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.

Biography

Early life

Dillon was born in 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 (dropped out) 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.[1] 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[2] and raised Dillon's profile among teenage audiences.
One of his best early roles was in the Jean Shephard PBS special "The Great American Fourth of July." The only available copies of this film are stored at UCLA where a legal dispute makes it unavailable to the public.
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. Two years later he 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 the fifth track 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. In 2006, he narrated Once in a Lifetime.
As of 2007 the band Dinosaur Jr. hired Dillon to direct their new video and single "Been There All The Time," off of their pcoming album Beyond.
He guest stars in The Simpsons episode Midnight Towboy.

Personal life

Matt Dillon dated Cameron Diaz from 1995 to 1998.