Matt Dillon
| Matt Dillon | |
|---|---|
 Dillon at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival |
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| Born | Matthew Raymond Dillon February 18, 1964 New Rochelle, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, director |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Family | Kevin Dillon (brother) |
Matthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor and film director. He began acting in the late 1970s, gaining fame as a teenage idol during the 1980s, appearing in films such as Little Darlings (1980), My Bodyguard (1980), Tex (1982), Rumble Fish (1983), The Outsiders (1983), Drugstore Cowboy (1989), Singles (1992), Beautiful Girls (1996), There's Something About Mary (1998), Wild Things (1998), Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), Crash (2005),You, Me and Dupree (2006), and Armored (2009). In 2013, he will appear in the comedy film The Art of the Steal as an art thief alongside Kurt Russell.
In 1990, he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for Drugstore Cowboy and in 2006 won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for Crash and the San Sebastián International Film Festival Donostia Lifetime Archievement Award. "Crash" won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2005.
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Early life [edit]
Matthew Raymond Dillon was born in New Rochelle, New York, to second-generation Irish American parents Mary Ellen, a homemaker, and Paul Dillon, a portrait painter and sales manager for Union Camp, a packing material manufacturer.[1][2] He was raised in a close-knit Roman Catholic family as the second of six children.[3][4][5] Dillon's paternal grandmother was the sister of comic strip artist Alex Raymond, the creator of Flash Gordon.[6] Dillon has one sister and four brothers, one of whom, Kevin Dillon,[7] is also an actor and appeared on the hit TV series Entourage, which earned him several Emmy nominations in the supporting actor comedy category. Dillon grew up in Mamaroneck, New York, and before dropping out in junior year, he attended Mamaroneck High School.[citation needed]
Career [edit]
In 1978, Jane Bernstein and a friend were helping director Jonathan Kaplan cast the violent teen drama Over the Edge when they found Dillon cutting class at Hommocks Middle School in Larchmont. Dillon auditioned for a role and made his debut in the film.[8] The film received a regional, limited theatrical release in May 1979, and grossed only slightly over $200,000.[9] 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 dramedy 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[10] 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 and Other Disasters.[11][12] The only available copies of this film are stored at UCLA, where a legal dispute makes it unavailable to the public.
One of his next roles was in Liar's Moon, where he played Jack Duncan, a poor Texas boy madly in love with a rich banker's daughter. In the early 1980s, Dillon also 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 those up with The Flamingo Kid in 1984. 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. 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 starring 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 wrote and directed the film City of Ghosts, starring himself, James Caan and Gérard Depardieu. In 2005, he starred in Factotum, a film adaptation of an autobiographical work by Charles Bukowski. Two years later he received critical praise and earned a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe along with Oscar nominations for his role in Crash, a film co-written and directed by Paul Haggis. In 2005 Dillon co-starred in Disney's Herbie: Fully Loaded and on March 11, 2006 hosted Saturday Night Live, in which he impersonated Greg Anderson[disambiguation needed] and Rod Serling in sketches.
Dillon starred 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 Premio Donostia prize in the San Sebastián International Film Festival.
Dillon contributed his voice as the narrator, Sal Paradise, in an audiobook version of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. In 2006, he narrated Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos.
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 for "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". In 2007, the band Dinosaur Jr. hired Dillon to direct the video for their single "Been There All The Time" from the album Beyond. That year, he starred in The Simpsons episode "Midnight Towboy".
Personal life [edit]
Dillon had a three-year relationship with actress Cameron Diaz in the late 1990s.[13]
On December 30, 2008, he was arrested by the Vermont State Police after he was clocked traveling at 106 miles per hour northbound on Interstate 91 near Newbury, Vermont.[14] 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.[15] He faced a maximum of one year in jail, and a fine of $1,000. He pled guilty to speeding and paid a $828 fine on March 30, 2009; in return, the negligence charge was dismissed by prosecutors.[16]
Cultural influence [edit]
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
Dillon has been mentioned as the source inspiration behind the creation of "Hanma Yuujiro" the father of the main character of the fighting manga series "Grappler Baki" which is denoted to be "The strongest creature in the world"
Dillon is also mentioned in Pencey Prep's "Don Quixote" from the album Heartbreak in Stereo.
I dance the same dance every night / It's only you you're killing / Super glue the queen of hearts and the information she's spilling / Matt Dillon.
Filmography [edit]
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Over the Edge | Richie White | |
| 1980 | My Bodyguard | Melvin Moody | |
| 1980 | Little Darlings | Randy Adams | |
| 1982 | Tex | Tex McCormick | |
| 1982 | Liar's Moon | Jack Duncan | |
| 1982 | The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters | Ralph | TV movie |
| 1983 | Rumble Fish | Rusty James | |
| 1983 | Amazed | Ewan Willson | |
| 1983 | The Outsiders | Dallas 'Dally' Winston | |
| 1984 | The Flamingo Kid | Jeffrey Willis | |
| 1985 | Target | Chris Lloyd/Derek Potter | |
| 1986 | Native Son | Jan | |
| 1986 | Rebel | Rebel | |
| 1987 | The Big Town | J. C. Cullen | |
| 1988 | Kansas | Doyle Kennedy | |
| 1989 | Drugstore Cowboy | Bob | |
| 1989 | Bloodhounds of Broadway | Regret | |
| 1991 | A Kiss Before Dying | Jonathan Corliss | |
| 1991 | Fishing with John | ||
| 1991 | Women & Men 2 | Eddie Megeffin | TV movie |
| 1992 | Singles | Cliff Poncier | |
| 1993 | The Saint of Fort Washington | Matthew | |
| 1993 | Mr. Wonderful | Gus | |
| 1994 | Golden Gate | Kevin Walker | |
| 1995 | To Die For | Larry Maretto | |
| 1995 | Frankie Starlight | Terry Klout | |
| 1996 | Grace of My Heart | Jay Phillips | |
| 1996 | Albino Alligator | Dova | |
| 1996 | Beautiful Girls | Tommy 'Birdman' Rowland | |
| 1997 | In & Out | Cameron Drake | |
| 1998 | There's Something About Mary | Patrick (Pat) Healy | |
| 1998 | Wild Things | Sam Lombardo | |
| 2001 | One Night at McCool's | Randy | |
| 2002 | Deuces Wild | Fritzy | |
| 2002 | City of Ghosts | Jimmy | Also director and writer |
| 2003 | Abby Singer | Himself | |
| 2004 | Employee of the Month | David Walsh | |
| 2005 | Herbie: Fully Loaded | Trip Murphy | |
| 2005 | Crash | Sgt. John Ryan | |
| 2006 | Factotum | Henry Chinaski | |
| 2006 | You, Me and Dupree | Carl Peterson | |
| 2006 | Loverboy | Mark | |
| 2007 | The Simpsons | Louie (voice) | TV series (1 episode: Midnight Towboy) |
| 2008 | Nothing But the Truth | Patton Dubois | |
| 2009 | Old Dogs | Barry | |
| 2009 | Armored | Mike Cochrane | |
| 2010 | Takers | Det. Jack Welles | |
| 2011 | Modern Family | Robbie Sullivan | TV series (1 episode: Princess Party) |
| 2012 | Girl Most Likely | ||
| 2013 | The Art of the Steal | Nicky Calhoun | post-production |
| 2013 | Whiskey Bay | Jesse Weiland | post-production |
| 2013 | Sunlight Jr. |
Awards and nominations [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Cigar Aficionado | People Profile | Matt Dillon
- ^ Matt Dillon Biography (1964-)
- ^ Dillon, Matt (August 6, 2005). "Behind the mask". London: The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
- ^ Flynn, Paul (August 11, 2005). "Matt's Crash landing". Evening Standard. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
- ^ Rader, Dotson (July 23, 2006). "‘‘You Don’t Shut the Door on Hope’’". Parade. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
- ^ "Fordham golf coach has way with the brush". USA Today. October 9, 2001. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- ^ Kevin Dillon Biography at FilmReference.com
- ^ Over the Edge: An Oral History of the Greatest Teen Rebellion Movie of All Time September 2009, Vice Magazine. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
- ^ "50 Top-Grossing Films". (Week ending May 23, 1979). Variety, pp. 9.
- ^ "Matt Dillon box office tallies". Retrieved March 10, 2006.
- ^ [1] Flicklives.com - A Salute to Jean Shepherd
- ^ [2] NTW Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters, The
- ^ "Matt Dillon Attempts to Explain Cameron Diaz Split". Hollywood.com. 2006-07-24. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
- ^ [3][dead link]
- ^ [4][dead link]
- ^ Matt Dillon Pleads Guilty WPTZ news, March 30, 2009
External links [edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Matt Dillon |
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- 1964 births
- American film actors
- American child actors
- American people of Irish descent
- Living people
- Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute alumni
- Actors from New York
- Independent Spirit Award winners
- People from New Rochelle, New York
- Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- El Camino College Compton Center alumni
- 20th-century American actors
- 21st-century American actors
- Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead winners
- People from Mamaroneck, New York
