Name: Clive Owen
Date of Birth: 3 October 1962 Clive Owen (born 3 October 1964) is an Academy Award -nominated, and Golden Globe- and BAFTA-award winning English actor
Early life The fourth of five brothers, Owen was born in Coventry, West Midlands, England, the son of Pamela and Jess Owen.[1] His father, a country and western singer, left the family when Owen was three years old, and despite a brief reconciliation when Owen was nineteen, the two have remained estranged.[2] Raised by his mother and stepfather, a railway ticket clerk,... [3] he has described his childhood as "rough."[2] While initially opposed to drama school, he changed his mind in 1984, after a long and fruitless period of searching for work. Owen graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1987 with a class that included Ralph Fiennes and Jane Horrocks. After graduation, he won a position at the Young Vic, performing in several William Shakespeare plays. In an incident he later described as "very schmaltzy", he met his future wife when the two performed the leads in Romeo and Juliet.[4] Career Initially, Owen carved out a career in television: in 1988 Owen starred as Gideon Sarn in a BBC production of Precious Bane and the Channel 4 film Vroom before the 1990s saw him become a regular on stage and television in the UK, notably his lead role in the ITV series Chancer, followed by an appearance in the Thames Television production of Lorna Doone. He won critical acclaim for his performances in the 1991 Stephen Poliakoff film , in which he has a full frontal nude scene, about a brother and sister who embark on an incestuous love affair; he subsequently appeared in The Magician, Class of '61, Century, Nobody's Children, An Evening with Gary Lineker, Doomsday Gun, Return of the Native, The Turnaround and then a Carlton production called Sharman, about a private detective. In 1996 he appeared in his first major Hollywood film The Rich Man's Wife alongside before finding international acclaim in a Channel 4 film directed by Mike Hodges called in 1998. He played the title role of a struggling writer who takes a job in a London casino as inspiration for his work, only to get caught up in a robbery scheme. In 1999 he appeared as an accident-prone driver in Split Second, his first BBC production for a decade. He then starred in The Echo, a BBC1 drama. He starred in a film called about a criminal who goes to work in a garden, before appearing in the BBC1 mystery series . In 2001 he provided the voice-over for a BBC2 documentary about popular music through the years called Walk On By, as well as starring in a highly-acclaimed theatre production called The Day in the Death of Joe Egg, about a couple with a severely handicapped daughter. He became well known to North American audiences in the summer of 2001 after starring as The Driver in the The Hire, a series of short films sponsored by BMW and made by prominent directors. He then appeared in Robert Altman's , alongside an all-star cast including and Ryan Phillippe. He has appeared in with . In 2003, he teamed up with Hodges again to make I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. He starred in and took on the title role in , for which he took horse-riding lessons. Owen appeared in the West End and Broadway hit play , by Patrick Marber, which was produced as a film, and was released in 2005. He played "Dan" in the play, but was "Larry" the dermatologist in the film version. His portrayal of Larry in the film version earned him a lot of recognition as well as the Golden Globe and BAFTA award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He noted that the expectations of him since the Oscar nomination have not changed the way he approaches film-making, stating "I try, every film I do, to be as good as I can and that's all I can do."[5] Personal life Owen lives in Highgate, London and Wrabness, north Essex, with his wife Sarah-Jane Fenton and their two daughters, Hannah and Eve.[3] In November 2006, he became patron of the Electric Palace Cinema in Harwich, England and launched an appeal for funds to repair deteriorating elements of the fabric.[citation needed] He enjoys the music of indie rock band Hard-Fi and has been seen at two of their concerts, Brixton Academy, May 15, 2006[9] and Wembley Arena, December 18, 2007.[10] Owen has been a fan of Liverpool F.C. since he was a boy - despite hailing from Coventry.[11] Read more Clive Owen Fans :Clive Owen movies (actor)User Comments |
