42 things you probably didn't know about Jon Hamm: Used to be a teacher, doesn't smoke in real life

5 June 2014, 1:25 am EDT By Staff Reporter

Jon Hamm is a handsome American actor known for his philandering ad executive Don Draper in the American Movie Classics show Mad Men.

Jon Hamm was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Deborah and Daniel Hamm. His mother was a secretary, while his father ran a family trucking company.
His full name is Jonathan Daniel Hamm.
His parents divorced when he was only 2 years old. Living with his mother, Deborah, he "tried a lot of different things-violin, soccer, creative writing," Hamm told In Style magazine. "My mother celebrated learning." He saw his father on the weekends.
In the first grade, Jon Hamm played Winnie the Pooh on stage. "My mom made the bear suit. She got a Butterick pattern and sewed it and I had a pillow sort of strapped to me and, you know, ears," he told Vanity Fair. "There exists to this day a very grainy super-8 image of that that I beg - I hope to God - never gets out."
When he was young, his father would take him to bars and clubs after he finished work and after Jon's bedtime.
At the age of 10, Hamm lost his mother to colon cancer, which had spread throughout her body. After her death, Hamm moved to his grandmother's house with his father .
His high school prom date was actress Sarah Clarke , who is best known for playing agent Nina Myers in "24" and Bella Swan's mom in the "Twilight " series.
He decided to go to the University of Texas, turning down offers to play football at several Ivy League colleges.
After his father passed when he was 20, Hamm left Texas and returned home to attend the University of Missouri. During this time, he responded to a casting call and successfully auditioned for a part in a theater production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream ."
When he was 25 years old, Hamm was even a contestant on a dating show! Here he is in an episode of "The Big Date" (1996). He was rejected.
Jon Hamm was once Ellie Kemper's (Becca) high school drama teacher.
Kemper and Hamm would later co-star together in the comedy hit "Bridesmaids " (2011).
He is good friends with Paul Rudd and even visited his fellow actor in Hollywood back in 1992, several years before Hamm would make the move out to Hollywood himself. Rudd described Hamm as "one of those unfair guys who are good looking, really funny and good at everything," according to GQ magazine.
In 1995, he moved out to Los Angeles with a car and $150 in his pocket. He lived with his uncle until he had enough to live with four other roomates who were also aspiring actors.
He had a hard time getting roles because many said he looked too old for his age.
After getting dropped by his talent agency, he even took a job as a set designer for a softcore pornography production.
After repeatedly failing to obtain promising roles, he set his 30th birthday as a deadline to succeed in Hollywood. "You either suck that up and find another agent, or you go home and say you gave it a shot, but that's the end of that. The last thing I wanted to be out here was one of those actors who's 45 years old, with a tenuous grasp of their own reality, and not really working much. So I gave myself five years. I said, if I can't get it going by the time I'm 30, I'm in the wrong place. And as soon as I said that, it's like I started working right away," he said in an interview.
While waiting tables, Hamm scores his first substantial acting gig - a recurring role on the TV drama Providence.
His first movie role was a bit part in Clint Eastwood's "Space Cowboys " (2000).
Also around this time, Hamm got a part on the Los Angeles stage in Lipschtick written by Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen. The story follows two women pursuing a relationship.
. It was turned into the 2002 independent film Kissing Jessica Stein, in which Hamm also appeared.
Around this time, he appears in the Mel Gibson film, We Were Soldiers, and a slew of TV roles follow, enabling him to quit his day job. "I've probably been a waiter longer than I've really been anything else," he tells Vanity Fair of finally getting his Hollywood break.
While he's never been married, Hamm has been with his longtime girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt since 1997.
On the police drama The Division, Hamm played Inspector Nate Russo opposite Bonnie Bedelia and Nancy McKeon. He stayed on the show for two years.
After its cancellation, Hamm made a series of guest appearances on such shows as Charmed, CSI: Miami, and Numb3rs. He also landed recurring roles on the military drama The Unit and the dramatic comedy What About Brian.
He had to audition seven times before getting the role on Mad Men because he was an unknown actor then and AMC network was taking a big bet on the show to be successful.
Despite chain smoking on Mad Men, he doesn't smoke in real life. "I quit smoking when I was 24," Hamm told PEOPLE. "It's glamorous on film, but it's not glamorous waking up and smelling like an ashtray."
How does his character Don Draper achieve that awesome hairstyle on set? "[Mad Men's hairstylists] load it up with about three pounds of hair spray and gel, and it won't move," he told Time."It is locked down. Crispy."
Mad Men has earned stellar reviews and won several awards, including the 2011 Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. Hamm personally won a Golden Globe Award in 2008, and received numerous Emmy Award nominations for his work as Don Draper.
He also continued to do movies during breaks from Mad Men. Hamm appeared in the 2008 science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves.
He also had roles in the crime drama Stolen (2009) and the Allen Ginsburg biopic, Howl (2010).
Hamm also had a recurring role on the hit sitcom 30 Rock. He plays the handsome, but not very bright, neighbor of TV writer Liz Lemon (played by Tina Fey).
Hamm established a production company, Points West Pictures, with girlfriend Westfeldt in 2009.
The couple co-starred together in her latest film, Friends with Kids in 2012, which also featured Adam Scott, Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig.
Hamm appeared again with Wiig in the 2011 hit comedy Bridesmaids. In this film, Hamm played Wiig's cruel love interest.
"My nicknames have gone from Hammer to Ham and Cheese to Ham and Eggs," Jon Hamm told PEOPLE of being teased about his surname. "When you have a last name like mine, what are you going to do?"
Actress Sarah Clarke, who played Bella's mom in The Twilight Saga, was Jon Hamm's high school prom date. "He was someone you could talk to about stuff in a different way," she told Elle of her pre-fame pal.
Hamm ran into some media controversy while promoting Mad Men's fifth season in 2012 with comments he made about reality TV stars. "Whether it's Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian or whoever, stupidity is certainly celebrated," he told Elle UK. "Being ... [an] idiot is a valuable commodity in this culture because you're rewarded significantly." Kardashian responded by calling Hamm "careless" for saying she was "stupid."
Jon Hamm owns four eagles. They sit on separate perches in his backyard. Four species of eagle: golden, tawny, Spanish Imperial, and short-toed snake.
Jon Hamm's new film "Million Dollar Arm" may focus on baseball, but Hamm is a devoted fan of NHL team the St. Louis Blues. The film is based on a true story about a sports agent who recruits several Indian cricket players and tries to transform them into major league baseball pitchers.
He does the voiceover for Mercedes for their radio and tv commercials. His deep, sexy voice exudes elegance.
Jon Hamm's net worth is $15 and he reportedly earns $275, 000 per Mad Men episode.