Brian Heidik


Brian A. Heidik is an American actor best known for winning the reality TV competition show .

Personal life and career

Heidik was born to a Finnish mother and a German father. He attended Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville, and played quarterback on the high school football team. He later enrolled at North Carolina State University. He was once married to Charmaine "C.C." Costigan from 2000–06; between them, they have one son, Logan. He has been married to his second wife Courtney since 2006; with her, they have three children of their own.
Heidik once lived in New York City while working as an actor. He has guest starred on such television shows as Doogie Howser, M.D., Baywatch Nights, and Days of Our Lives, as well as Melrose Place.

''Survivor''

In 2002, Heidik competed on the fifth season of the American version of Survivor, entitled . As part of the Chuay Gahn tribe, Heidik was not immediately targeted due to his physical strength and his ability to provide food for the tribe. Early on in the game, he was considered a trustworthy individual, despite being reputed by all as a used car salesman. However, his status as trustworthy would soon change dramatically. When Heidik's tribe lost the first and second immunity challenges, he joined the majority to vote out John Raymond and Tanya Vance. After the "Grindgate" incident between Ted Rogers, Jr., and Ghandia Johnson, Heidik was worried that the rift between the two would divide the tribe. So he enlisted the help of Helen Glover to side with himself, Rogers and Clay Jordan to vote out Johnson, which they did successfully in Episode Four. By doing so, he created a Final Two alliance with Glover, despite already having one with Rogers. Chuay Gahn then enjoyed two immunity wins.
When there were only ten castaways left in the game, the two tribes began living on the same beach, believing they had merged into one tribe. However, Jeff Probst soon informed them that this was not the case. Chuay Gahn continued their winning streak for two more episodes, dwindling the former Sook Jai members to only three. When the tribes finally merged at eight members, Heidik was a strong force in keeping the Chuay Gahn alliance strong and ousting the remaining former Sook Jai members at back-to-back Tribal Councils. They were very successful, voting out Ken Stafford, Penny Ramsey and Jake Billingsley. At this point Heidik had three Final Two alliances, each with Glover, Rogers and Jordan.
At the Final Five, the remaining castaways were forced to turn on each other. Glover and Rogers had a plan to align with Jan Gentry and vote out Jordan, whom they believed did not deserve a spot in the Final Two. When Heidik heard the two had been talking, he wrongly believed this was against himself, with neither Glover nor Rogers having this idea in mind. After winning individual immunity, Heidik, together with Gentry, Glover, and Jordan, voted out Rogers despite their Final Two alliance. At the Final Four, Heidik enjoyed another immunity win and informed Glover that Gentry would be voted out. However, he used Gentry to vote out Glover, believing that she was unbeatable in the Final Two and had conspired against him.
At the Final Three, Heidik felt comfortable with his game and immunity wins, despite backstabbing two of his former tribemates. He managed to win the final immunity, and chose to vote out Gentry, taking Jordan into the Final Two. Gentry was the only former Chuay Gahn Final Five member with whom Heidik did not have a Final Two alliance. Believing Jordan was more hated, Heidik thought he had made the right decision. However, Heidik faced a tough Jury and in particular a very angry Glover.
In the end, Heidik beat out Jordan in a 4–3 vote to become the Sole Survivor. He managed to gain the votes of Billingsley, Rogers, Glover, and Gentry. Heidik was benefited by a usual occurrence on Survivor when two of his votes came from a vote against Jordan, particularly Glover and Rogers, whom Heidik himself betrayed in the game, but still voted for him over Jordan. Rogers mentioned that he was voting for Heidik, because he was "the lesser of two evils". Heidik officially received his million dollar check on December 20, 2002.

Reception

Heidik has generally been regarded as one of the least likable Survivor winners ever, according to Dr. Brad Wolgast, Ph.D., and Survivor expert Mario Lanza. In 2007, Wolgast and Lanza, in a book about Survivor, called Heidik "the most cold-hearted player of them all," and they went on to compare him to a "detached gunslinger," an "emotionless, unempathetic cyborg," and a "sociopath." In the years following Survivor: Thailand, Heidik was never even talked about in a nice way by any of his fellow castaways. According to Wolgast and Lanza, no one who had ever been on Survivor had even bothered to mention Heidik in interviews or chats.

Controversies

While taping Survivor in 2002, Heidik claimed that he was a used car salesman. But it was later revealed that he had also worked as a soft-core porn actor alongside his then-wife C.C. As an adult film star, he went under the name "Dave Roth."
After Survivor: Thailand finished taping, Heidik got a restraining order against C.C. over an assault which he claimed she perpetrated against him in November 2002. But a few weeks later, on December 16, his wife's scheduled court date, he did not show up for the hearing. Prior to the court date, the restraining order had been lifted. He divorced C.C. four years later and quickly remarried.
On July 5, 2006, Heidik was arrested in Douglas County, Georgia, on charges of shooting a puppy dog with an arrow. When police came to his house, he tried to flee in his car, but was quickly apprehended.
On June 19th, 2019, Heidik did an interview with Jonny Fairplay and Matt Bischoff on their podcast SurvivorNSFW about the incident and what he's been up to lately.