Owen Wilson
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| Owen Wilson | |
| Birth name | Owen Cunningham Wilson |
| Born | November 18, 1968 (age 38) Dallas, Texas, USA |
| Notable roles | Roy O'Bannon in Shanghai Noon & Shanghai Knights Hansel in Zoolander |
| Academy Awards | |
|---|---|
| Nominated: Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay (2002) for The Royal Tenenbaums | |
Owen Cunningham Wilson (born November 18, 1968) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor and writer. Wilson was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the screenplay of The Royal Tenenbaums, but he is perhaps best known for his roles as Roy O'Bannon in Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights and as Hansel in Zoolander.
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[edit] Movie star
Owen, born in Dallas, Texas, moved to Los Angeles along with his brothers Luke, John and Andrew to pursue acting careers. Although he found initial success as a film actor after his turn as Dignan in Bottle Rocket, Wilson remained a key creative collaborator to Wes Anderson's next two directorial efforts. Rushmore was the two writers' second script, and was partially based on Wilson's own expulsion from St. Mark's as a teenager [citation needed]. Although he didn't appear in the film, he and Anderson acknowledged on the Criterion Collection DVD audio commentary that Wilson has a sort of quasi-cameo as Rosemary Cross's dead husband, Edward Appleby. The photographs of Appleby in Ms. Cross's room are ones taken of Wilson as a boy.[1]
Owen landed minor roles in big budgeted movies very quickly, such as The Cable Guy, directed by Ben Stiller, an early admirer of Bottle Rocket. After minor appearances in action films like Anaconda, Armageddon and The Haunting, Owen got his big break with the 2000 comedy action hit Shanghai Noon starring opposite Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan, which grossed nearly US$100 million worldwide.
Gene Hackman took notice of Owen's performance in Shanghai Noon and recommended him to play opposite himself in the 2001 action film Behind Enemy Lines, Wilson's only dramatic starring role. Also in 2001, Wilson and Anderson wrote their third film, The Royal Tenenbaums, which was a financial and critical success. The comedy featured an all-star cast, including Hackman, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, and Danny Glover. Wilson had a memorable supporting role in the film as a professor-turned-bestseller Eli Cash. It earned the writing team an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Owen returned to the buddy comedy genre in 2002 with the action comedy I Spy, co-starring this time with Eddie Murphy. The big screen remake of the television series flopped at the box office. He then reunited with Chan to make Shanghai Knights (2003), teamed up with Ben Stiller in Zoolander (2001) and the movie remake of the television series Starsky & Hutch (2004), and partnered with Vince Vaughn in the 2005 Wedding Crashers which grossed over $200 million dollars in the US alone. In 2006, Wilson voiced Lightning McQueen in Cars, starred in You, Me, and Dupree, and will appear with Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum as well as Kyle Gulutzan and Sean Casey's production of "Roundabout", both to be released in December 2008.
Due to his busy schedule as an actor, he was unable to collaborate on the script for Wes Anderson's fourth feature, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and the film was ultimately co-written by filmmaker Noah Baumbach. Wilson eventually did star in the film as Bill Murray's would-be son, Ned Plimpton, which was a role written specifically for Wilson.[2]
Wilson, along with his brother Luke, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Jack Black, and Steve Carell are considered members of the Frat Pack. Owen is the first "Frat Pack" member to receive an Academy Award nomination. He has been in seven movies with Stiller to date: The Cable Guy (1996), Permanent Midnight (1998), Meet the Parents (2000), Zoolander (2001), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Starsky & Hutch (2004) and Meet the Fockers (2004).
In early 2005, Wilson rushed to the defense of his long-time friend and fellow frat-packer Ben Stiller, after The New Yorker published a disparaging characterization of Stiller's film performances, calling him "the latest, and crudest, version of the urban Jewish male on the make". The magazine published a letter written by Wilson, charging that the critic David Denby was a "bully" who blithely dismissed all of Stiller's filmography with a touch of personal rancor. In Wilson's words, he jumped to defend Stiller "not because [the article] was good or fair toward my friend but exactly because it wasn’t". [3]
[edit] Personal life
Owen Wilson dated Sheryl Crow when he was making The Minus Man. The couple separated in 2000. Wilson is also a big Willie Nelson fan, and enjoys playing ping pong. He once played a publicized match against Regis Philbin on Regis and Kelly. Owen also likes to skateboard and appears in Yeah Right!, a 2003 skateboarding movie, and he is also seen teaching kids how to drop in on a half pipe in You, Me & Dupree. Growing up, Wilson attended a single year of band class at his high school. He did not enjoy the amount of practice time his parents put him through and subsequently dropped the course the following year.
He is believed to be dating Kate Hudson now. Wilson is a supporter of football club Chelsea F.C..
The distinctive shape of Wilson's nose is due to having broken it twice: once in ninth grade, and again while playing football at the University of Texas. [1] Its resemblance to a flaccid penis has been noticed by satirists on NBC's Saturday Night Live. [2]
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Movie salaries
- You, Me and Dupree (2006) $15,000,000
- Cars (2006) $2,000,000
- Wedding Crashers (2005) $10,000,000
- Starsky & Hutch (2004) 8,000,000
- Behind Enemy Lines (2001) $3,000,000
- Zoolander (2001) $2,000,000
- Shanghai Noon (2000) $4,000,000
[edit] References
- ^ Trivia for Rushmore (1998). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2006-09-29.
- ^ Fred Topel (2004-12-23). Interview: Wes Anderson. CHUD.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-29.
- ^ Owen Wilson Comes to Buddy Ben Stiller's Defense. Defamer.com (2005-02-08). Retrieved on 2006-09-29.
[edit] External links
Categories: Articles lacking sources from November 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Articles with unsourced statements | 1968 births | American film actors | Irish-American actors | Living people | People from Austin, Texas | People from Dallas | Roman Catholic entertainers | Texas actors | University of Texas at Austin alumni
