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Ewan Gordon McGregor (born March 31, 1971) is a Scottish actor who has had
significant success in mainstream, indie and art house films. He is ranked #36 in
Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.
McGregor was born in Crieff, Scotland to James McGregor, a retired dormer school
teacher, and Carole (née Lawson), also a teacher. His mother is the sister of actor
Denis Lawson, the sister-in-law of the late actress Sheila Gish, and the aunt of
Lou Gish.
McGregor attended Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1988 to study drama.
Six months before graduating, he won a leading role in Dennis Potter’s six-part BBC
series Lipstick on Your Collar, and has been working steadily ever since. He made
his feature film debut in 1993 in Bill Forsyth’s Being Human. The following year,
he earned widespread praise and won an Empire Award for his performance in the
thriller Shallow Grave, which marked his first collaboration with director Danny
Boyle.
His major international breakthrough soon followed with the role of heroin
addict Mark Renton in Boyle's film version of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting
(1996).
 Leading
man
McGregor has been featured as the male romantic lead in Hollywood films such as
Moulin Rouge and Down With Love, and in the British film Little Voice. He received
excellent reviews for his performance as an amoral drifter mixed up in murder in
the rather bleak British film Young Adam (2003), which co-starred the acclaimed
British actress Tilda Swinton.
He took on the role of a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy,
originally made famous by Sir Alec Guinness in the original Star Wars films.
McGregor took very special care (especially Episode III) of his portrayal of Kenobi
to ensure that Obi-Wan's mannerisms, speech timings, and accents closely resemble
Obi-Wan's "Alec Guinness Self". He was in fact continuing a family tradtition with
his being cast in Star Wars that was started when his uncle had played Wedge
Antilles in the previous Star Wars prequel trilogy films.
McGregor is one of the few major male actors to repeatedly do full-frontal nudity
in many of his films, including Trainspotting, Velvet Goldmine, The Pillow Book,
and Young Adam. He also played gay or bisexual characters in two of these (Peter
Greenaway's The Pillow Book (1996) and Todd Haynes's Velvet Goldmine (1998)).
In 2005, the actor lent his vocal talent to two successful animated features.
McGregor provided the voice of the lovable robot "Rodney Copperbottom" in Robots,
which also featured the voices of Halle Berry and Robin Williams. He then voiced
the lead character in Gary Chapman's Valiant alongside Jim Broadbent and John
Cleese. Additionally in 2005, McGregor played two roles (one a clone of the other)
opposite Scarlett Johansson in Michael Bay's The Island and then appeared in Marc
Forster's Stay, a psychological thriller co-starring Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling.
Both films, though interesting choices, were considered box office flops in America
and received negative reviews from critics.
McGregor has narrated the STV show JetSet, a Scottish series following the lives of
student 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 theatre, he starred alongside Jane Krakowski, Douglas Hodge and Jenna
Russell in the original Donmar Warehouse production of Guys and Dolls in London at
the Piccadilly Theatre. He played the leading role of Sky Masterson, made famous by
Marlon Brando in the movie, to much critical acclaim, and he received the
LastMinute.com award for Best Actor in 2005. He was also nominated for an Olivier
Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
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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Ewan
McGregor - Manifesting Generator - Biography
