Tom Welling's Real Name: Thomas John Patrick Welling

Quick answer: Tom Welling's documented full name is Thomas John Patrick Welling. Encyclopedia.com records that form and gives his birth date as April 26, 1977 (Encyclopedia.com; Seventeen).

Real name and early life

Encyclopedia.com places the birth in New York, New York, and says his father was an automobile-industry executive and his mother a homemaker; it also names a brother, Mark Welling, an actor. A Seventeen profile agrees on the April 26, 1977, date but says he was born in upstate New York and moved around the United States, with stops in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Delaware. This page records that difference in the "New York" wording rather than choosing silently. Seventeen says he attended Okemos High School in Okemos, Michigan, appeared in a few school plays, then turned to sports including baseball and soccer, and later did modeling work for the Louisa Modeling Agency to pay bills, the magazine says. Encyclopedia.com also records modeling, advertisement appearances, and construction work before acting.

Career highlights

His early television work included a recurring role as Rob Meltzer on Judging Amy, which Encyclopedia.com lists and which Seventeen describes as a three-episode part, opposite Amy Brenneman, that was extended after strong audience response. He then won the role of Clark Kent on Smallville (2001–11), a series Encyclopedia.com records as beginning on The WB and later continuing on The CW, and for which it lists a run of Teen Choice and Saturn Award nominations from 2002 onward. Seventeen describes a long audition process that ended in a final screen test between Welling and one other actor, after which he learned he had the part on the way back from the Warner Bros. lot, the magazine recounts. Encyclopedia.com also notes a Teen Choice nomination for the film Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) and lists him among People Weekly's breakthrough stars of 2001. Kristin Kreuk appeared with him on Smallville; Encyclopedia.com records a Teen Choice nomination they shared for on-screen chemistry. The encyclopedia entry, compiled while the series was still running, tracks the show from its WB years into The CW and records a long string of genre-award nominations for his work as the young Clark Kent.

Name notes for searchers

Thomas John Patrick Welling is the documented full name; he is known professionally as Tom Welling. Searchers looking for Clark Kent on Smallville, or for the younger love interest on Judging Amy, are usually aiming at the same person.