From
left: Danny Ducovny, Amram Ducovny, David Duchovny
David was born in New York City on August 7, 1960. His father is Amram Ducovny, a former publicist for the American Jewish Committee. Amram Ducovny wrote The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, which ran in 1967 at the ANTA Theatre on Broadway, starring Ralph Waite of "The Waltons" fame. He is also the author of several books, including The Wisdom of Spiro T. Agnew and David Ben-Gurion In His Own Words. He now lives in Paris.
"My father took the 'h' out of our last name because he was tired of having it mispronounced. But when my parents divorced, my mother put the 'h' back in, as a show of solidarity with how a family member spelled the name. I spell it with the 'h'; my brother doesn't use the 'h.' My sister goes back and forth, depending on her mood. Regardless, I think it's a beautiful name that I'm told means 'Spiritual' in Russian. I don't care how people spell the name as long as they get the meaning."
David's Scottish-born mother Margaret, a homemaker for many years, now runs a grade school in Manhattan. His younger sister Laurie, a schoolteacher, lives in New York and his older brother Daniel Ducovny, an award-winning director of commercials, lives in Los Angeles. Growing up, he says his brother and his brother's friends teased him, calling him ugly and stupid. The brothers now seem to have a good relationship; David dedicated his senior thesis to "Danny the Boy Wonder".
In an article for The Improper Bostonian, Amram Ducovny described David's youthful ambition to become a bathtub when he grew up:
"In the interest of the Internet, I can reveal that he said it in a bathtub, where he was surrounded by scores of floating dinosaurs, which he loved and could name. If he became a bathtub, he and Stegosaurus need never part."
David's
parents divorced when he was eleven:
"The divorce was probably the most important emotional moment in my growing up. I don't think you ever recover from something like that. You are forced into an adult world of emotions that you aren't prepared to deal with. Your parents are trying to explain to you what went wrong with adult love. You don't know what that is. They're talking about love that can go away. You're afraid it might go away from you. So it can define the way you deal with love for the rest of your life."
Seven-year-old David
hugs his baby sister Laurie.
Of course, David is now married to TV star Tea Leoni. He lives with her and their baby daughter Madelaine in Malibu.
