David Boreanaz's career, personal life,
and style have evolved steadily since he began gracing TV screens in the 90s. You don't need
to be a forensic anthropologist to understand his evolution, although it would probably help.
After majoring in cinema and photography at Ithaca College in New York state,
a 22-year-old David Boreanaz headed to Los Angeles with big dreams. As he told Parade in 2019,
the start of his Hollywood career was as rocky as any other budding star's.
He took up occupancy on his sister's couch and kept busy handing his résumé out.
He even sneaked onto movie lots by donning a sharp suit and impersonating a studio bigwig.
In between the odd commercial or theatre gig, Boreanaz spent a few years bouncing between
blue-collar jobs like parking cars and cleaning toilets. But in the middle of it all, he scored a
huge win when he played Frank, a beautiful-but-dim biker boyfriend of Christina Applegate's Kelly
Bundy on a 1993 episode of Married... with Children. The episode ends with Frank getting
beat up in a movie theater by grumpy family patriarch Al, which was the sitcom equivalent
of winning the lottery in the 90s. The role was also notable for the bad boy leather jacket paired
with a wholesome crisp t-shirt, a look that Boreanaz would repeat throughout his career.
"Nice bike."
"Punk."
After struggling for years following his Married... With Children guest spot, Boreanaz
eventually found himself in the right place when he was cast as tortured good-guy monster Angel
in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997. The role transformed him overnight. But while Angel's
transformation would lead to evil and back again, offscreen Boreanaz became a beloved heartthrob.
The actor has confessed to loving designers like Versace and Helmut Lang, but as he told the New
York Post in 2001, his style mostly focused on wearing things he feels comfortable in. That might
explain why he spent much of his Buffy-era rise to fame pairing a structured leather jacket with a
simple t-shirt. But it's interesting to note that the look also reflects that of his character, who
would similarly lurk around Sunnydale in a leather blazer along with a t-shirt or button-down.
"You look cold."
"Oh, right, give her your jacket."
By 1999, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
was a massive hit, but Sunnydale just wasn't big enough to contain a vampire slayer and her
on-again, off-again undead dreamboat boyfriend. So Boreanaz became the star of a spin-off show,
as Angel premiered on The WB on October 5, 1999, with the deadpan vamp opening a detective agency
in Los Angeles. The series gave Boreanaz the chance to direct his first TV episode,
and it also gave him the space to better develop Angel as a more fully formed character.
Angel showrunner David Greenwalt described the show to Entertainment Weekly as "a
noir [...] about addiction and redemption," with Angel symbolizing a man very literally trying to
fight his demons. Though the more adult-oriented role demanded that his character be much darker,
Boreanaz thrived in his ability to underline the character's tragedy with moments of comedy.
He would continue to showcase this sort of duality throughout his career.
As his character grew, so too did Boreanaz. Sartorially, while Angel swapped out his
leather for a private eye trench coat, the actor incorporated a slicker, more professional look,
as the leather went out and tailored suits came in.
In 2001, David Boreanaz tried his hand at big screen success within the comfortable
confines of the horror genre, with a role in the schlocky slasher flick Valentine.
Though the actor continued to swagger along red carpets in a series of suits,
he was suddenly leaning into more showbiz territory with daring cuts, colors,
and fabrics that sometimes tested the limits of taste. Perhaps the transformation stemmed
from a desire for movie stardom. As Boreanaz admitted in an interview with The Movies Online,
"I'll take a project if I can enjoy it and learn from it. And if I'm afraid of something,
if I feel it's a stretch, then I know it's right."
Unfortunately, Valentine would not deliver those big-screen dreams to Boreanaz,
as the film was poorly received by critics and audiences alike.
Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times for one said that, despite a huge onscreen body count,
Boreanaz was, quote, "the biggest victim" of the film, while also noting that the
movie had very low stakes. It's clear that a horror film has failed, Mitchell suggested,
"When it's hard to hear the dialogue because the audience is laughing."
But undeterred, Boreanaz would forge ahead and try again.
Following Valentine, Boreanaz's big screen career continued to stall. The roles he was cast in
seemed entirely dependent on him leaning heavily on one half of his established dual appeal. He
was either the dreamy heartthrob who would go on to lead forgettable romantic comedies like These
Girls and Mr. Fix It, or he was the brooding bad boy chewing scenery in genre fare like The Crow:
Wicked Prayer. Still, the movies usually found a way to get him topless and flexing his abs,
which plenty of audience members were surely happy to see.
Angel was a physically demanding show for Boreanaz due to its 14-hour workdays,
so he appreciated having the opportunity to try on new characters and to work with legends like
Dennis Hopper, who appeared in The Crow: Wicked Prayer. As he told Behind the Lens,
"I enjoyed all these little roles."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, Boreanaz's personal style seemingly shifted back to his comfort zone.
Gone were the razzle-dazzle suits and in their
place were his favored cozy combo of leather jacket and t-shirt.
In 2004, Angel was cancelled. As cast member James Marsters told The A.V. Club in 2016,
the decision took the whole team by surprise, as the show's audience had
apparently "almost doubled" during the final season. But David Boreanaz was ready for the
potential of having to leave Angel behind. As he put it to Entertainment Weekly in 2003,
"If it has to be, then it has to be, and you just move on.
I have no regrets, and nothing bad to say."
But Boreanaz soon found a new opportunity to star on TV,
this time in the Fox series Bones, which he once described to Parade by saying,
"Bones was like these small ‘I Love Lucy’ skits in the forensic anthropology world."
The comedy crime procedural series, in which he starred alongside Emily Deschanel, suited his
general vibe. It had a dark undercurrent, but it was also light and fun and allowed Boreanaz
to play an everyday guy with a dark past that the show didn't necessarily tap into.
He described his character of Seeley Booth to Entertainment Weekly as "a loose cannon under
control," who evolved over time to find stability for himself within an ever erratic environment.
"I find you very condescending."
"Me? I'm condescending? I'm not the one who's
gotta mention that she's got a doctorate every five minutes."
"I am the one with the doctorate."
"Well, you know, I'm the one with the badge and the gun."
While he was continuing to evolve on screen,
on a personal level the transformation of David Boreanaz saw him building a family. In 2001, he
married former Playboy Playmate-turned-actor Jaime Bergman, and in 2002, they welcomed their first
chi ld, Jaden Rayne. Seven years later, the couple added to their brood a daughter, named Bella.
This proved to be a transitional period for Boreanaz, and he was seen on red carpets
proudly posing with his family a little more often. Speaking to People Magazine in 2009,
he compared his own transition to being a father for a second time
to "the interesting road" that his Bones character was similarly working through. He described it as:
"Looking at love, finding it and trying to apply it to somebody who really is special."
In 2010, Boreanaz came clean about having had an extramarital affair while his wife
was pregnant with their second child. Admitting that he'd been "irresponsible" and "tainted"
his marriage with his infidelities, he confessed to People Magazine that his
mistress had threatened to tell media outlets about the affair. As he put it,
"She asked for money. I felt as though I was being blackmailed or there was some sort of extortion."
That same year, a woman named Kristina Hagan sued Boreanaz over claims that
he'd sexually harassed when she worked as an extra on Bones in 2009. In a statement,
Boreanaz's publicist denied the allegations.
Then in 2011, Hagan had her attorney Gloria Allred file a dismissal of her lawsuit,
as Allred reportedly stated in an email that the case had been "resolved"
without providing any more details. Meanwhile, Boreanaz and his wife
Jaime Bergman started the long road to repairing their relationship. In an interview with TV Week,
Boreanaz revealed that he and Bergman had turned his affair into, quote, "a bonding experience."
Boreanaz also admitted to People Magazine that he'd damaged the foundation that he and
his wife shared when they got married. But they were working to heal from this damage,
with Bergman sharing that they were dealing with their issues in therapy so that they
could start moving on from the scandal. But it wasn't going to be easy. As Bergman admitted,
"I'm not saying everything's okay. I’m still angry. I’m still mad. I am still hurt."
In 2013, Jaime Bergman started an 18-shade nail
varnish range by the name of Chrome Girl with her friends Aaron and Melissa Ravo.
Her husband David Boreanaz, he of the infinite leather jackets and macho-man furrowed brow,
was also a creator of the line. As he admitted to Cosmopolitan, he was happy to try out whatever
shades his wife wanted him to. His personal preference was "Sweet Spot," a coral-orange shade.
"I think that one's a really good one for me, it's perfect."
As Cosmo's coverage noted, it was impressive to see the actor be in touch with his feminine side,
and even more so to hear that he was apparently also interested in putting together a women's shoe
line. Alas, as of 2021, such a miraculous endeavor has yet to bless this universe.
While Boreanaz was enjoying some changes in his personal life, his Bones character
was undergoing a huge change as well, and it unfortunately wasn't quite to everyone's tastes.
In 2011, a plot decision significantly changed the dynamic between Booth and Emily Deschanel's
Dr. Temperance Brennan. They went from co-workers brimming with romantic tension to parents raising
a child together. There was also a frustrating time skip that led straight into Brennan and
Booth's serious relationship, without showing the romance that got them to that point along the way.
It wasn't necessarily all bad, though. Den of Geek, for one, posited,
"The addition of their baby has added some really fertile narrative ground."
And it was hardly a harbinger of the end, as the show continued on,
eventually running for a total of 12 seasons.
In 2017, David Boreanaz wished a fond farewell to Bones, as the show tidily
wrapped itself up after 12 beloved seasons. And just like comedian Billy Eichner,
who screamed about the show's demise through the streets of New York, America was obviously bereft.
"Will you miss Bones?"
"No!"
"Ugh!"
So just what would one of American TV's most reliable stars do next?
The answer, of course, was another hit show. Debuting on CBS in September 2017,
SEAL Team marked a departure from the comedic comforts of Bones,
as it saw Boreanaz taking on the most physically and emotionally demanding role of his career.
As Parade noted in a 2019 profile, Boreanaz did 90 percent of his own stunts,
and the actor revealed that it was important to him that the depiction of his character be
as accurate and respectful to all veterans as possible. That meant he went so far as wearing
the armor of the former SEAL who went to CBS with the series' premise. As Boreanaz explained,
"I wear his helmet. I could wear a lighter [prop] helmet, but I decided to wear his
actual helmet to honor him and I will do that throughout the whole series."
Now in his 50s, Boreanaz had started to lean into a more rugged masculine look
that expertly expressed where he appeared to be in life.
He was confident, content, and perhaps the most comfortable he'd ever looked in his career,
having fought against the fallout of personal and professional challenges.
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