Alexander Skarsgard #17 on Askmen's Top 49 Most Influential

AskMen.com (click link for more) has done their top #49 most influential men and Alex has a great page.

WHY HE IS FAMOUS

You can thank Alexander Skarsgard for single-handedly wresting the vampire genre away from the cast of Twilight and making it once again a worthwhile subject to sink your teeth into. As Eric Northman, the 1,000-year-old vampire on HBO's True Blood, Skarsgard delivers some of the wittiest (and snarkiest) lines on the show. He imbues in it some much-needed comic relief, given its often eerie nature. But while the show has made Skarsgard famous stateside, the Swede is out to prove that he's more than just a sparkling set of white fangs with his controversial new film, Straw Dogs, as well as Lars von Trier's Melancholia and next summer's likely blockbuster, Battleship. And that's how you take a bite out of Hollywood.


MAGNETISM

Alexander Skarsgard is 6'4", which might not sound that impressive alongside the roster of the L.A. Lakers. But when you consider that most men in L.A. are only willing to measure their height after they've stood on a phone book, he's a refreshing new addition to the Hollywood scene. Throw in the fact that his blond hair and blue eyes are a product of Sweden and not of a Hollywood makeover stylist, and Skarsgard might just be the next Ryan Gosling, at least as far as the ladies are concerned. Keep in mind that playing a blood-sucking vampire never hurt a guy's rep (just ask Robert Pattinson). The newly single 35-year-old Skarsgard, who just ended a two-year relationship with his Straw Dogs costar Kate Bosworth, is about to redefine what the kind of women who date actors look for in a man. 

SUCCESS


Alexander Skarsgard won't stop being considered a "TV actor" until he makes that one movie that proves that, like his father, Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard, he was always destined for movie stardom. But, hey, it happened to George Clooney. With Straw Dogs now in theaters and with Lars von Trier's already acclaimedMelancholia coming to the big screen in November, it's only a matter of time before True Blood's 1,000-year-old vampire proves he's super-human enough for the A-list, too.


BIO


Don't let the Southern accent in Straw Dogs fool you. Alexander Skarsgard's first language isn't even English. Born August 25, 1976, in Stockholm, Sweden, Skarsgard grew up in a film family, the Swedish equivalent of the Barrymores, perhaps, but with far less drugs. His father, Stellan Skarsgard, is still considered to be Sweden's biggest film star and, in America, at least, is best known for his work in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves.

Skarsgard was raised in Sodermalm, an artsy downtown district of Stockholm, the oldest of seven children. The family spent vacations at their family compound on Oland, off Sweden's southeastern coast, meaning that Eric's flashbacks to his human life as a Nordic Viking in True Blood aren't that far off from Skarsgard's own upbringing.