Everything about Matt Dillon totally explained
Matthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon (born
February 18,
1964) is an
Academy Award-nominated
American actor. He began acting in the late 1970s, gained fame as a
teen idol during the 1980s, and developed a successful career as an adult actor in the decades following, culminating in an
Oscar nomination for his performance in the film
Crash.
Biography
Early life
Dillon was born in
New Rochelle,
New York to second-generation
Irish American Catholic parents Mary Ellen, a homemaker, and Paul Dillon, a portrait painter and sales manager for
Union Camp, a packing material manufacturer. Through his father, Dillon is related to comic strip artist
Alex Raymond. Dillon has one sister and four brothers, one of whom,
Kevin, is also an actor. Dillon grew up in
Mamaroneck, New York and attended (dropped out in junior year) Mamaroneck High School in
Mamaroneck, New York.
Career
In 1979, casting director
Vic Ramos spotted Dillon and cast him in
Over the Edge. The film received a regional, limited theatrical release in May 1979, and grossed only slightly over $200,000. Dillon's performance was well-received, which led to his casting in two films released the following year; the teenage sex comedy,
Little Darlings, in which
Kristy McNichol's character loses her
virginity to a boy from the camp across the lake, played by Dillon, and the more serious teen drama,
My Bodyguard, where he played a high-school bully opposite
Chris Makepeace. The films, released in March and July 1980, respectively, were box office successes and raised Dillon's profile among teenage audiences.
One of his best early roles was in the Jean Shephard PBS special "The Great American Fourth of July." The only available copies of this film are stored at UCLA where a legal dispute makes it unavailable to the public.
His next role was in the 1982 film,
Tex, followed two months later by
Liar's Moon, where he played Jack Duncan, a poor
Texas boy madly in love with a rich banker's daughter. In the mid-1980s, Dillon had prominent roles in three adaptations of S.E. Hinton novels:
Tex (1982)
The Outsiders (1983) and
Rumble Fish (1983). All three films were shot in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hinton's hometown. The Outsiders and Rumble Fish had Dillon working with Francis Ford Coppola. He also starred in
The Flamingo Kid.
In 1987, Dillon appeared briefly as a policeman in the
music video for the song
Fairytale of New York by
The Pogues and
Kirsty MacColl, a major hit in
Ireland and the
United Kingdom. In 1989, Dillon won critical acclaim for his performance as a
drug addict in
Gus Van Sant's
Drugstore Cowboy.
Dillon continued to work in the early 1990s with roles in movies like
Singles (1992). He had somewhat of a career resurgence when he played
Nicole Kidman's husband in
To Die For (1995), as well as large roles in
Wild Things (1998) and
There's Something About Mary (1998), for which he received an
MTV Movie Award for
Best Villain.
In 2002, he also wrote and directed the film
City of Ghosts, starring himself,
James Caan and
Gérard Depardieu. Two years later he appeared in
Crash (co-written and directed by
Paul Haggis); Dillon received much praise for his performance, including
Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe and
Oscar nominations. He also co-starred in
Disney's . Dillon also hosted
Saturday Night Live on
March 11,
2006, where he impersonated
Greg Anderson in a "SportsCenter" sketch and
Rod Serling in
Bill Hader's "Vincent Price St. Patrick's Day Special" sketch and played a redneck conman named Perdy Spotley in the recurring sketch "Appalachian Emergency Room".
Dillon's most recent role is in the comedy
You, Me and Dupree, opposite
Kate Hudson and
Owen Wilson. The film opened on
July 14,
2006. On
September 29,
2006, Dillon was honored with the price
Premio Donostia in the
San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Other work
Dillon is mentioned on
Jeff Buckley's
Live at Sin-é: Legacy Edition CD. On the fifth track Buckley mentions that he cut his hair because people thought he looked like Matt Dillon.
Dillon also contributed his voice as Sal Paradise in
Jack Kerouac's famous novel
On the Road. In 2006, he narrated
Once in a Lifetime.
As of 2007, the band
Dinosaur Jr. hired Dillon to direct their new video and single "Been There All The Time", off of their upcoming album
Beyond. He guest stars in
The Simpsons episode "
Midnight Towboy" and also appeared on an episode of
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Filmography
Further Information
Get more info on 'Matt Dillon'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://matt_dillon.totallyexplained.com">Matt Dillon Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
