56 after valiant battle with cancer

Julian McMa­hon’s wife con­firmed his death in a state­ment (Mar­cus Ingram/Getty Images, IMDb

CLEARWATER, FLORIDA: Julian McMa­hon, best known for his unfor­get­table roles in ‘Nip/Tuck’ and ‘Charmed’, has died at age 56.

The Aus­tralian actor died on Wednes­day, July 2, fol­low­ing a pri­vate bat­tle with can­cer, his wife Kel­ly con­firmed in a state­ment released Fri­day, July 4.

McMa­hon, who recent­ly appeared in Netflix’s ‘The Res­i­dence’ and led CBS’s ‘FBI: Most Want­ed’, made his final red car­pet appear­ance this past March along­side Nico­las Cage to pre­miere ‘The Surfer’ at the SXSW Film & TV Fes­ti­val.

Julian McMa­hon’s wife Kel­ly con­firms actor’s death

Julian McMahon’s wife, Kel­ly McMa­hon, con­firmed his death in a heart­felt state­ment shared with Dead­line.

Kel­ly Pani­agua (L) and Julian McMa­hon ® attend the 2017 G’Day USA Los Ange­les Gala at The Ray Dol­by Ball­room at Hol­ly­wood & High­land Cen­ter on Jan­u­ary 28, 2017 in Hol­ly­wood, Cal­i­for­nia (Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic)

With an open heart, I wish to share with the world that my beloved hus­band, Julian McMa­hon, died peace­ful­ly this week after a valiant effort to over­come can­cer,” she said.

Reflect­ing on his vibrant spir­it, she added, “Julian loved life. He loved his fam­i­ly. He loved his friends. He loved his work, and he loved his fans. His deep­est wish was to bring joy into as many lives as pos­si­ble.”

She con­clud­ed with a plea for pri­va­cy dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time, “We ask for sup­port dur­ing this time to allow our fam­i­ly to grieve in pri­va­cy. And we wish for all of those to whom Julian brought joy, to con­tin­ue to find joy in life. We are grate­ful for the mem­o­ries.”

Julian McMahon’s ex-wife and co-stars pay tribute to late actor

Julian McMa­hon attends the ‘The Surfer’ Red Car­pet at the 77th annu­al Cannes Film Fes­ti­val at Palais des Fes­ti­vals on May 17, 2024, in Cannes, France (Daniele Venturelli/WireImage)

Julian McMahon’s for­mer ‘Nip/Tuck’ co-star and ex-wife, Dylan Walsh, to whom he was briefly mar­ried, shared a heart­felt trib­ute fol­low­ing his death.

Walsh shared, “I’m stunned. We rode this wave togeth­er and I loved him. My heart goes out to Kel­ly and Mad­dy. Jules! I know you’d want me to say some­thing to make you smile — all the inside jokes. All those years you had my back, and my god, we laughed. My heart is with you. Rest in peace.”

Dick Wolf, the cre­ator of the FBI fran­chise in which McMa­hon starred, also expressed his sor­row. “What shock­ing news,” he said in a state­ment. “All of us at Wolf Enter­tain­ment are deeply sad­dened by Julian’s pass­ing, and our con­do­lences go out to his entire fam­i­ly.”

Nico­las Cage, who starred oppo­site McMa­hon in the 2024 film ‘The Surfer,’ reflect­ed on their time work­ing togeth­er. “Such deeply sad­den­ing news,” Cage said. “I spent six weeks work­ing with Julian, and he was one of the most tal­ent­ed actors I’ve ever col­lab­o­rat­ed with. Our scenes togeth­er in The Surfer were some of my all-time favorites, and Julian was one of my favorite peo­ple. He was kind, intel­li­gent, and full of heart. My love to his fam­i­ly.”

Who was Julian McMahon?

Julian McMa­hon, sur­vived by his daugh­ter Madi­son ‘Mad­dy’ McMa­hon, was born on July 27, 1968, in Syd­ney, Aus­tralia. He was the son of Bil­ly McMa­hon, who served as Australia’s Prime Min­is­ter from 1971 to 1972.

Before step­ping into the spot­light as an actor, McMa­hon began his career as a mod­el. His screen debut came in 1989 with a lead­ing role in the short-lived Aus­tralian soap ‘The Pow­er, the Pas­sion,’ fol­lowed by a year-long stint on the pop­u­lar series ‘Home and Away’ from 1990 to 1991

McMa­hon made his fea­ture film debut oppo­site Elliott Gould in the 1992 Aus­tralian-Amer­i­can com­e­dy ‘Wet and Wild Sum­mer!’, then set his sights on Hol­ly­wood.

Julian McMa­hon of ‘FBI: The Most Want­ed’ speaks dur­ing the CBS seg­ment of the 2020 Win­ter TCA Press Tour at The Lang­ham Hunt­ing­ton, Pasade­na on Jan­u­ary 12, 2020 in Pasade­na, Cal­i­for­nia (David Livingston/Getty Images)

How did Julian McMahon break through in Hollywood?

Julian McMa­hon began his US career much like he had in Aus­tralia, with a role on a day­time soap. He joined NBC’s ‘Anoth­er World’ in 1993 before mov­ing into prime­time tele­vi­sion with a reg­u­lar role on the crime dra­ma ‘Pro­fil­er,’ where he stayed for its four-sea­son run.

McMa­hon cap­ti­vat­ed a devot­ed fan base with his por­tray­al of Cole Turn­er on the cult clas­sic fan­ta­sy dra­ma ‘Charmed’, cre­at­ed by Aaron Spelling. He starred along­side Shan­nen Doher­ty and Alyssa Milano, play­ing a com­plex half-demon and the for­mer hus­band of Milano’s char­ac­ter, Phoebe Hal­li­well, a role that com­bined romance, dan­ger, and super­nat­ur­al intrigue

Julian McMa­hon, pro­duc­er Jim Con­way, WBTV pres. Jed Pet­rick, Dori­an Gre­go­ry, (front) exec­u­tive pro­duc­er Brad Kern, Duke Vin­cent, Rose McGowan, Aaron Spelling, Alyssa Milano, WB’s John Lit­back, and Bri­an Krause cel­e­brate 100 episodes of WB’s ‘Charmed’ on their set in Los Ange­les, CA on Novem­ber 20, 2002 (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

McMahon’s biggest TV suc­cess fol­lowed soon after with his lead role as Dr Chris­t­ian Troy in FX’s provoca­tive plas­tic surgery dra­ma ‘Nip/Tuck’. Star­ring along­side Dylan Walsh, McMa­hon earned crit­i­cal acclaim and a Gold­en Globe nom­i­na­tion dur­ing the show’s six-sea­son run, cement­ing his place as one of television’s most mem­o­rable lead­ing men.

In one of his final roles, McMa­hon por­trayed Scal­ly in ‘The Surfer’, deliv­er­ing a pow­er­ful and chill­ing per­for­mance as a charis­mat­ic yet men­ac­ing fig­ure

He embod­ied both a spir­i­tu­al guide and a loom­ing threat, clash­ing with a for­mer class­mate played by Nico­las Cage. Crit­ics praised his per­for­mance for its inten­si­ty and depth, high­light­ing his impres­sive range as an actor.

Before his death, McMa­hon also worked on the upcom­ing film ‘The Supremes’ at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, act­ing along­side acclaimed stars Uzo Adu­ba and Mekhi Phifer. His involve­ment in the project fur­ther demon­strat­ed his ver­sa­til­i­ty and cement­ed his sta­tus as a respect­ed and dynam­ic per­former

Heartfelt tributes pour in after Julian McMahon’s death

As news of Julian McMahon’s death spread across social media, count­less fans react­ed with shock and dis­be­lief, tak­ing to Face­book to share their grief and pay trib­ute to the beloved actor

One user wrote, “This can’t be true. Rest in peace Cole Turn­er cause you were the rea­son I watched Charmed back in the day. Well you and Phoebe.”

A long­time fan of the actor wrote, “I had the biggest crush on him on Nip/Tuck

Anoth­er fan shared, “Oh no I was just watch­ing charmed yes­ter­day.”

One indi­vid­ual claimed, “This real­ly sucks. He’s a fan­tas­tic actor who was very engag­ing in his roles. I’ve watched Nip/Tuck and FBI and loved him in these. My deep­est con­do­lences to his wife, fam­i­ly, friends and fans who will miss him eter­nal­ly.” 

A user dubbed, “Such an under­rat­ed actor — RIP.”

Anoth­er user com­ment­ed, “It’s cru­el to remem­ber him as a Fan­tas­tic Four actor. I’m sure he did some­thing worth remem­ber­ing.

One per­son said, “So very sor­ry for his fam­i­ly! He was a great actor. Nip Tuck was one of my all time favorite shows.”