Clive Owen Biography
Summary
"Clive Owen" (born October 3, 1964) is a Golden Globe- and BAFTA-award winning English actor, now a regular performer in Hollywood and independent American films.
Biography
Early life
Fourth of five brothers, Owen was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, the son of Pamela and Jess Owen. 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. Raised by his mother and step-father, a railway ticket clerk, he has described his childhood as 'rough.' 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 RADA 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".
Career
Initially, Owen carved out a career in television: in 1988 Owen starred as Gideon Sarn in a BBC television 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 a 1991 Stephen Poliakoff film called "Close My Eyes", about a brother and sister who embark on an incestuous love affair. Due to personal conflicts with the press, Owen decided not to appear in television programmes for a while. However, 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 Halle Berry before finding international acclaim in a Channel 4 film directed by Mike Hodges called "Croupier" 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 also starred in a film called "Greenfingers" about a criminal who goes to work in a garden, before appearing in the BBC1 mystery series "Second Sight", in which he played DCI Ross Tanner. 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 BMW films, directed by Guy Ritchie and co-starring Madonna. He then appeared in Robert Altman's "Gosford Park", alongside an all-star cast including Helen Mirren and Ryan Phillippe. He has also appeared in "The Bourne Identity", along with American actor Matt Damon. In 2003 he starred in other films including Trevor Preston's "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" and "Beyond Borders" before taking on the title role in "King Arthur". He took horse-riding lessons for the latter role.
Owen appeared in the West End and Broadway hit play "Closer", by Patrick Marber, which again became a film, and was released in 2005. It is interesting to note that he played 'Dan' in the play, but was 'Larry' the dermatologist in the film version. His blistering, darkly comic 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.
After "Closer", he appeared in "Derailed" alongside Jennifer Aniston, the comic book thriller "Sin City" as the noir antihero Dwight McCarthy and as a mysterious bank robber in "Inside Man". Despite public denials, Owen had long been rumored to be a possible successor to Pierce Brosnan in the role of James Bond. A public opinion poll in the United Kingdom in October 2005 (SkyNews) found that he was the public's number one choice to star in the next installment of the series. In that same month, however, it was announced that British actor Daniel Craig would become the next James Bond. In an interview in the September 2007 issue of Details Magazine, he claimed that he was never offered or even approached concerning the role. In 2006, Owen spoofed the Bond connection by making an appearance in the remake of "The Pink Panther" in which he plays a character named 'Nigel Boswell, Agent 006' (when he introduces himself to Inspector Clouseau he quips that Owen's character is 'one short of the big time').
In 2006, Owen starred in the highly acclaimed "Children of Men". He received widespread praise for his role as the former political activist-turned-reluctant hero Theo Faron. The film was nominated for various awards including an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; Owen worked on the screenplay, although he was uncredited. The next year he starred alongside Paul Giamatti in the film "Shoot 'Em Up" and appeared as Sir Walter Raleigh opposite Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth I of England in the film "Elizabeth: The Golden Age".
Owen will be appearing in the 2007 Christmas special of the Ricky Gervais show Extras, as revealed in the video podcast teaser.
Personal life
Owen lives in London with his wife Sarah-Jane Fenton and their two daughters, Hannah and Eve.
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.
Filmography
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Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Clive Owen.
