Justin Bruening
The actor and former fashion model Justin Bruening was born on 24th September 1979, in St. Helena, Nebraska, USA, a tiny town with a population of just 85 at the time of his birth. After graduating from high school alongside his nine classmates, Justin moved to San Diego, California, and struck gold after being discovered by talent scout Sue Nessel while working at McDonald’s. Sue landed Justin his first modeling job for an Abercrombie & Fitch campaign; the rest, as they say, is history.
Career
Sue clearly had faith in Justin’s abilities, as she encouraged him to take acting classes, which led to him being noticed by Judy Wilson, the casting director of soap opera “All My Children”. Justin originally auditioned to play JR Chandler but in July 2003, was cast as James “Jamie” Martin. From 2004 to 2005, Justin’s character also crossed over into the soapie’s sister show, “One Life to Live”.
Justin was one of the most attractive young male characters on the show at that time, and often featured in “Teen People”, “Us Weekly”, and other magazines that helped boost his public profile. Viewers witnessed the growth of his multi-faceted character between 2004 and 2007, who went from sleeping with strangers on wild nights out, to doing charity work for an AIDS clinic in Africa; in 2011, James briefly returned to the fictional town of Pine Valley to visit family members.
Concurrently, Justin also guest-starred in “Hope & Faith”, “CSI: Miami”, and “Cold Case”. He had a minor role in his debut film, “Fat Girls”, and was considered for Superman in “Superman Returns”, which ultimately went to Brandon Routh. A little-known fun fact about the actor is that he also made an appearance in the Britney Spears music video “Boys”, cavorting in the swimming pool with other scantily-clad male models.
Early 2008 saw Justin star in a remake of the “Knight Rider” series, playing Mike Traceur, the title character’s son, and working alongside David Hasselhoff. The two-hour NBC TV film was so successful that the network commissioned an official series for its 2008-2009 season shortly afterwards.
In 2010, the “All My Children” star played Whitt Sheffield in the TV movie “Class”. The following year, he had a recurring role in the crime thriller series “Ringer”, which ended after one season of 22 episodes. Over the next few years, he played Cheff Jeff Reycraft in the family drama “Switched at Birth”, Paramedic Matthew Taylor in “Grey’s Anatomy”, and William Harrington in “Hawaii Five-0”.
Justin has never been known for his movie career, as his last big-screen appearance was in the 2018 Christian war drama film “Indivisible”, based on the true story of a United States Army chaplain who struggles with his faith amidst the horrifying events of the Iraq War. Luckily for the Nebraskan, he was cast as Cal Maddox in the romantic Netflix series “Sweet Magnolia” in 2020, and has been playing the handsome baseball coach and one of the main love interests ever since.
Apart from “Sweet Magnolias”, Justin has been keeping himself busy with TV films for Hallmark and Lifetime: “Swept Up By Christmas”, “Reindeer Games Homecoming”, and “Vanished: Searching for My Sister”. We are unable to confirm if the actor, who has no verified social media accounts, has any new projects on the way.
Personal Life
Since June 2005, Justin has been married to his former “All My Children” co-star Alexa Havins, who played Babe Carey Chandler and was his character’s girlfriend. In a romantic but unconventional proposal, Justin got down on one knee after taping a scene in which his character proposed to Alexa’s.
Shortly after Justin left “All My Children”, Alexa also exited the show, and relocated with her husband to Los Angeles. Their first child, Lexington Grace Bruening, was born in August 2010; since then, the attractive couple have had two more children.
#AllMyChildren stars Justin Bruening and Alexa Havins look back on their on-set proposal and reveal if they’ve shown the show to their kids.
See the full reunion episode on @PeopleTV: https://t.co/4G03ScCOIz pic.twitter.com/tovagWsUuO
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) May 28, 2020
Alexa was born on 16th November 1980, in Artesia, New Mexico, and had her breakthrough role in “All My Children”, earning a Daytime Emmy Award nomination in 2005 after two years in the show. The lowkey blonde began dancing professionally with a jazz ensemble at just five years old, having studied dance since the age of three.
After being discovered by acting coach Jean Fowler in her adolescent years, she moved to New York City and studied at Circle in the Square Theatre School. Later, Alexa moved to Los Angeles and studied under acting coach Brian Reise, who continues to mentor her to this day.
The professional dancer has previously turned down many career opportunities due to required nude scenes, and once said in an interview: “Always hold on to your morals and values because this business can be very deceiving.”
Apart from her soap opera stint, Alexa’s only other notable project to date is that of Esther Drummond in “Torchwood”; most of her acting credits are comprised of guest-starring appearances or minor movie roles. We can assume that the actress is currently focusing on motherhood, as she hasn’t been on screen since 2018, when she played Lindsay in the TV movie “Killer Vacation”.
Nevertheless, Alexa has often been praised for her acting, and the natural on-screen chemistry that flows between herself and her co-stars, especially Jacob Young, who played JR Chandler in “All My Children”. The dynamic relationship between Alexa and Jacob – which has been described as “simply sizzling and truly magnetizing” – led to their characters being considered one of the most popular soap opera couples of their time.
Apart from film and TV, Alexa has also had a small stage career, and previously participated in the stage version of “The Member of the Wedding” and a production of “The Glass Menagerie”.
Back to Justin – the blonde heartthrob is 6ft 3in (190cm) tall and weighs 185lbs (84kgs), maintaining his impressively toned body with regular workouts and a rigorous diet. Many sources claim that the actor has an estimated net worth of $10 million, but we find $5 million to be a more accurate figure.
