Matt Dillon Biography

Matthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor and film director. He began acting in the late 1970s, and gained fame as a teenage idol during the 1980s. He has appeared 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. In 2011 he received the special "Tomislav Pinter Award" at Avvantura Festival Zadar (Croatia) upon his presence at the filmfestival.

Early life

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. He was raised in a close-knit Roman Catholic family, as the second of six children. Dillon's paternal grandmother was the sister of comic strip artist Alex Raymond, the creator of Flash Gordon. Dillon has one sister and four brothers, one of whom, Kevin Dillon, 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.

Career

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. 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 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 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. 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.

Also in 1987 Dillon appeared as a policeman in the video to The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl video Fairytale of New York.

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 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

Dillon had a three-year relationship with actress Cameron Diaz in the late 1990s.

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. 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. 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.

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

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

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

Year	Award	Nominated work	Result
1981	Young Artist Award Best Young Actor in a Major Motion Picture	My Bodyguard
1983	Young Artist Award Best Young Motion Picture Actor	Tex
1990	Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead	Drugstore Cowboy
1999	MTV Movie Award for Best Villain (tied with Stephen Dorff	There's Something About Mary
1999	MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (shared with Denise Richards & Neve Campbell)	Wild Things
1999	Teen Choice Award Funniest Scene	There's Something About Mary
1999	Blockbuster Entertainment Awards Favorite Supporting Actor " Comedy	There's Something About Mary
2005	Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards Best Supporting Actor	Crash
2005	Gotham Tribute Award
2005	Gotham Award Best Ensemble Cast	Crash
2005	Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards Best Supporting Actor	Crash
2005	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actor	Crash
2005	Hollywood Film Festival Ensemble of the Year	Crash
2005	Satellite Award for Best Cast " Motion Picture	Crash
2005	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Best Cast	Crash
2005	Phoenix Film Critics Society Award Best Cast	Crash
2006	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor	Crash
2006	BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role	Crash
2006	Black Reel Award for Best Ensemble	Crash
2006	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor	Crash
2006	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Acting Ensemble	Crash
2006	Chicago Film Critics Association Award Best Supporting Actor	Crash
2006	Empire Award for Best Actor	Crash
2006	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture	Crash
2006	Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male	Crash
2006	Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor	Crash
2006	SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role	Crash
2006	SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Crash
2006	San Sebastián International Film Festival Donostia Lifetime Archievement Award
2007	Cairo International Film Festival Special Award

|- | 2011 || Special "Tomislav Pinter Award" at Avvantura Festival Zadar, Special Award || ||