If Hoban “Wash” Washburne isn’t a sexy geek, I invite you all to tell me who is. Serenity’s pilot and the voice of Sonny in I, Robot is 40 years old today and looking good.

Most of us know Tudyk from Firefly, in which he starred with another favorite geek, playing the wise-cracking pilot, Wash. The clip below is one of my favorite Wash scenes, featuring one of his funniest lines: “Curse your sudden-but-inevitable betrayal!”

Tudyk was born in El Paso, Texas, grew up in Plano, and attended the Juilliard conservatory. He was voted Most Likely to Succeed at Lon Morris Jr College.

??Tudky is hilarious in real life, often landing comedic roles, like Gerhardt in 28 Days and Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

This recut trailer focuses on Tudyk’s role, almost  lending the ridiculous film an air of credible sensitivity. (Almost.)

(Also, mildly strong language at 1:24, unless your boss is a fan of homophobic slurs.)

He also gets some love from the webcomic set in the strip below, originally featured on hijinksensue.com.

Happy birthday, Alan Wray Tudyk, from all of your fans here at [GAS].

What’s your favorite Tudyk role? Let us know in the comments! In closing, I give you the Look at My Package Dance. (embedding was disabled on the video, so you guys will have to click on the link to see it.)