Exclusive: Burn Notice clip: An exclusive clip from the 3/4 Burn Notice season finale, starring Jeffrey Donovan.
Joe Pugliese, USA Network
The scoop on Jeffery Donovan
What you need to know: He plays suave spy Michael Westen on Burn Notice, one of cable TV's biggest hits.
What you've seen him in: He starred with Will Smith in the comedy Hitch and with Angelina Jolie in the drama Changeling.
What's next: He's planning for a fourth season of Burn Notice (he's now a producer), and he's developing other projects for himself. "I'm focusing more on stuff I want to do rather than just going out for jobs."
How he's giving back: He created an annual arts scholarship last year at his high school in Amesbury, Mass.
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TV's Jeffrey Donovan is so huge that he dwarfs Jack Bauer, Kiefer Sutherland's character on 24.
At least that's how the fictional undercover agents appear on two side-by-side billboards in Tokyo.
"I don't know if I'm bigger than he is," says Donovan, who plays ousted spy Michael Westen on the USA Network drama Burn Notice. "I'm just topical right now. I'm sure it'll die out soon."
Maybe not. Now in its third season, Burn Notice is one of the most-watched shows on cable and a global hit, to boot. Donovan, 41, has reaped the benefits: His pay soared from a reported $55,000 to $150,000 per episode. We chatted with the actor recently to find out more:
Late bloomer
"I'm lucky it's in my 30s and 40s where most of my success is coming. If I could give advice to me at 20, I'd say, 'It's OK. Wait. You don't need it in your 20s.' You have a more mature perspective on it now. I'd probably do a lot of the stupid things these 20-year-olds do in Hollywood; go out to parties and show my underwear."
The non-spy
"I couldn't live a spy's life, because they're always in danger. If I screw up my lines on set, I get another take. If Michael Westen screws up, he's killed. That pressure...are you freaking kidding? I couldn't handle that. I have a hard time being told I'm not getting a movie role!"
Globe trotter
On his latest break from shooting the show, Donovan visited American troops in Iraq, after stops in Tokyo, Barcelona and Morocco. "I'm very nomadic in my personal life, and I move around a lot," he says. "When I go to a foreign country, I don't want to go where everybody's going. I want to be integrated with their culture, hopefully because it not only makes me a better person, but then they go, "Oh my God, Americans want to know about us just as much as we're interested in them.'"
Golf fanatic
"I played this incredible course called Old Head on the southern tip of Ireland. It's on a peninsula. At the end of it is a lighthouse, and it's said that the lighthouse was the last recorded sighting of the Titanic."
Martial artist
He has a black belt. "In college, I joined the karate club, and I stuck with it. I grew up on Bruce Lee movies, and they were always fascinating. You study martial arts to create a positive energy within you."
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