John McClellan
John McLellan | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Charles McLellan May 17, 1987 |
| Nationality | Asterian |
| Education | Yarmouth School of the Arts |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 2005-present |
| Movement | New Frontiersman |
John Charles McLellan (born May 17, 1987) is an Asterian actor, filmmaker, and author. He has received various accolades, including 4 Opus Cinema Awards in addition to 6 nominations, three Copper Stars, and Asterian Man of the Year. McLellan is one of the most awarded actors in the history of Asteria.
McLellan first rose to fame for starring in the films Northmen (2005), and later followed up with starring in the series Chronicles of Cyrus McPherson (2007-2011), depicting in both life in the Northern Plateau from the 1890s to the 1900s. Although initially typecast in films about the Northern Plateau, including Snow Dreamer (2009) and Devil's Pasture (2014), his starring role in the hit film Mercury (2015) and its sequels Northern Express (2017) and The Frontiersman (2019) turned him into a household name. He would later star in nine more films as the fictional Alexander Wilson, winning the record for most profitable film series in Crona.
The film that cemented his status and earned him the Man of the Year award was Cyrus (2024), a four-hour epic film about Cyrus McPherson during the Asterian Civil War. As a method actor, he transformed his body to appear as the historic leader of Asteria during the 1920s. It is one of the most celebrated films in Asterian history. It was also McLellan's first directing and producing credit, transforming the actor into a filmmaker. This film kickstarted his involvement in politics, being elected mayor of Mercury, his hometown, transforming it into a center of filmmaking in the Northern Plateau. His business expanded to creating Frontierland, an amusement park that opened in 2029 outside of town. Currently, he stars as Alexander Wilson in the North+ series Cold Steel (2029-present) about the Northern Frontier at the cusp of modernization in the 1890s, for which he earned the Yarmouth Award for his performance.
Early life and education
McLellan was born on May 17, 1987, in Mercury, Northern Territory, to Charles McLellan (1960-1997), a pharmacist and rancher, and Charlotte Russert (1963-present), a teacher. He was the oldest of three children, and grew up in a comfortable middle-class family. His father was a veteran of the Cowboy Crisis and was severely wounded at the Second Battle of Winnecomac in March 1983, and captured at the Battle of Ahearn in May 1983, one of the final engagements of the conflict. Suffering from post-traumatic stress, the elder McLellan abused his wife and children, before committing suicide in December 1997, when the younger McClellan was ten. Following his father's death, McLellan worked on a nearby ranch, and later as a performer on horseback during local shows and re-enactments. He often saved up money to bring his siblings to movies about the Great North, especially when learning that his great-great-grandfather, Alexander McLellan (1833-1920), was one of the original Frontiersmen. After many years of working, at the age of seventeen, in 2004, his mother sold the family home to purchase tickets for an audition at Yarmouth University for a co-starring role in Northmen, a film directed by McLellan's idol, Jim Costain. He was one of three thousand people who auditioned, and was chosen for the starring role a day later.
During the filming of Northmen, McLellan applied to the Yarmouth School of Arts, and was given a tutor by Costain, who filmed on site during the winter of 2004-2005 at Fort Mercer, once a favored location for Great North films. During a break in filming in March 2005, he traveled to the Queen of the Valley Monastery where he studied the history, liturgy, and faith of the Catholic Church. This set him on the journey to converting to Catholicism in April 2006. During this time, he met Catherine Walsh, a student at the Queen of the Valley University in Fort Mercer. She was studying philosophy and hoped to become a teacher, and quickly the two began a relationship. Following the release of Northmen, McLellan returned to Yarmouth to continue his studies, but was brought back to Fort Mercer in 2007 to star in the Chronicles of Cyrus McPherson. He graduated from the School of the Arts in May 2008, and in December 2008, married Walsh.
Although he made most of his money through acting, McLellan also worked to send more money back to his siblings. He spent some weeks in 2006 sweeping floors at a local school in Fort Mercer, and spent one summer deep-sea fishing in the Orixtal Sea. In 2008, he earned a commercial license to drive a truck, and used those skills in Highway 7 (2010), a film that ignited his passion for travel as he spent weeks driving across the country during filming. McLellan would also direct ten episodes of the Chronicles of Cyrus McPherson from 2010 to 2011.
Icon of the Great North
2011-2014: Acclaim
Following the conclusion of the Chronicles of Cyrus McPherson, McLellan became a rising star, and received almost constant work. Due to the series' end, he was awarded the Asterian Academy Rising Star Award, and his fame quickly restored interest in the Great North as a setting for films. He insisted that he film on location, and often traveled home to Mercury to brush up on his skills. He took courses on shooting rifles and pistols, spent a semester at the University of the North at Fort Sheridan studying the history of the region. He narrated a documentary called The Great North: Voices of the Past (2012), which explored Asteria's frontier from the days of the Midlands Company until the present-day.