J.R. Martinez Before & After Iraq Accident; Jokes He ‘Better Be’ One Of Sexiest After 33 Surgeries
Dec. 1 2011, Published 9:00 a.m. ET
By Breaking Celebrity News Staff
We've got these before and after shots of soldier-turned-soap star J.R. Martinez, who was recently named as one of People magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive.
“After 33 surgeries, I better be!" Martinez, still ruggedly handsome in spite of his injuries, joked with Anderson Cooper about the honor, and Breaking Celebrity News has video of their chat.
Beginning with his role on All My Children, Martinez has become one of the year's big breakouts, largely in part to his championship run on Dancing with the Stars, where the show's 18 million weekly viewers chose him as the 13th season champion.
Since the star-making turn, the 28-year-old Georgia native’s life story has increased in mainstream interest: the then-19-year-old, serving in Iraq, suffered burns to more than 40 percent of his body after driving over a landmine.
He told Cooper he spent the next "two and a half years in and out of the hospital" undergoing the never-ending procedures to restore his person, adding details about the journey of self-discovery he embarked on in his recovery.
"It was a long road and a tough road at 19 years old, to look at your body and your face, and say, 'What am I going to