5 things Taylor Kinney adores (other than fiancee Lady Gaga)
Taylor Kinney is more than just Lady Gaga’s fiancé. The 33-year-old actor is a celebrity in his own right, as one of the stars in the TV drama “Chicago Fire” and a former cast member of “The Vampire Diaries.”
Kinney met Gaga on the set of her 2011 video “You and I,” when he played her love interest and, within months, coupled up with her in real life. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania, native grew up far from L.A., in a single-mom household with three brothers. He began his adult life studying business management at West Virginia University, but during his sophomore year took a theater class that sparked his interest. The next year, he left school and relocated to Hawaii to surf and frame houses for a while, before moving east to model and act.
Read on for some of the future Mr. Gaga’s favorite things:
1. Promptness. If Kinney is late, there’s a good reason. “A reputable director once told me, ‘If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late. If you’re late, you’re fired,’” Kinney said in a 2012 interview. “It was something that stuck with me. People should just be on time, you know?”
2. The 1985 kids movie, ‘The Dirt Bike Kid.’ The fantasy movie, starring A Christmas Story’s Peter Billingsley, is about a dirt bike that comes to life. He revealed in 2012 that it really made him want his own bike. He enjoyed riding dirt bikes and then street bikes so much that it’s been more than a decade since Kinney’s had a car.
3. Romantic gestures. Everyone knows about the giant heart sparkler Kinney slipped on Gaga’s finger on Valentine’s Day, but that isn’t the most romantic thing he’s ever done. The actor shared that around 2006, he spray painted ‘I love you’ on a billboard in Hollywood for a girl. “It was one of those things, like a guy fighting for a girl’s affection and attention,” he said. “It was a desperate attempt. I had an accomplice; we dressed in black and had a few beers — it was maybe 4 a.m. — and we used our cell phones on speaker as walkie-talkies. He hoisted me on his shoulders to a ladder. It was a big blank billboard, so it was in all white. The girl worked on Fairfax, about a half mile away. I texted her that morning and said, ‘Drive up Fairfax and look up.’ I don’t know how romantic it was but she dug it and I got her, so it worked.”
4. Married With Children’s Peggy Bundy. He “always wanted to hook up with” the character played by Katey Sagal. My father watched that show all the time,” he said in the same interview. “I didn’t understand why Al never wanted to sleep with her. I thought she was beautiful.”
5. Quiet Sunday mornings in his hometown. When Kinney finds himself back in Lancaster, PA, he sometimes takes the Mother Monster for a hike or soaks up the early morning silence. “I love Sunday-morning drives,” he said. “I’ll be up at 6 a.m., get a cup of coffee, and head out.”