Alexander Skarsgård Just Turned 39 and Looks Better Than Ever! Here Are 6 Things You Have to Know About the True Blood Star

Thirty-nine years ago, August 25th, Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård was born to actor Stellan Skarsgård, and My Skarsgård, a physician. At a young age, Alex went on to do acting just like his father, but stopped and didn't return again after many years. In 2008, he finally gained widespread attention and captured the hearts of many for his role as Eric Northman, the Sheriff of Area 5 in Shreveport, Louisiana in True Blood (loosely based on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries).

To celebrate the birthday of our favorite Swede, here are some wonderful interesting facts you may not know about him yet. You might be surprised!

Although he really got that stateside recognition when he was cast as the airhead, ill-fated model Meekus, his first major role in the U.S. was in the HBO miniseries Generation Kill back in 2008. This is also a very fitting role because he served in the Swedish Marines when he was 19 years old.

2. He hated fame at 13

He started acting at 7 years old in the 1984 Swedish drama film Åke and His World as Kalle Nubb (his father also co-starred). When he was thirteen, he did a movie called The Dog That Smiled; when people started recognizing him, he became uncomfortable and didn't act again for many years. He hated fame at 13 because he wasn't used to people recognizing him. As we know, he quit acting for many years before giving it a shot again while attending Leeds Metropolitan University in England. He didn't want to wake up at 60 and regret not giving it a shot.

If he had not given acting another shot, he would never have been...

3. Hailed as "Sexiest Man Alive in Sweden"

For "five times, motherfucker, five times!" I believe that he's sexy enough to gain worldwide nomination for that title as well.

4. He has a bird tattoo on his left leg

This is so endearing!

“My youngest brother Valter drew a green bird on my leg when he was seven years old. I took a picture of it and got it tattooed. Then when I wanted to show it, it was maybe two years later, I had worked up such… I mean it’s a big thing, to tattoo a beautiful picture that your brother drew as a child, so I thought he’d be delighted as hell. But he was like: ‘What’s that? Why did you do it? What, did I draw that? Wanna eat pancakes now?’ Haha! Then again he was only nine.”

5. He wrote this beautiful short story when he was 22

This is a short story written by Alexander himself, "Men don't eat Chocolate Mousse" back in 2002.

Alexander Skarsgård May 22, 2002Malin came from Gustavsberg, wore pink mascara, smelled of Date perfume and could put a whole packet of licorice flavoured Hubba Bubba in her mouth.I came from Södermalm, admired MacGyver, wore a bomber jacket indoors and shaved every day to make my beard start growing. It was late in the summer of 1991 and it was around ten in the evening. The atmosphere in the living room was tense. Malin and her friends sat lined up in the white leather couch while me and my friends were pushed together around the dining table which was situated at a comforting distance to the girls. Micke and Johan broke the embarrassing silence when they started wrestling on the floor. I felt good when something finally was happening and we all watched the wrestling match with excitement. The far heavier Micke immediately got the upper hand but the wrestling match came to a sudden stop when the combatants happened to roll over on Sara’s sprained foot. Sara suffered, Micke and Johan blushed and Malin, whose mum was a nurse, held a detailed lecture on the importance of keeping a sprained foot still. Putte, who loved to discuss, broke Malin’s lecture off. He claimed that his mum was a foot doctor and that a sprained foot on the contrary should be active. Wild debate arose.I myself had no opinion on sprained feet so I went into Malin’s room and put on a Roxette record. Soon Micke came in and asked me if we could share a beer he nicked from his brother. We felt terribly cool sitting there sipping beer like Micke’s brother and his pals used to do. Micke turned up the volume on the stereo in the hopes that some of the girls would come in and see how cool we were. Soon Emma came in to ask us to turn it down. When she saw us drinking alcohol she started crying terribly and called us alcoholics. Micke comforted her and said that he could control his drinking (which, a few years later, he proved that he definitely couldn’t). Emma accepted this and she and Micke started making out.Pretty soon they became breathless and we played Super Mario Bros. instead. Micke had just won when an excited Johan came barging in and told us that they were playing truth or dare in Malin’s mum’s bed. Anyone who has played truth or dare knows that it’s a wonderful game, because you get to hear a lot of half true dirty stories and you get to, most importantly, make out. A few seconds later I had joined the others in the bed. The half truths were already pouring out. Erik claimed, among others, that he had a girlfriend on Öland. This was a kindly put halftruth. Erik had certainly fallen in love with a girl he had seen in Borgholm some months earlier. The problem was just that she never saw him.Soon I got my first question. It was Malin who wondered how many I had had sex with. Some critical seconds followed. Should I tell about my innocence or should I act experienced? I answered eight. The summer before Lisen Jacobsen had shown me her bare breasts on a rapeseed field in Denmark, but we had definitely not slept with each other. So eight was probably more of a lie than a half truth. The guys, who knew I lied, nodded in agreement, the same way I did when they stretched the truth a little. The game went on for some time and then it died slowly down. One by one went out of the game. Some went out and checked out a karate movie in the living room and others started to whip up chocolate mousse in the kitchen. Soon me and Malin were alone in the bed.- What do we do now?- I don`t know, I answered really fast.We were both into making out a little, but I was way too scared to take any initiative. We had certainly made out a few times during the game, but it was way harder now when we were alone in the enormous bed. Malin saved me by asking if I had tried the new strawberry flavoured lip gloss. I answered no and Malin pressed her glossy, strawberry scented lips against mine. We kissed for about as long as the strawberry taste lasted, then she whispered:- Let’s do it.I got all sweaty and felt dizzy. Malin continued:- But be careful. I’ve never done it before.The emotions came pouring out of my ears. Joy that I might be the first one among my friends who would loose my virginity and terror that I might fail and that Malin would see through my lie about my earlier experiences. Both my hopes and my fears came true. We had sex in the end and I was the first one among my friends. But Malin probably started wondering when I happened to have ruined two condoms before I even had them on. And when I tried to enter her somewhere between her knee and her hip she was pretty convinced that my earlier experiences were made up. She helped me and I found the right place.Ten seconds later we were lying next to each other looking up in the ceiling.- It was the first time for you too, right?I lay silent a while but realized that I did not have coverage for another lie.- Yes, I answered embarrassed.- Don’t worry, I won’t tell the others.She smiled at me and I smiled back. We were lying there in the weak light from the billboard on the other side of the street and smiled at each other. I was a man and I smiled at a woman. And on the other side of the bedroom door the snotty little kids were making chocolate mousse and watching a karate movie.

Lastly, aside from being a very talented actor, he is also a brilliant writer and a director.

6. He co-directed an award-winning short film

“A man is on his way to the ocean. A child is running through a backyard. In four minutes their fates will intertwine. One life will be changed forever whilst the other's flame will burn out. ”

He co-wrote and co-directed To Kill A Child with Björne Larson in 2003. The short film won the 2003 Odense International Film Festival - Grand Prix and Press Award. The film stars his younger brother Valter, and his father as the narrator.

(For the English story, click here)

There a lot of interesting things about Alex that he has also mentioned at some point, including the time he said he isn't very attractive IRL! (what?) but these stood out the most.

Additional facts include that his favorite colors are pink and blue, his favorite actor is Gary Oldman, he was almost cast as THOR and his fans over at AlexSkarsgard.Net regularly hold auctions (with signed items from the actor) for charity! Check them out!

There are so many reasons why Alex's fans swoon over him; aside from being a beautiful, talented human being, he's also very gracious to his fans and just a truly wonderful person inside and out and if you really are a hardcore Skarsgårdian, you'll likely understand 20 things only we feel, to anything Skars-related.

So here's to you, Alex! Grattis på födelsedagen! We're drinking some-

- in your honor. Stay awesome!

Don't forget to watch Alex's new movies Diary of a Teenage Girl in your theaters and wait for 2016 when he takes on the role of Tarzan!!

Sources: Askarsgard, Biography