Owen Wilson Biography

Actor / Screenwriter

Owen Wilson is a comic actor and screenwriter known to most moviegoers as Jackie Chan's co-star in the funny western Shanghai Noon (2000) and as Vince Vaughn's partner in comic promiscuity in Wedding Crashers (2005). Wilson began his movie career starring in the independent movie Bottle Rockets (1996), a low-budget charmer he wrote with director Wes Anderson. After several roles in clunkers such as The Cable Guy (1996) and Anaconda (1997), Wilson's career took off in 1998, with appearances in Armageddon (starring Bruce Willis) and Permanent Midnight (with his frequent co-star, Ben Stiller). Since then he has appeared in several movies, including Meet the Parents (2000, with Stiller and Robert DeNiro), Zoolander (2001, as the surfer supermodel Hansel) and Behind Enemy Lines (2001). Although he often takes roles as a blithesome stoner or goofy neer-do-well, Wilson is no slouch: he co-wrote Wes Anderson's critically acclaimed films Rushmore (1998, with Bill Murray) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001, starring Gwyneth Paltrow), and has appeared in dozens of films, including Starsky and Hutch (2004, also with Ben Stiller), Meet the Fockers (2004, with Dustin Hoffman), You, Me and DuPree (2006, with Kate Hudson, who later became his girlfriend), Marley and Me (2008, based on the hit book), and as the cowboy Jedediah in Night at the Museum (2006, Stiller again) and the sequel Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009).

Extra credit: Wilson was hospitalized on 26 August 2007 after an apparent suicide attempt; he reportedly slashed his wrist and overdosed on drugs. He recovered, but has never publicly offered details on the incident... Wilson's brothers, Luke and Andrew, are also actors... Wilson supplied the voice of the car Heat Vision in the short-lived television show Heat Vision and Jack (1999, starring Jack Black). Seven years later, he voiced the car Lightning McQueen in the hit movie Cars.

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