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Matt Dillon

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Biography

For a long time a teen idol known mostly for his Tiger Beat-ready looks, Matt Dillon was able to make a successful transition from pubescent star to adult actor. As he has grown older, his physical attributes--the dark, pretty-boy eyes and glacier-cut cheekbones--have matured with him, making him well-suited to portraying characters whose golden boy pasts have been eclipsed by adult experience.

A native of New Rochelle, New York, where he was born on February 18, 1964, Dillon was a product of a pop culture milieu. The nephew of comic-strip artist Alex Raymond, creator of Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, and Rip Kirby, he was named for the protagonist of the TV western Gunsmoke. Dillon was raised as the second oldest of the five sons and one daughter of a stockbroker and a homemaker. He began acting in elementary school, and, at the age of fourteen, he was discovered by Warner Bros talent scouts while cutting class. After making a memorable impression on casting director Vic Ramos with an eerily accurate impersonation of the character he was asked to audition for, Dillon won the part and made his film debut as a school bully in Jonathan Kaplan's 1979 teenage drama Over the Edge. His work in the film opened the floodgates for roles in similar teen movies, and over the next few years, Dillon could be seen as the photogenic mouthpiece for adolescent discontent in such films as My Bodyguard (1980), Little Darlings (1980), Tex (1982), Rumble Fish (1983), and that seminal exploration of teenage alienation, The Outsiders (1983).

By the mid-1980s, Dillon sought to move beyond the teen mold and began taking more adult roles. His breakthrough into the grown-up realm came with his somber, unheroic portrayal of a junkie trying to come clean in Gus Van Sant's acclaimed Drugstore Cowboy (1989). His status as an adult performer firmly established, Dillon went on to star in films of varying quality, doing some of his most memorable work in Singles (1992), as the egocentric slacker head of a terrifically bad grunge band; To Die For (1995), as the well-meaning but tragically dim husband of a psychotic weather girl (Nicole Kidman); Kevin Spacey's Albino Alligator (1995), as a small-time New Orleans crook; and Beautiful Girls (1996), in which Dillon was perfectly cast as a small-town snow plower unable to make good on the promise of his high school glory days.

In 1997, Dillon had pivotal roles in two Hollywood hits. The first, In & Out, called for him to caricature himself as a peroxided movie star who unwittingly outs his ex-high school teacher on national television. The second, There's Something About Mary, proved to be the year's most outrageous hit, and it allowed Dillon to show his capacity for lowbrow comedy in his role as a sleazy private investigator. The following year, he again proved his capacity for bottom-dwelling when he played a woefully unqualified high school guidance counselor in the delightfully trashy Wild Things. ~ Rebecca Flint, All Movie Guide

Filmography

City of Ghosts (2002) .... Jimmy Cremming
"Contest Searchlight" (2002) TV Series (uncredited) .... Himself
Deuces Wild (2002) .... Fritzy
... aka Deuces Wild - Wild in den Straßen (2002) (Germany)
One Night at McCool's (2001) .... Randy
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars (1999) (TV) .... Himself
Madonna: The Video Collection 93:99 (1999) (V) (uncredited) .... Cop ('Bad Girl')
There's Something About Mary (1998) .... Pat Healy
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's (1998) (uncredited) .... Himself
Wild Things (1998) .... Sam Lombardo
... aka Sex Crimes (1998) (Belgium: English title)
... aka wildthings (1998) (USA: video box title)
Pitch (1997) .... Himself
In & Out (1997) .... Cameron Drake
Albino Alligator (1996) .... Dova
... aka Albino Alligator (1996) (France)
Grace of My Heart (1996) .... Jay Phillips
Beautiful Girls (1996) .... Tommy 'Birdman' Rowland
Frankie Starlight (1995) .... Terry Klout
To Die for (1995) .... Larry Maretto
Golden Gate (1994) .... Kevin Walker
Mr. Wonderful (1993) .... Gus
Saint of Fort Washington, The (1993) .... Matthew
Singles (1992) .... Cliff Poncier
"Fishing with John" (1991) TV Series .... Himself
Women & Men 2: In Love There Are No Rules (1991) (TV) .... Eddie Megeffin
... aka Women & Men 2 (1991) (TV)
Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) (uncredited) .... Himself
... aka In Bed with Madonna (1991) (UK)
... aka Truth or Dare (1991)
Kiss Before Dying, A (1991) .... Jonathan Corliss
Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989) .... Regret
Drugstore Cowboy (1989) .... Bob
Kansas (1988) .... Doyle Kennedy
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1988) (TV) (voice) .... Mike?
... aka Dear America (1988) (TV)
Big Town, The (1987) .... J.C. Cullen
Native Son (1986) .... Jan
Rebel (1985) .... Rebel
Target (1985/I) .... Chris Lloyd
Flamingo Kid, The (1984) .... Jeffrey Willis
Rumble Fish (1983) .... Rusty James
Outsiders, The (1983) .... Dallas Winston
Wild Rides (1982) .... Host
Tex (1982) .... Tex McCormick
Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters, The (1982) (TV) .... Ralph
Liar's Moon (1981) .... Jack Duncan
Little Darlings (1980) .... Randy
My Bodyguard (1980) .... Melvin Moody, Gang Leader
Over the Edge (1979) .... Richie

Links

Contact

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