John Aniston

John Anthony Aniston (born Yiannis Antonios Anastasakis /ˌænəstəˈsækɪs/, Greek: Γιάννης Αντώνιος Αναστασάκης, 24 July 1933)[1] is a Greek-born American actor. He is best known for his role as Victor Kiriakis on the NBC daytime drama series Days of Our Lives, which he originated in July 1985 and has played continually since then. He is the father of Jennifer Aniston.

John Aniston
Aniston in February 2012
Born	Yiannis Antonios Anastasakis 24 July 1933 Chania, Crete, Greece
Alma mater	Pennsylvania State University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1962–present
Spouse(s)	Nancy Dow ​ ​ (m. 1965; div. 1980)​ Sherry Rooney ​ (m. after 1984)​
Children	2, including Jennifer Aniston

Early life

Aniston was born Yiannis Anastasakis (Greek: Γιάννης Αναστασάκης) on July 24, 1933 on the island of Crete, Greece, to Stella Joanne (October 1, 1899 – November 7, 1992) and Antonios Anastasakis (January 17, 1889 – May 1965). The family left Crete for the United States when Aniston was two years old; his father anglicized the family’s names on arriving in America. The family settled in Chester, Pennsylvania, where they operated a restaurant.[2]

He graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor's degree in Theater Arts. While at Penn State, he became a member of Alpha Chi Rho fraternity.[3] After college, he served in the United States Navy as an intelligence officer on active duty in Panama and later in the reserve, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander.[1]

Personal life

Aniston has a daughter, Jennifer Aniston (born February 11, 1969), with his first wife, Nancy Dow, and also has a son, Alexander, with his second wife, Sherry Rooney Aniston (whom he met while co-starring on Love of Life).[4] His daughter Jennifer's godfather was Telly Savalas, one of his best friends.[5]

John also has a stepson, John T. Melick, from Nancy's prior marriage, that he has raised since he was a toddler.

Career

Aniston has appeared in soap operas regularly since 1969, when he first joined Days of Our Lives as a character named Eric Richards, which he played until 1970. In 1975, he joined the cast of Love of Life as Eddie Aleata. In November 1978, he left Love of Life and began playing Mary Stuart's new love interest, Martin Tourneur, on Search for Tomorrow in February 1979. He played that role until April 1984. He returned to the cast of Days of Our Lives a second time, this time as Victor Kiriakis, in July 1985, and continues to play the role.[1] He has been nominated for the 2017 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his performance.[6]

He also played a small role on the television series Gilmore Girls. Aniston made guest appearances on Airwolf in season two, Combat!, My Big Fat Greek Life, Star Trek: Voyager, Mission: Impossible, American Dreams (with Days co-star Frances Reid), Journeyman, and Mad Men.[7]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1962	87th Precinct	Officer #1	Episode: "New Man in the Precinct"
1963	Love with the Proper Stranger	Birdman of Macy's
1964	Combat!	Greek #2	Episode: "Vendetta"
1967	I Spy	Economides	Episode: "The Beautiful Children"
1968	The Shakiest Gun in the West	Indian
	The Virginian	Frank West	Episode: "Ride to Misadventure"
	Now You See It, Now You Don't	Achmed	TV film
1969	Mission: Impossible	First IMF Captain	Episode: "Time Bomb"
1970	That Girl	Phil Harvey	Episode: "Stop the Presses I Want to Get Off"
1974	Kojak	Webster / Dancik	2 episodes
1975–1978	Love of Life	Eddie Aleata	Unknown episodes
1979–1984	Search for Tomorrow	Martin Tourneur	Episode: "#1.8556"
1985	Airwolf	Colonel Arturo Alzar	Episode: "Short Walk to Freedom"
1985–present	Days of Our Lives	Victor Kiriakis	3782 episodes
1993	Night Sins	Victor Kiriakis	TV film
1997	Diagnosis Murder	Carlton Everest	Episode: "Must Kill TV"
	Fired Up	Gordon	Episode: "Honey, I Shrunk the Turkey"
1999	L.A. Heat	Alex Zota	Episode: "Faces of Fear"
2001	Star Trek: Voyager	Quarren Ambassador	2 episodes
2002	The West Wing	Alexander Thompson	2 episodes
	Gilmore Girls	Douglas Swope	Episode: "A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving"
2003	My Big Fat Greek Life	Constantine Christakos	Episode: "Greek Easter"
2004	American Dreams	John Victor	Episode: "Old Enough to Fight"
2007	Order Up	Wise Man	Short film
	Sands of Oblivion	Nigel Barrington	TV film
	Journeyman	Merrit Ambaucher	Episode: "Home by Another Way"
2008	The Awakening of Spring	Mr. Gable
	Worst Week	Jim	Episode: "The Wedding"
	Fixing Rhonda	Detective Macomas
2009	The Gold & the Beautiful	Gerard Benedict
	Cold Case	Herbert "Wolf" James	Episode: "WASP"
2010	Mad Men	Wallace Harriman	Episode: "Waldorf Stories"
2011	The Paul Reiser Show	Harold Melon	Episode: "The Old Guy"
2014	Return to Zero	Ned

Awards and nominations

List of acting awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Title	Result	Ref.
1986	Soap Opera Digest Award	Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role on a Daytime Serial	Days of Our Lives	Won	[8]
1986	Soap Opera Digest Award	Outstanding Villain on a Daytime Serial	Days of our Lives	Won	[8]
2017	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series	Days of our Lives	Nominated	[9]

References

1. "John Aniston biography". BuddyTV. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
2. "John Aniston bio". Soap Opera Digest. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
3. http://www.nicindy.org/entertainers.html
4. "Profile of John Aniston". About.com. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
5. "Jennifer Aniston Biography". People. Retrieved May 21, 2008.
6. "2017 Daytime Emmy Nominations: CBS Leads Networks With 70 Noms, 'Young & Restless' Tops With 25". Deadline Hollywood. March 22, 2017.
7. "John Aniston on Mad Men". YouTube. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
8. "The Soap Opera Digest Awards: 1986". Soap Opera Digest. soapoperadigest.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2009. Retrieved March 15, 2013.
9. "The 44th Annual Daytime Emmy Award Nominations" (PDF). New York City: emmyonline.org and National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. March 22, 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 23, 2017. Retrieved March 22, 2017.

External links

• John Aniston at IMDb
• John Aniston at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television