As actor Charlie Hunnam continues to ride into the hearts of more and more fans playing Jax in FX’s motorcycle drama Sons of Anarchy, Clutch and Chrome decided to take a closer look at the newest biker on the TV block.
 
Coincidences not only add interesting footnotes to history but also seem to weave their way in and out of life in a curious fashion.

Take the star of FX’s motorcycle drama ‘Sons of Anarchy’ Charlie Hunnam, who was discovered while clowning around in a shoe store by a production manager for a British Children's show. The show, Byker Grove would soon give Charlie the needed acting break and while not actually about motorcycles, the play on words is an interesting irony to an equally intriguing career.

Gaining fans both inside the entertainment industry as well as with the viewing public throughout his career, the leading role in Sons of Anarchy, a FX drama about a motorcycle gang has propelled him to new celebrity heights.
 
Noelia, who has run a Charlie Hunnam fan site since 2001 noticed a swell of interest when the gritty motorcycle drama hit the small screens in September 2008, “Since Charlie started working in SOA [Sons of Anarchy], I noticed a HUGE fan base, all interested about him in this new world.”
 
Charlie Hunnam was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, a city in the Northeast of England on April 10th 1980, and the story of a foreign actor to not only take a lead role on an American television show but also use it as a road to stardom is not necessarily an unusual one. Hugh Laurie was a well known comedic actor to British audiences for decades, but American viewers were first exposed to him as the cantankerous Dr. Gregory House on FOX’s 'House' without his English accent. Amusingly, both play characters who ride motorcycles.
 
It was however, a bold move by the producers of Sons of Anarchy to put a relatively unknown British actor among a sea of famous actors such as Ron Perlman, Katey Sagal and Mitch Pileggi in an extreme role of outlaw motorcycle gang member and surely Charlie Hunnam welcomed such an unusual move.

“I have 60 years to make the money, but the choices I make in the next five years are really going to define my career,” Charlie was quoted as saying once, and those choices have certainly been interesting.

Soon after his appearance in three episodes of Byker Grove, Charlie was offered the role of Nathan Maloney in a British television production ‘Queer as Folk’, a drama about three gay men living in Manchester and so began his career of playing colorful if not quirky characters.

Charlie's character of a self-confident fifteen-year-old boy entering the gay society soon became one of the main reasons the series created a stir in England. Many conservative politicians and viewers were shocked at the frank language as well as the depiction of a 15-year-old engaging in illegal homosexual acts with an older man.

Sex scenes were explicitly depicted placing the show on late at night and losing its largest sponsor, a well known British beer company. Regardless of all the obstacles, the show became a huge success and the public demanded a second season, but unfortunately for the cast and crew of 'Queer as folk' the shows writer Russell T. Davies felt the story had been told. Consequently only two additional specials were ever produced.

The short run of an obviously promising television show may have stayed with Charlie years later when considering Sons of Anarchy. Although focused on working in film, negotiations had become concrete enough for a conversation between Charlie and the series producer and writer Kurt Sutter.

“And I just said, you know look, man, as long as the quality stays the same, I would be happy to do this for 15 years,” he explained during an interview in October 2008, “So you know we kind of – he made a deal with me that he was definitely not going to go anywhere or turn the show over to anyone and would continue to be writing to try to match the same quality through the course of the show.”

In between the first series and the two additional specials of 'Queer as Folk', Hunnam co-starred as a young anarchist in ‘What ever happened to Harold Smith?’ and soon decided to move to Los Angeles, packing his eclectic choice of roles and taking it to America with him.

Appearing in television shows with guest appearances and leading roles in WB’s 'Young Americans' and Fox’s 'Undeclared', Charlie couldn’t find any ongoing success despite critical acclaim especially for the Fox series.

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