Best Known As: Star of Rumble Fish and Wild Things
Matt Dillon was a teen screen idol in the 1980s who became a versatile character actor, earning an Oscar nomination for his performance in Paul Haggis's Crash (2004). Dillon got his start in 1979's Over the Edge, the first of many bad boy roles that brought out the usual comparisons to James Dean and young Marlon Brando. His square-jawed good looks and curled-lip attitude served him well in the film adaptations of S.E. Hinton's novels, The Outsiders and Rumble Fish (1983, both directed by Francis Ford Coppola), but he broke from the teen-rebel mold in 1984's The Flamingo Kid and proved his ability to do romantic comedy. Out of teen idol status, he starred in Target (1985, with Gene Hackman) and The Big Town (1987, with Diane Lane), and earned critical praise for playing a lowlife in Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy (1989). Since then Dillon has been a stand-out in supporting roles, in dramas including To Die For (1995, starring Nicole Kidman) and Wild Things (1998), and in the comedies In & Out (1997) and There's Something About Mary (1998, starring Dillon's then-girlfriend, Cameron Diaz).
Dillon made his debut as a writer-director-actor with City of Ghosts (2002).
"Thirty was so strange for me. I've really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult. [Reflecting on his former status as a teen idol]"
Career Highlights: Drugstore Cowboy, My Bodyguard, In & Out
First Major Screen Credit: Over the Edge (1979)
Biography
For a long time, Matt Dillon was a teen idol known mostly for his Tiger Beat-ready looks, but he was able to make a successful transition from pubescent star to adult actor. As he grew, his physical attributes -- the dark, pretty-boy eyes and glacier-cut cheekbones -- matured with him, making him well-suited to portray characters whose golden-boy pasts have been eclipsed by adult experience.
A native of New Rochelle, NY, where he was born on February 18, 1964, Dillon was a product of a pop-culture milieu. The nephew of comic-strip artist Alex Raymond, creator of Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, and Rip Kirby, he was named for the protagonist of the TV Western Gunsmoke. Dillon was raised as the second oldest of the five sons and one daughter of a stockbroker and a homemaker. He began acting in elementary school, and, at the age of 14, he was discovered by Warner Bros. talent scouts while cutting class. After making a memorable impression on casting director Vic Ramos with an eerily accurate impersonation of the character he was asked to audition for, Dillon won the part and made his film debut as a school bully in Jonathan Kaplan's 1979 teenage drama Over the Edge. His work in the film opened the floodgates for roles in similar teen movies, and over the next few years, Dillon could be seen as the photogenic mouthpiece for adolescent discontent in such films as My Bodyguard (1980), Little Darlings (1980), Tex (1982), Rumble Fish (1983), and that seminal exploration of teenage alienation, The Outsiders (1983).
By the mid-'80s, Dillon sought to move beyond the teen mold and began taking more adult roles. His breakthrough into the grown-up realm came with his somber, unheroic portrayal of a junkie trying to come clean in Gus Van Sant's acclaimed Drugstore Cowboy (1989). His status as an adult performer firmly established, Dillon went on to star in films of varying quality, doing some of his most memorable work in Singles (1992), as the egocentric slacker head of a terrifically bad grunge band; To Die For (1995), as the well-meaning but tragically dim husband of a psychotic weather girl (Nicole Kidman); Kevin Spacey's Albino Alligator (1995), as a small-time New Orleans crook; and Beautiful Girls (1996), in which Dillon was perfectly cast as a small-town snow plower unable to make good on the promise of his high-school glory days.
Dillon had pivotal roles in several Hollywood hits between 1997 and 1998. The first, In & Out, called for him to caricature himself as a peroxided movie star who unwittingly outs his ex-high school teacher on national television. The following year, he again proved his capacity for bottom-dwelling when he played a woefully unqualified high-school guidance counselor in the delightfully trashy Wild Things and once more when he starred alongside then-girlfriend Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary as a sleazy personal investigator, only to drop off the radar for three years before starring in the disappointing One Night at McCool's (2001) with John Goodman and Liv Tyler.
The year 2002 found Dillon in the director's chair as well as on the big screen in The City of Ghosts, in which he played a young man under suspicion of insurance fraud. Though the film -- which Dillon also helped write -- received mixed reviews critically, Dillon was lauded for a nonetheless impressive directorial debut. The same year featured Dillon as a mobster in director Scott Kalvert's Deuces Wild and later as an interviewee in the documentary Rockets Redglare!, which also included Steve Buscemi and Willem Dafoe. After participating in 2003's Breakfast With Hunter, which centered on gonzo writer Hunter S. Thompson, Dillon went on to film 2004's Employee of the Month with Steve Zahn and Christina Applegate, which screened at that year's installment of the Sundance Film Festival.
2005 would prove to be quite a big year for Dillon, with him appearing a no less than four films of varying size. In addition to the lead in the low-budget Charles Bukowski adaptation Factotum, the actor could also be seen in two ensemble dramas: the Kevin Bacon-directed Loverboy and Crash, a film from Million Dollar Baby scribe Paul Haggis about the intertwining lives of a group of Los Angelenos that would earn Dillon his first Oscar nomination. He also appeared as the villain in the rebirth of Disney's classic Lovebug series, Herbie: Fully Loaded.
He followed up his appearance in the Oscar winning Crash by starring opposite Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson in the comedy You, Me and Dupree as a loyal best friend forced to deal with the outrageous antics of a friend who becomes a houseguest and the effects it has on his marriage. He next signed on for a serious turn in the political drama Nothing But the Truth with Kate Beckinsale, and joined the cast of the thriller Armored, with Lawrence Fishburn. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Matthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He began acting in the late 1970s, gained fame as a teenage idol during the 1980s.
Matthew Raymond 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.[1][2] Through his father, Dillon is related to comic strip artist Alex Raymond.[3] Dillon has one sister and four brothers, one of whom, Kevin Dillon,[4] is also an actor, and appears on the hit TV series Entourage. Dillon grew up in Mamaroneck, New York and before dropping out in junior year he attended Mamaroneck High School.
Career
In 1979, casting director Vic Ramos went to Mamaroneck High School and spotted Dillon cutting class. He asked Dillon to audition for a role, and Dillon made his film debut in the violent teen drama Over the Edge. The film received a regional, limited theatrical release in May 1979, and grossed only slightly over $200,000.[5] 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[6] and raised Dillon's profile among teenage audiences.
Another of Dillon's early roles was in the Jean Shepherd 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 and Diane Lane. He followed it up with The Flamingo Kid. He made his Broadway debut with the play The Boys of Winter in 1985.
Dillon did voiceover work in the 1987 documentary film Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. The same year, 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 appeared in several music videos during his career. He made a cameo appearance as a detective in Madonna's Bad Girl music video which also stars Christopher Walken. Dillon appeared in 1987 in the music video of "Fairytale Of New York" by the Irish folk-punk band The Pogues playing a cop who escorts lead singer Shane MacGowan into the drunk tank.
As of 2007, the band Dinosaur Jr. hired Dillon to direct their new video and single "Been There All The Time", off of their album Beyond. He guest stars in The Simpsons episode "Midnight Towboy" and also appears on an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Personal life
On December 30, 2008, Dillon was arrested by the Vermont State Police after he was clocked traveling at 106 miles per hour northbound on Interstate 91 near Newbury, Vermont.[7] He was charged with negligent operation of a vehicle. His attorney, Mark Kaplan, entered a plea of not guilty on Dillon's behalf in a January appearance in Orange County Court in Chelsea, and also appeared in court on February 25, 2009.[8] He faced a maximum of one year in jail, and a fine of $1,000. He pleaded guilty to speeding and paid a $828 fine on March 30, 2009; in return, the negligence charge was dismissed by prosecutors.[9]
He is 5'10" (178 cm).
Cultural influence
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's name is dropped in the lyrics of "After the Fire", a song that Pete Townshend wrote for Roger Daltrey's solo album "Under A Raging Moon":
I saw Matt Dillon in black and white/There ain't no colour in memories/He rode his brother's Harley across the TV/ While I was laughing at Dom deLuise
Matt Dillon has won several awards in his career including Screen Actors Guild Award, MTV Movie Award and Independent Spirit Award. He also nominated for many awards which includes Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA with the film Crash. He was also honored in the San Sebastián International Film Festival where he received the "Donostia Lifetime Archievement Award." This list includes awards and nominations for his work. In the "Best Ensemble" category, he shared the award with the rest of the ensemble cast.
