Stuart Peter Townsend (born 15 December 1972) is an Irish actor and director. His most notable portrayals are of the characters Lestat de Lioncourt in the 2002 film adaptation of Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned, and Dorian Gray in the 2003 film adaptation of Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Biography

Townsend's father, Peter, was a golfer, who played in the 1969 and 1971 Ryder Cups.

Townsend has a brother, Dylan Townsend, and sister, Chloe Townsend, from his father's first marriage to Lorna Townsend, who died in 1994 of a brain haemorrhage. Townsend's father has two children, Hugo and Ella, by his Swedish wife, Sofia.

Townsend dated actress Charlize Theron after meeting her on the set of 2002's Trapped.
The couple lived together in Los Angeles and Ireland. They said they considered themselves married without an actual marriage. "We didn't have a ceremony," he added. "I don't need a certificate or the state or the church to say otherwise. So no there's no big official story on a wedding, but we are married.... I consider her my wife and she considers me her husband."

Theron split from Townsend when she came back from a holiday in Mexico in January 2010.

In May of 2015, Townsend's brother claimed that the actor had bought some land, settled down with a woman in Costa Rica and "put acting on the back burner". Townsend is also reportedly expecting the birth of his second child.

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