| Brian Heidik (born March 9, 1968) won
$1,000,000 on the Thailand edition of Survivor.
Prior to being cast in Survivor, Brian was a used car salesman and actor. Some of his roles were in soft-core adult films (see
IMDB entry), although this didn't factor into his performance in Survivor. At this time he met porn actress Charmaine Ann Heidik
(while in the business she went by CC Costigan and then CC Heidik); they went on to marry as well as produce and co-star in
soft-porn films. In October 2002 he accused (http://forums.dealofday.com/showthread.php?t=112036) her of hitting him and announced plans
to file for divorce. But when time came for the hearing, he failed to show up to testify against her. Many were not sure if he
would show up for the live finale of Survivor: Thailand, due to the police searching for him in regards to the case against
Charmaine Heidik, but he as well as Charmaine attended the finale, and soon after the Heidiks announced their reconcilation.
During the game, Brian maintained separate alliances with each of the members of his Chuay Gahn tribe. While the tribe itself
was strongly allied, Brian promised several of the other members to take them to the final two. Unaware that he was making
multiple deals, the other alliance members fully trusted him.
The tribe itself suffered setbacks early in the game, losing the first two immunity challenges. While they regrouped and won
the next, a heated struggle took place when Ghandia Johnson accused
Ted Rogers, Jr. of groping
her. Brian interfered very little with the situation, but ended up going along with the majority to vote out Ghandia.
After this point, the competing Sook Jai tribe lost four immunity challenges in a row, so when the merge finally occurred,
they were voted off one by one. By the final episodes Brian continued to manipulate the other members he was with. Each of them
(except for Jan Gentry, who was
content with making it to the jury) was again promised a spot in the final two, and, beginning with Ted, each was voted out. At
the final jury vote, in which Brian was up against Clay Jordan, two jury members who had been deceived in this way (Helen Glover and Ted) called Brian out for
his dishonesty. However, when they went to vote for the final winner, they chose him anyway, both to reward his strategy, and
because they were not impressed with how Clay played the game. (Ted, when casting his vote, mentioned that he was voting for the
lesser of two evils). While some of the Sook Jai members voted for Clay because they liked him more than Brian, Brian ended up
being voted the Sole Survivor, by a close vote of 4-3.
Brian is considered by some online Survivor fans to be second only to Richard Hatch for the title of "Greatest Survivor Ever." Due to Brian's seeming lack of interest
in promoting subsequent series of the show, however, and his cold and calculating persona on the show, Brian was not as popular
as many of the other winners. There is also a general consensus that Survivor: Thailand was the worst of the to-date nine
Survivor series, and its cast was the least strategically-minded, thus somewhat lessening Brian's triumph. Despite his status as
a past winner, he was not a member of the Survivor: All-Stars
cast.
In 2004 Heidik began writing Survivor commentaries for the National Enquirer tabloid.
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