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Matthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an Academy
Award-nominated American actor. He began acting in the late 1970s, gained fame as a
teen idol during the 1980s, and developed a successful career as an adult actor in
the decades following, culminating in an Oscar nomination for his performance in
the film Crash.
 Early
life
Dillon was born in New Rochelle, New York to second-generation Irish American
Catholic parents Paul Dillon (a painter and sales manager for Union Camp, a packing
material manufacturer) and Mary Ellen (a homemaker). He has one sister and four
brothers, one of whom, Kevin, is also an actor. Dillon grew up in Mamaroneck, New
York and attended Hommocks School in Larchmont, New York.
Career
In 1979, casting director Vic Ramos spotted Dillon while he was cutting class, and
cast him in Over the Edge. 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 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 and raised Dillon's profile among teenage audiences.
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.
In 1987, 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 continued to work in early 1990s with roles in movies like Singles (1992).
He had somewhat of a career resurge as the role of Nicole Kidman's husband in To
Die For (1995), as well as large 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 also wrote and directed the film City of Ghosts, starring himself,
James Caan and Gérard Depardieu. He recently appeared in Crash (co-written and
directed by Paul Haggis); Dillon received much praise for his performance,
including Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe and Oscar nominations. He also
co-starred in Disney's Herbie: Fully Loaded. Dillon also hosted Saturday Night Live
on March 11, 2006, where he impersonated Greg Anderson in a "SportsCenter" sketch
and Rod Serling in Bill Hader's "Vincent Price St. Patrick's Day Special" sketch
and played a redneck conman named Perdy Spotley in the recurring sketch
"Appalachian Emergency Room".
Dillon's most recent role is in the comedy You, Me and Dupree, opposite Kate Hudson
and Owen Wilson. The film opened on July 14, 2006.
On September 29, 2006 the actor was honored with the price Premio Donostia in the
San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Other
work
Dillon is mentioned on Jeff Buckley's Live at Sin-é: Legacy Edition CD. On track 5
Buckley mentions that he cut his hair because people thought he looked like Matt
Dillon.
Dillon also contributed his voice as Sal Paradise in Jack Kerouac 's famous novel
On the Road.
As of 2007 Dinosaur Jr. hired Dillon to direct their new video and single "Been
There All The Time," off the band's upcoming album "Beyond"
Personal
life
Dillon dated actress Cameron Diaz from 1996 to 1998; the two met in 1995 while both
were filming movies in Minnesota.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Matt
Dillon - Manifesting Generator - Biography
