Owen Wilson

Owen Wilson

Self-proclaimed troublemaker Owen Wilson grew up in Texas with his mother, Laura, a photographer; his father, an ad exec; and his brothers, Andrew Wilson (the eldest) and Luke Wilson (the youngest). Expelled from St. Mark's Academy in Dallas Texas in the tenth grade, Wilson finished his sophomore year at Thomas Jefferson School and then headed to a military academy in New Mexico. He then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he met his future mentor and friend, Wes Anderson. They wrote a screenplay, Bottle Rocket (1996), and sent it to their family friend, screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson, who sent it to producer Polly Platt, who gave it to James L. Brooks, who gave the Texans $5 million dollars to make it into a feature film. Despite critical praise, Bottle Rocket (1996) only grossed one million dollars. After making the film, Wilson moved to Hollywood, setting up house with his two brothers and Anderson. Fairly quickly, Owen found himself acting in a series of big budget films that scraped the bottom of the critical barrel, such as the dreadful The Cable Guy (1996), The Haunting (1999), Anaconda (1997) and Breakfast of Champions (1999). This led to more work in slightly better fare, such as Shanghai Noon (2000), Meet the Parents (2000) and Behind Enemy Lines (2001). He's known not only for his nose, which has been broken several times, but also for his 'free wheeling ways' with a script. He co-wrote the film The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) with his oft partner Wes Anderson. He has been romantically linked with singer Sheryl Crow.

IMDb Mini Biography



Trivia

Neighbor of Anthony Begonia and brother of Luke Wilson and Andrew Wilson.

Cut his chin and had to get stitches during the making of The Haunting (1999) in the scene where his character Luke is attacking the portrait of Hugh Crane with a candlestick.

Despite being grateful of his success as an actor, he still considers himself a writer at heart and wishes he devoted more time to that rather than acting. Due to a busy schedule as an actor, he sadly had to miss contributing to the script for Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), despite that he co-wrote Anderson's 3 previous films.

He is known for his improvisational abilities, which he mostly contributes to films other than the more personal ones he does with Wes Anderson. Many of the funniest lines in his movies are his improvisations.

Usually declines to discuss the source of his distinctive-looking nose, which was clearly broken at one time. The broken nose was apparently the result of a football injury attained while on the football team in high school (all three Wilson brothers had played high school football, the elder Andrew with the greatest success).

Is a member of, what the media refers to as, "The Frat Pack," along with Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Steve Carell, and Luke Wilson. The "Frat Pack" name is a reference to the film, Old School (2003), featuring Vaughn, Ferrell and Luke Wilson, due to the wide number of films featuring the seven actors. Wilson's "Frat Pack" films include Zoolander (2001),Wedding Crashers (2005), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Cable Guy (1996), and Starsky & Hutch (2004).

Has been in 9 movies with Ben Stiller, up to this date. They are The Cable Guy (1996), Permanent Midnight (1998), Heat Vision and Jack (1999) (TV), Meet the Parents (2000), Zoolander (2001), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Starsky & Hutch (2004), Meet the Fockers (2004), and Night at the Museum (2006).

He and his brother Luke Wilson were originally meant to play the Malloy brothers in Ocean's Eleven (2001), but dropped out to make The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).

Majored in English.

Father was a PBS exec.

When appearing on Australian talk show, "Rove Live" (2000), he became the 1001st guest on the show. He was appearing with Isla Fisher. Fisher walked out first and therefore became the 1000th. Wilson received a meat tray.

First "Frat Pack" member to receive an Academy Award nomination.

Is of Irish descent.

Was the best man at the wedding of his brother, Andrew Wilson.

Has an Australian cattle dog named Garcia.

Attended his senior year in high school at the New Mexico Military Institute, instead of a normal academic school.

Fan of Chelsea FC (England soccer club).

Met his ex-girlfriend Kate Hudson on the set of You, Me and Dupree (2006).

Never wanted to be an actor, but writing is his passion.

Born to Robert Andrew Wilson, an advertising executive and operator of a public TV station in Dallas, and his wife Laura Cunningham, a photographer.

Was romantically linked to Demi Moore and Sheryl Crow.

Was taken to St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, CA after a reported suicide attempt (26 August 2007).

Owen and Luke's father was the first to bring Monty Python's Flying Circus to American TV where he managed a station in Dallas, TX.


Personal Quotes

"It's funny how it usually works out that I end up dying. It sort of works out, because by the time I die, I'm usually tired of working on that particular movie, so I look forward to it." - about how a lot of his characters end up dying.

"Being in a bathtub with Jackie Chan, I don't know, it has a way of bonding you I'll tell you that. I don't know if there are some weird undertones. It was like we had met in Los Angeles and we didn't have that much to say to each other but, after that bathtub scene, we were great friends. What it really was was that when we'd play off each other, it really was fun. We really did become friends". - on the bathtub scene in Shanghai Noon (2000).

"The walk off was the most uncomfortable scene for me to shoot, cos I literally have never danced in public or really even in private. I'm not a musical person and we had to dance like Michael Jackson and we had to do breakdancing..." - about the walk off scene in Zoolander (2001).

"Sometimes I stop and think how strange this all is. Something that began as a little idea in Austin, that Wes and I just walked around talking about between ourselves, has turned into all this." - on how his career has turned out.

You can think of Hollywood as high school. TV actors are freshmen, comedy actors are maybe juniors, and dramatic actors - they're the cool seniors.

"I guess a lot of me in the sense is like Dignan, that's my sense of humor. The stuff that Dignan is doing is what I would do. When we test-screened the movie I realized that not everybody laughed where I did. I realized there's not a big audience for my type of humor. Dignan doesn't have self-awareness. Donald Trump has none either. When I read "The Art of the Deal" I laughed at that because neither of them realize how funny they are" - about his character Dignan in Bottle Rocket (1996).

[Talking about his relationship with Sheryl Crow and his relationships with women in general]: "Going out with someone who's doing the same thing as you, who's in the public eye, can be a problem... You want a break when you come home. You don't want someone with the same issues as you maybe reminding you of stuff you don't like in yourself. That being said, I don't think being in the spotlight had anything to do with me and Sheryl not working out. The story of our relationship is the same story I've had with most of my relationships. I was lucky enough to find a great girl and, because of my lack of... focus, the relationship went south".

"We spent so much time together that I can remember us being in our teens and our dad saying we should try to find some other friends because he thought we were our own lowest common denominator when we got together." - on his brothers

Acting is more fun than writing. Writing is harder, more like having a term paper.

"Yes, sometimes people get irritated, starting with my brother Luke in BR. He would get pissed at me, like, 'Why don't you just say the lines that you wrote?'" - on whether or not his improvisational skills bother fellow actors

"Ben, for example, is kind of a moody guy, and you kind of have to put on the kid gloves because you never know which Ben is going to show up on set" - on Ben Stiller.

I can't think of a movie I wish I'd acted in, but there are movies I wish I'd written.

Not Shakespeare. In college I took a Shakespeare class because I was an English major, and they had a Summer program called Shakespeare at Winedale, which is out in the German Hill country in Texas , where you go out and live for two months and then you perform three plays at the end of that time. And people from Austin drive out and see it. I was supposed to be one of the two gentlemen of Verona . And I got out there and I just could not stand being out there. There were also so many lines to memorize that it was just overwhelming for me. So I ended up going home and I got an F.

A buddy movie has to have that beat where one buddy doesn't show up. They hit the same beats as romantic comedies.

At about the same age as I was interested in petrified wood, I was just fascinated with this dumb idea that we only used 10 percent of our brains. I was always thinking, Man, if I could only use 20...

I'm not going to play a guy with MS or a guy in a wheelchair. I can play a dramatic character, certainly, but I'm not the real chameleon-type actor who, you know, changes his voice and everything.

Actually, to be honest, a shotgun wedding might be the way to go for me. You can't stay at the party forever. At some point, you have to take stock and ask yourself, 'What am I doing here?'

To me, being cool is just the opposite of living. It's about not getting too worked up about anything, by being 'Nyah, nyah, nyah,' and no big deal. I can't stand that. It's such a jaded, clichéd posture to take. I get real enthusiastic about stuff. It's what I think is life-affirming.

"I thought that I'd be married by the time I was 30 and be starting a family, but it just hasn't worked out that way. I think that there's something about being in Hollywood. I don't know if I'm shallow, but you want to make sure that you make the right choice because you know that it's forever and I didn't realize that I have such a strong scientific side that demands that I experiment with and compare women." - 2005

"The studio said Bottle Rocket (1996) was their worst-testing movie in history, so I looked into the marines. Maybe I was influenced by An Officer and a Gentleman (1982). Or those marine commercials - they were so cool! Like a Led Zeppelin song come to life, full of people pulling swords from rocks and fighting lava monsters!".

"The director made that decision not to use my butt...I don't know how to interpret that." - on having a body double for a scene in You, Me and Dupree (2006).

(On what he enjoys most about being an actor) "I was reading some Bob Dylan interview where he said, 'It beats nine-to-five. It beat it yesterday, it beats it today, and it will beat it tomorrow.' That's how I feel. I just thank God that I'm able to make a living doing something that I can have a good time doing, and be creative."

I think there is a middle-child syndrome. I don't know quite what it is, but I think I suffer from it.

There's that great quote from Beckett, I think, 'He had an abiding sense of melancholy that sustained him through brief periods of joy.' I like that, because I'm definitely an up-and-down person.

(before meeting with James L. Brooks about "Bottle Rocket") Luke and I had a punching fight. I had scratch marks down my face. I had to get on the plane. It's really emotional fighting your brother. We were crying a little bit on the flight. We went to the meeting. It was such a heavy vibe from us, they didn't even ask us what had happened to our faces.

It was maybe easier for my dad to be around Luke. They had more of a connection. Luke looked like my mother and of course, Andrew was the oldest. My dad and I would butt heads.

It's that middle brother syndrome. The older child has a very clear identity, and the baby gets a lot of attention. The middle brother is a little bit in no-man's land. That might give you a little bit of sensitivity, a feeling that you're not clearly on the winning team, you know?

I think of myself as a doom person. I'm a worrier. But I like the idea of being an optimist. Maybe I'm the kind of optimist who deep down knows it's not going to work.

I don't feel like I'm a hundred times happier. Can't we petition someone to make it so that outside stuff is the key to happiness? I'm tired of people always saying, 'It's gotta come from you!' Can't it come from, like, a new pair of shoes?

I don't like caring what other people think, but I do. There's a freedom when you meet someone who doesn't care, who is just themselves in all situations. I had the way I was with my friends, and then my personality with adults, and that's continued a little bit. To just be yourself, and not try to sell anything, or make a good impression, that's something worth striving towards.

The image - being from Texas, the slacker, surfer thing - you don't think of that and see a worrier, an angst-ridden person, I know that. Also, I'm reasonably polite and that puts people at their ease, so they think you are too.

 

 

Owen Wilson IMDB