NEW YORK – Australian actor Julian McMahon, known for playing the promiscuous plastic surgeon Christian Troy in American medical drama Nip/Tuck (2003 to 2010), as well as the egoistical evil scientist Victor Von Doom in two Fantastic Four movies (2005 and 2007), died in Florida, United States, on July 2. He was 56.
His death was confirmed by his wife Kelly, who said in a statement that the cause was cancer.
McMahon began acting in Australian soap operas in the early 1990s and first found success in the US on the NBC soap opera Another World in 1993.
After switching to prime-time television, his breakout role came when he played the half-human, half-demon Cole Turner on three seasons of the WB supernatural series Charmed (1998 to 2006).
McMahon achieved leading-man status when he began starring in the FX series Nip/Tuck in 2003. His performance as a self-destructive playboy contrasted with Dr Troy’s strait-laced best friend, Dr Sean McNamara, played by American actor Dylan Walsh.
On the show, the pair ran a plastic surgery practice, first in Miami and later in Los Angeles, and frequently sparred over the morality of their profession.
McMahon’s cocky, confident characterisation allowed him to deliver some fan-favourite lines, such as, “She’s a troublemaker and her shoes are cheap”.
In 2005, he went from playing a sex-addicted surgeon to portraying the maniacal Dr Doom in the first of two Fantastic Four theatrical releases – the 2005 movie, Fantastic Four, and its 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer.
Dr Doom, a megalomaniacal villainous tycoon from the Marvel comic book series Fantastic Four, which was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and debuted in 1961, wears a threatening silver mask to hide his scarred face.
McMahon was born on July 27, 1968, in Sydney, one of three children. His father was Mr William McMahon, a former prime minister of Australia from 1971 to 1972, and his mother, Lady Sonia McMahon, was a socialite and philanthropist.
Julian McMahon’s survivors include his wife Kelly and a daughter Madison.
He married Brooke Burns, an American model and game-show host, in 1999. They divorced in 2001. He and Dannii Minogue, an Australian singer, were married in 1994. They divorced a year later.
McMahon embraced his father’s legacy by playing the prime minister of Australia on the Netflix show The Residence (2025), a comedy-murder mystery set at the White House that debuted in March.
He also starred in the psychological thriller The Surfer (2024) with American actor Nicolas Cage. Promoting the film at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, earlier in 2025 was one of McMahon’s last public appearances.
He returned to Australia several times throughout his career to star in films there.
Among them was the horror movie Bait (2012), about a group of shoppers who are hunted by 3.6m great white sharks after being trapped at a grocery store that has been flooded by a tsunami. The shark thriller also featured Singapore-based actors Adrian Pang and Qi Yuwu.
McMahon played team leader Jess LaCroix inCBS police procedural drama FBI: Most Wanted (2020 to 2025).
While he made a surprise exit from the show in March 2022, he paid tribute to the special agent on Instagram, writing that he and the character “did some good work, some might even say great, and we had some fun along the way”. NYTIMES
