Lee Pace Shows Off Toned Physique on His 45th Birthday

Lee Pace celebrated his 45th birthday this week by posting a series of shirtless photos while lounging around a gorgeous swimming pool. That, in itself, seems like a good enough way to spend a birthday, but Pace was kind enough to spread the love to his fans.

"45 and alive," the actor captioned the photos posted to Instagram on March 25, along with a zombie man emoji, presumably winking at the milestone.

Pace first gained widespread notoriety on ABC's quirky comedy drama series Pushing Daisies in 2006, before breaking through to several blockbuster franchises such as Twilight, The Hobbit, and the MCU, portraying the villain Ronan the Accuser in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy and 2019's Captain Marvel.

Most recently, Pace appears in the Apple TV+ sci-fi series Foundation, in which he stars as the galactic emperor Brother Day. Playing the god-like character required Pace to bulk up, which he elaborated on in a 2021 radio interview coinciding with the series premiere.

"We started shooting before the pandemic and and I was lifting a whole lot of weights, and then the pandemic started, and I basically cleared off a corner of the barn and did a bunch of yoga," he told ABC Radio Digital Syndication at the time. "I did yoga every day for about two hours. And that was my kind of, you know, throughout the entire quarantine, through that time."

"It was such an opportunity to think about my health, to think about, you know, this character that I was playing and really kind of think about ... you know, your balance, thinking about what you're stretching, thinking about a specific part of the body and how you can control it," Pace continued.

Considering that Foundation was renewed for a third season late last year, clearly Pace still has the motivation to keep up with his fitness regime.