LUKE EVANS is a Welsh actor born on this date. He was born in Pontypool, and brought up in Aberbargoed, a small town in the Rhymney Valley, Wales, the only child of Yvonne and David Evans. He was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, though he left the religion when he was sixteen and left school at the same time

Evans began his career on the stage, performing in many of London’s West End productions such as Rent, Miss Saigon, and Piaf before getting his Hollywood breakthrough role starring in the Clash of the Titans 2010 remake. Following his debut, Evans was cast in such action and thriller films as immortals, The Raven and the re-imagined Three Musketeers.

In 2013, Evans starred as the main antagonist Owen Shaw in the blockbuster Fast & Furious 6, and played Bard the Bowman in Peter Jackson’s trilogy adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Evans was also Dracula in the character’s film origin story, Dracula Untold. In 2017, Evans starred as Gaston in Disney’s live action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast.

Evans is out Gay. In a 2002 interview, he said, “Everybody knew me as a Gay man, and in my life in London I never tried to hide it,” and that by being open he would not have “that skeleton in the closet they can rattle out”. In 2004, he said his acting career had not suffered by being out. In 2014, Evans acknowledged the importance of marketability, and that, although he does not hide his homosexuality, he is reticent to discuss it with the media. That same year, the Spanish media reported that he was in a relationship with model Jon Kortajarena. The couple ended their relationship in 2016. So…you know…he’s single.