Ashton Kutcher – best known for playing adorably dimwitted characters in “That ‘70s Show” (FOX, 1998-2006) and “Dude, Where’s My Car?” (2000) or making Justin Timberlake believe his house was getting repossessed on one of his successful reality show creations – made his mark both onscreen and off, creating characters and television programs that appealed to the masses. But nothing he did onscreen raised more eyebrows or his public profile than his relationship and marriage to Demi Moore, an A-list actress and mother of three girls close to his age who just happened to be 15 years his senior. And yes, Kutcher was also an actor, producer, model and mini-TV mogul, but he made it clear that he did not care what everyone thought about his personal life. “I love being with Demi,” he declared to Oprah Winfrey in 2005. “She makes me a better person.” After a short break from the spotlight, the pop-culture poster boy returned to doing what he had always done best – making people laugh – in “What Happens in Vegas” (2008), acting alongside Cameron Diaz.Christopher Ashton Kutcher was born on Feb. 7, 1978 in Cedar Rapids, IA, the son of factory workers Diane and Larry Kutcher. He had a twin brother named Michael, who had cerebral palsy and an emergency heart transplant at the age of 13, as well as an older sister named Tausha. A dedicated athlete, Kutcher was a star football player, but also made time to star in plays at Washington High School. After his family moved to Tiffin, IA, the Clear Creek-Amana High School student was arrested and convicted of third-degree burglary during his senior year, after breaking into his school along with his cousin. He received three years of probation and 180 hours of community service.
His high school troublemaking days lead Kutcher to the University of Iowa, where he majored in biochemical engineering, motivated by finding a cure for his twin’s heart ailment. His college career seemed like a non-stop party that left him constantly broke, yet Kutcher found several ways to make ends meet, including working at a General Mills plant, donating blood, and modeling. He was recruited by a modeling agent at a local bar and was entered in the “Fresh Faces of Iowa” competition, where he won a first place trip to New York City’s International Modeling and Talent Association Convention in 1997. Even though he lost the title at the IMTA competition to another future heartthrob – model-turned-actor Josh Duhamel – Kutcher signed a contract with the Next modeling agency in New York, where he modeled for Calvin Klein, Abercrombie & Fitch, and the runways of Paris and Milan. Not bad work for someone who had recently spent his time sweeping cereal off the floor of the General Mills plant.
Like many before and after, modeling paved the way for highly personable Kutcher’s acting career. In 1998, he flew to Los Angeles during pilot season to test for two TV shows on the same day. One was for an hour-long drama for NBC; the other for a FOX series set in 1976 Wisconsin. Unbelievably, the acting newbie booked the latter and joined the cast of “That ‘70s Show,” playing floppy-haired Michael Kelso, a clownish and loveable character that also shaped the actor’s future career options till he began making his own opportunities. The airhead routine landed the actor his first big screen role opposite fellow goofball hunk Seann William Scott in “Dude, Where’s My Car?” where they played two stoners who wake up from a night of partying and find their car missing.
Starring in a hit TV show and big screen comedy turned Kutcher into one of Hollywood’s most sought after bachelors overnight. He briefly dated Ashley Scott and Monet Mazur, and in 2002, met Brittany Murphy on the set of their movie “Just Married.” The stars flirted and fell in love while making the comedy about newlyweds on a European honeymoon from hell. The couple’s incessant public displays of affection sparked rumors they secretly got married in the middle of promoting the movie, but all that was squashed when they broke up in 2003.
The combined box office total of “Dude,” “Just Married,” and his dramatic debut “The Butterfly Effect” (2004) grossed a combined total of about $160 million, helping Kutcher get his own production company, Katalyst Films. In the middle of his box office hits and regular appearance on “That ‘70s Show,” the actor managed to squeeze in a new TV project in 2003 titled “Punk’d” (MTV, 2003-07). The reality show Kutcher wrote and produced centered on playing elaborate pranks on dozens of celebrities he, himself, knew quite well personally, including Timberlake, Jessica Alba and Britney Spears. It was a massive hit for the music network, and the trucker hat-wearing actor became the creator of a new slang word for practical jokes: “Punk’d.”
Everyone thought Kutcher had just “Punk’d” the entire country when he attended the 2003 premiere of “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” walking hand in hand with new girlfriend Moore (whom he had met in the spring of 2003 while making “The Butterfly Effect”), her ex-husband Bruce Willis, and their three daughters Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah. The uncommonly harmonious clan made headlines, and even Kutcher knew he would become the target of tabloids and punch lines. The relationship was far from a prank he was well known for, as the two tied the knot on Sept. 24, 2005 in a private ceremony held in the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles. The actor’s involvement with Kabbalah had many wondering whether it was a product of the control his older mate had on him, including giving up his once-playboy status to become a stepfather to Moore’s teenage daughters and a friend to her ex-husband. However, Kutcher declared his happiness for how things worked out in his personal life. “It was the greatest gift I could get,” he said of meeting Moore.
Kutcher went on to make more movies, including a minor role in “Cheaper By the Dozen” (2003), and starred in forgettable 2005 films like “Guess Who” (a remake of the 1967 Sidney Poitier classic “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”) and “A Lot Like Love” with Amada Peet. That same year, he lost the lead role in “Elizabethtown” to Orlando Bloom because Cameron Crowe wanted a theater-trained actor for the part of Drew Baylor. Nonetheless, Kutcher made a bigger splash with several of his entrepreneurial ventures, investing in trendy Los Angeles eateries such as “Dolce” and “Geisha House,” along with his “’70s Show” co-star Danny Masterson and Wilmer Valderrama, and executive-producing hit TV shows for several genres, whether it was reality fare like “Beauty and the Geek” (WB, 2006- ), or a scripted sitcom like “Miss Guided” (ABC, 2007- ), Kutcher proved to be more than a pretty face when it came to producing crowd-pleasing television.
In 2008, Kutcher turned his “Punk’d” philosophy towards the tabloids and paparazzi that followed him throughout his career and personal ups and downs by creating the show “Pop Fiction” (E! Entertainment), where pranks were pulled by the celebrities themselves to fool the unsuspecting public. His production company also revealed plans to create a show with fellow model-turned-mogul Tyra Banks. In the meantime, he also returned to the big screen to co-star with the equally quirky Cameron Diaz in the romantic comedy with a twist, “What Happens in Vegas.”