50+ Interesting Facts About Norman Reedus

Mark Norman Reedus was born in Hollywood, Florida on Jan. 6 1969. His parents divorced when he was very young. His mother, Marianne, traveled around the world as a teacher and adventurer. Reedus and his younger sister were raised in Los Angeles, but they traveled to Texas, Colorado, Tokyo, Motookubo, and London with their mother.   

Reedus lived in Spain for a while, then Tokyo, and eventually followed a girl to Los Angeles. She pretty much dumped him for someone else immediately, leaving him alone in the city. After an argument with his boss, he was fired from his job as a motorcycle mechanic at Dr. Carl’s Hog Hospital in Venice. Feeling upset and frustrated, he headed to a party in the Hollywood hills, where he got wasted and started yelling at various party-goers. As a result, he was cast in the play Maps for Drowners, and even took the lead when the real lead actor failed to show up on the first night. An untrained Reedus completely winged his first performance.  

A casting agent from William Morris saw him in the play and began to “hip pocket” the young actor, putting him out there for roles without formal representation. His first film was Floating in 1997, followed by Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic the same year. 

Daryl Dixon is not a character in any of the original The Walking Dead comic books. Reedus came to LA for the 2010 pilot season to read for The Walking Dead. All of the roles for the series had already been cast, but he just wanted to "get in the room" and show off his skills to the show's producers. Frank Darabont was so impressed with his performance that he created a whole new character just for him. Now, Reedus plays the brother of the menacing redneck character, Merle, on TWD.

Ride with Norman Reedus will feature Reedus traveling across America on his motorcycle across six episodes in 2016. Get excited for a ton of "Wooooooooooo's" and "Daaaaaaaaruhhhl's!"

In the early scripts, Daryl was supposed to say racist things and do hard substances. Reedus fought that because he wanted to play a more nuanced character. He’d played bad guys before, and knew that there was more to these kinds of characters than meets the eye. “You want to root for them as they fight their way through something,” Reedus said. 

The Walking Dead comic creator Robert Kirkman credits the actor with taking Daryl to a whole new level. "I would have to credit Norman Reedus a great deal for how his character developed just because it was the first time in the show, in real time, watching the actor read the lines the way they did, seeing the choices that they made inform what went into who that character was.”

Leaving home at around 12, Reedus was out on the youth tennis circuit. He trained in Kalamazoo, Michigan with amazing athletes, like Andre Agassi. “I practiced with him and a group of people - never one on one. He was younger than me, too, and he would have killed me,” he said.

“I studied with a coach who approached me and offered to train me because he thought I had potential… I played the junior circuit, against guys who had all the fancy equipment and shoes and everything. I was in, like, basketball shoes and had a toy racket. I was surprised I made it as far as I did.”