Ewan McGregor Biography

Ewan Gordon McGregor (born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His first professional role was in 1993, when he won a leading role in the Channel 4 series Lipstick on Your Collar. He is known for playing heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama films Trainspotting (1996) and T2 Trainspotting (2017), the young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999-2005), poet Christian in the musical film Moulin Rouge! (2001), Camerlengo Father Patrick McKenna in Angels and Demons (2009), Dr. Alfred Jones in the romantic comedy-drama Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011), and Lumire in a live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast (2017).

He received Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor - Musical or Comedy for both Moulin Rouge! and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. McGregor has also starred in theatre productions of Guys and Dolls (2005-07) and Othello (2007-08). He was ranked number 36 on Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list in 1997. In a 2004 poll for the BBC, McGregor was named the fourth most influential person in British culture. He has been involved in charity work and has served as an ambassador for UNICEF UK since 2004. In 2016, he received the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award.

Early life

McGregor was born in Perth, Scotland and brought up in Crieff. His mother, Carol Diane (ne Lawson), is a retired teacher of Crieff High School and latterly deputy head teacher of Kingspark School in Dundee. His father, James Charles Stewart "Jim" McGregor, is a retired physical education teacher and careers master of Morrison's Academy, Crieff. He has an older brother, Colin (b. 1969), who is a former Tornado GR4 pilot in the Royal Air Force. He is the nephew of actor Denis Lawson (who also appeared in the Star Wars franchise, as Rebel Alliance pilot Wedge Antilles) and actress Sheila Gish, and the step-cousin of actress Lou Gish on his mother's side of the family. McGregor attended the independent Morrison's Academy in Crieff. After leaving school, at the age of 16, he worked as a stagehand at Perth Repertory Theatre and studied a foundation course in drama at Kirkcaldy College of Technology, before moving to London to study drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama when he was 18 years old.

Career

Film and television

In 1993, six months prior to his graduation from Guildhall, McGregor won a leading role in Dennis Potter's six-part Channel 4 series Lipstick on Your Collar. The same year, he starred in the BBC adaptation of Scarlet and Black with a young Rachel Weisz, and made his film debut in Bill Forsyth's Being Human. In 1994, McGregor performed in the thriller Shallow Grave, for which he won an Empire Award, and which marked his first collaboration with director Danny Boyle. His international breakthrough followed in 1996 with the role of heroin addict Mark Renton in Boyle's Trainspotting, an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel of the same name.

McGregor played the male romantic lead role in the 1998 British film Little Voice. In 1999, McGregor starred in the blockbuster Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace as the young Obi-Wan Kenobi, a role originally made famous by Sir Alec Guinness in the original Star Wars trilogy. While the prequels received criticism from Star Wars fans, McGregor's performance was widely acclaimed and lead to rumours of a possible spin-off film. His uncle, Denis Lawson, had played Wedge Antilles in the original trilogy. In 2001, he starred in Moulin Rouge! as the young poet Christian, who falls in love with the terminally-ill courtesan Satine, played by Nicole Kidman. McGregor reprised his role of Obi-Wan Kenobi for the subsequent prequel Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones in 2002. In 2003, he starred alongside Rene Zellweger in Down With Love. He also portrayed the younger Edward Bloom in the critically acclaimed film Big Fish alongside Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman and Billy Crudup. During that year, he also received critical acclaim for his portrayal of an amoral drifter mixed up with murder in the drama Young Adam, which co-starred Tilda Swinton.

In 2005, McGregor appeared for the final time as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. He took very special care"?especially in Revenge of the Sith"?to ensure that his portrayal of Obi-Wan's mannerisms, speech timings and accents closely resembled Alec Guinness' version. That same year, McGregor voiced two successful animated features; he played the robot Rodney Copperbottom in Robots, which also featured the voices of Halle Berry and Robin Williams, and he voiced the lead character in Gary Chapman's Valiant, alongside Jim Broadbent, John Cleese and Ricky Gervais. Also in 2005, McGregor played two roles"?one a clone of the other"?opposite Scarlett Johansson in Michael Bay's science fiction action thriller film The Island. He also headlined Marc Forster's 2005 film Stay, a psychological thriller co-starring Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling.

In 2006, he narrated the Fulldome production Astronaut, created for the National Space Centre. That same year, he also narrated the STV show JetSet, a six-part series following the lives of trainee pilots and navigators at RAF Lossiemouth as they undergo a gruelling six-month course learning to fly the Tornado GR4, the RAF's primary attack aircraft. In 2007, McGregor starred opposite Colin Farrell in the Woody Allen film Cassandra's Dream. In 2009, he co-starred with Jim Carrey in I Love You Phillip Morris and appeared in Amelia alongside Hilary Swank. Also in 2009, he portrayed Camerlengo Patrick McKenna in Angels & Demons, the film adaptation of Dan Brown's novel of the same name. McGregor is scheduled to co-star with Daniel Craig in Dan Harris' upcoming film adaptation of Glen Duncan's novel I, Lucifer. At the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival, he was awarded with the SIFF Golden Space Needle Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting.

In 2012, he was named as a member of the Jury for the Main Competition at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. At the San Sebastin International Film Festival, he was awarded the Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award and became the youngest recipient of the award.

In 2015, he starred in the action comedy film Mortdecai, alongside Johnny Depp, Olivia Munn, and Paul Bettany. Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph felt the film was "psychotically unfunny". On 21 April 2015, it was announced that McGregor would play Lumiere in the live-action version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill Condon. He joins a cast that includes Emma Watson (Belle), Dan Stevens (Beast/Prince), Luke Evans (Gaston), Josh Gad (Lefou), Ian McKellen (Cogsworth), Emma Thompson (Mrs. Potts), Kevin Kline (Maurice) and Audra McDonald (Garderobe). Filming began in May 2015 at Shepperton Studios in London. The film is scheduled to be released in March 2017.

In 2016, he made his directorial debut with American Pastoral. In 2017, he reprised his role as Mark Renton in '.

Theatre

From November 1998 to March 1999, McGregor starred as Malcolm Scrawdyke in a production of David Halliwell's Little Malcolm and His Struggles Against the Eunuchs, directed by his uncle, Denis Lawson. The play was first staged at the Hampstead Theatre before transferring to the Comedy Theatre in London's West End. In November 2001, McGregor made a cameo appearance in The Play What I Wrote.

From June 2005 to April 2007, McGregor starred alongside Jane Krakowski, Douglas Hodge and Jenna Russell in the original Donmar Warehouse production of Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre in London. He played the leading role of Sky Masterson, made famous by Marlon Brando in the film of the same name. McGregor received the LastMinute.com award for Best Actor for his performance in 2005, and he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2007.

From December 2007 to February 2008, McGregor starred as Iago in Othello at the Donmar Warehouse alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor as Othello and Kelly Reilly as Desdemona. He reprised the role on BBC Radio 3 in May 2008.

Motorbike journeys

See Long Way Round for more information A motorcyclist since his youth, McGregor undertook a marathon international motorbike trip with his best friend Charley Boorman and cameraman Claudio von Planta in 2004. From mid-April to the end of July, they travelled from London to New York via central Europe, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Canada and the United States on BMW R1150GS Adventure motorbikes, for a cumulative distance of 22,345 miles (35,960 km). The trip included visits to several UNICEF programs along the route, and formed the basis of a television series and a best-selling book, both called Long Way Round.

The Long Way Round team reunited in 2007 for another motorcycle trip from John o' Groats in Scotland to Cape Town in South Africa. The journey, entitled Long Way Down, lasted from 12 May until 5 August 2007. McGregor's brother Colin joined the motorcycle team during the early stages of the Long Way Down journey, and his father Jim also rode on sections of both Long Way Round and Long Way Down.

McGregor appeared in a two-part BBC documentary in April 2012 entitled Ewan McGregor: Cold Chain Mission in which he travels by motorbike, boat, plane and foot to deliver vaccines to children in remote parts of India, Nepal and the Republic of Congo. The trip was part of his work as a UNICEF Ambassador.

In a June 2015 interview, McGregor indicated that a long discussed South American trip with Boorman was still in the planning stages, but he expected that an excursion through the Baja California Peninsula would take place first.

Personal life

McGregor has been married since 1995 to Eve Mavrakis, a Greek-French production designer, whom he met on the set of Kavanagh QC. Together, they have four daughters, with one of them adopted from Mongolia. McGregor has a heart and dagger tattoo of the names of his wife and daughters on his right arm. The family currently lives in Los Angeles, California after relocating from London. With his children raised in his wife's Jewish faith, McGregor has said, "my involvement in religion has more to do with the Jewish faith now and not the Christian faith, which I was very vaguely brought up in."

McGregor is involved in charity work, including UNICEF UK (since 2004) and GO Campaign. During the Long Way Round journey in 2004, McGregor and his travelling companions saw some of UNICEF's work in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, and during the Long Way Down trip in 2007, he and Charley Boorman did some work for UNICEF in Africa. McGregor hosted the annual Hollywood gala for the GO Campaign in 2009 and 2010. He has also worked with the Children's Hospice Association Scotland, as featured in Long Way Down. In 2012, he travelled with UNICEF immunization workers to remote parts of India, Nepal and the Republic of Congo for a BBC2 documentary entitled Ewan McGregor: Cold Chain Mission.

In June 2015, McGregor read Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl" for the children's fairytales app GivingTales in aid of UNICEF, together with other British celebrities, Roger Moore, Stephen Fry, Joan Collins, Joanna Lumley, Michael Caine, David Walliams, Charlotte Rampling and Paul McKenna.

In 2007, on an episode of Parkinson, McGregor stated that he had given up alcohol after a period where he was arguably a functioning alcoholic, and that he had not had a drink in seven years. In 2008, he had a cancerous mole removed from underneath his right eye.

McGregor is a fan of the Fremantle Dockers in the Australian Football League.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Being Human	Alvarez
1994	Shallow Grave	Alex Law
1995	Blue Juice	Dean Raymond
1996	Trainspotting	Mark Renton
1996	'	Jerome
1996	Emma	Frank Churchill
1996	Brassed Off	Andy Barrow
1997	Nightwatch	Martin Bells
1997	'	Meneer Chrome
1997	'	Robert Lewis
1998	Velvet Goldmine	Curt Wild
1998	Little Voice	Billy
1999	Desserts	Stroller	Short film
1999	Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace	Obi-Wan Kenobi
1999	Rogue Trader	Nick Leeson
1999	Eye of the Beholder	Stephen Wilson/The Eye
2000	Nora	James Joyce
2001	Moulin Rouge!	Christian
2001	Black Hawk Down	SPC John Grimes
2002	Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones	Obi-Wan Kenobi
2002	Solid Geometry	Phil
2003	Down with Love	Catcher Block
2003	Young Adam	Joe Taylor
2003	Faster	Narrator	Voice
2003	Big Fish	Edward Bloom (young)
2005	Robots	Rodney Copperbottom	Voice
2005	Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith	Obi-Wan Kenobi
2005	Valiant	Valiant	Voice
2005	'	Lincoln Six Echo/Tom Lincoln
2005	Stay	Dr. Sam Foster
2006	Stormbreaker	Ian Rider
2006	Scenes of a Sexual Nature	Billy
2006	Miss Potter	Norman Warne
2007	Cassandra's Dream	Ian Blane
2008	Incendiary	Jasper Black
2008	Deception	Jonathan McQuarry
2009	Angels & Demons	Camerlengo Patrick McKenna
2009	I Love You Phillip Morris	Phillip Morris
2009	'	Bob Wilton
2009	Amelia	Gene Vidal
2010	'	The Ghost Writer
2010	Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang	Rory Green
2010	Jackboots on Whitehall	Chris	Voice
2010	Beginners	Oliver Fields
2011	Perfect Sense	Michael
2011	Fastest	Narrator	Voice
2011	Haywire	Kenneth
2012	Salmon Fishing in the Yemen	Dr. Alfred Jones
2012	'	Henry Bennett
2013	Jack the Giant Slayer	Elmont
2013	August: Osage County	Bill Fordham
2014	A Million Ways to Die in the West	Cowboy at Fair
2014	Son of a Gun	Brendan Lynch
2015	Mortdecai	Inspector Alistair Martland
2015	Last Days in the Desert	Jesus / Satan
2015	Miles Ahead	Dave Brill
2015	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	Obi-Wan Kenobi	Cameo; voice
2016	Jane Got a Gun	John Bishop
2016	Our Kind of Traitor	Peregrine "Perry" Makepeace
2016	American Pastoral	Seymour "Swede" Levov	Also director
2017	T2 Trainspotting	Mark Renton
2017	Beauty and the Beast	Lumire

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Lipstick on Your Collar	PTE Mick Hopper	6 episodes
1993	Scarlet and Black	Julien Sorel	Mini-series
1995	Kavanagh QC	David Robert Armstrong	Episode: "Nothing But the Truth"
1996	Karaoke	Young Man	Episode: "Tuesday"
1996	Tales from the Crypt	Ford	Episode: "Cold War"
1997	ER	Duncan Stewart	Episode: "The Long Way Around"
2002	'	Himself	Documentary series
2004	Long Way Round	Himself	Documentary series
2007	Long Way Down	Himself	Documentary series
2010	'	Himself	Documentary
2012	Ewan McGregor: Cold Chain Mission	Himself	Documentary
2012	Bomber Boys	Himself	Documentary
2013	'	Chip Lambert	Unaired pilot
2013	Hebrides: Islands on the Edge	Himself (voice)	Documentary series
2015	Doll & Em	Ewan	2 episodes
2017	Fargo	Emmit Stussy/Ray Stussy	Season 3

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1998	Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs	Joe Orton	Hampstead Theatre
2007	Othello	Iago	Donmar Warehouse
2014	The Real Thing	Henry	American Airlines Theatre

Awards and nominations

See List of awards and nominations received by Ewan McGregor for more information

McGregor was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to drama and charity.

Discography

• "Choose Life" with PF Project, Trainspotting#2: Music from the Motion Picture, Vol. #2, 1997.
• "TV Eye" with Wylde Ratttz, Velvet Goldmine: Music from the Original Motion Picture, 1999.
• "Come What May" with Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film, 2001.
• "Elephant Love Medley" with Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film, 2001.
• "El Tango de Roxanne" with Jose Feliciano, Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film, 2001.
• "Your Song" with Alessandro Safina, Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film, 2001.
• "Here's To Love" with Rene Zellweger, Down With Love: Music from and Included in the Motion Picture, 2003.
• "The Sweetest Gift", Unexpected Dreams - Songs From the Stars, 2006.
• "Be Our Guest" with Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Beauty and the Beast, 2017.
• "Days in the Sun" with Adam Mitchell, Stanley Tucci, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Emma Watson, Audra McDonald, Clive Rowe, Beauty and the Beast, 2017.
• "Something There" with Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Nathan Mack, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Beauty and the Beast, 2017.
• "The Mob Song", with Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen, Stanley Tucci, Nathan Mack, & Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Beauty and the Beast, 2017.