Jonathan Goldsmith

Jonathan Goldsmith (born September 26, 1938) is an American character actor. He began his career on the New York stage, then started a career in film and television. He appeared in several TV shows from the 1960s to the 1990s. He is best known for appearing in television commercials for Dos Equis beer, from 2006 to 2016, as the character The Most Interesting Man in the World. He began to portray the character again in January 2026 as part of Dos Equis' revival of that advertising campaign.

Early years Goldsmith was born on September 26, 1938, in the Bronx. his mother a model and his father a gym teacher. Goldsmith graduated from Boston University in 1958, after which he pursued an acting career.

Career Jonathan has made over 350 television appearances in his career. Among them was the role of Marvin Palmer in the 1964 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Blonde Bonanza." To advance his acting career, Goldsmith moved to California from New York in 1966. Like many aspiring actors, he found it difficult to gain enough acting work to survive and wound up working various jobs, including driving a garbage truck and working in construction, to help make ends meet. and SPRINT which was successful enough to allow him to "retire" from the Hollywood scene; he purchased an estate in the Sierra Mountains. He taught theater at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York from 1999-2004. He moved onto a large sailboat moored in Marina del Rey. In 2011 he and his wife Barbara (who was his agent when he obtained the Dos Equis role) moved to a house in the area of Manchester, Vermont.

Advertising work Beginning in April 2007 and continuing through 2015, Goldsmith was featured in a high-profile television ad campaign, promoting Dos Equis beer. The campaign, which transformed Goldsmith into "the most interesting man in the world", was credited for helping to fuel a 15.4 percent sales increase for the brand in the United States in 2009 and also made him into a very popular meme. The character was inspired by his deceased sailing partner and friend Fernando Lamas.

On March 9, 2016, Dos Equis announced that it would replace Goldsmith in the role as the "Most Interesting Man in the World", saying that the brand hoped to "reboot [the character] in a way that's relevant for today's drinker so the brand doesn't get stale." In September 2016, French actor Augustin Legrand (who also speaks English and Spanish) became the new "Most Interesting Man in the World".

In June 2017, Goldsmith returned to television advertising, doing tequila ads for Astral Tequila.

In January 2026, Dos Equis announced the revival of "the most interesting man" advertising campaign, with Goldsmith returning to portray the main character. The first commercial of the new campaign was scheduled to air January 19, 2026 on ESPN during the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship broadcast.

Goldsmith supported the S.A.B.R.E Foundation, which pairs artists with children in protective custody, and the Stella Link Foundation, a group calling attention to child sex trafficking in Cambodia.

Selected filmography