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Woody Harrelson extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson, April 2007
Born	Woodrow Tracy Harrelson July 23, 1961 (1961-07-23) (age 48) Midland, Texas, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1985–present
Spouse(s)	Nancy Simon (1985–1986) Laura Louie (2008–present)

Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor.

Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd. Notable film characters include basketball hustler Billy Hoyle in White Men Can't Jump, bowler Roy Munson in Kingpin, serial killer Mickey Knox in Natural Born Killers, magazine publisher Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt, country singer Dusty in A Prairie Home Companion, bounty hunter Carson Wells in No Country for Old Men, Tallahassee in Zombieland, blind piano player/meat salesman Ezra Turner in Seven Pounds, Charlie Frost in 2012, and "Tony" Stone in The Messenger. For The People vs. Larry Flint and The Messenger, Harrelson earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Television career 2.2 Movie career 2.3 Stage career 3 Personal life 3.1 Activist work 4 Filmography 5 References 6 External links

Early life

Harrelson was born in Midland, Texas, the son of Diane Lou (née Oswald) and Charles Voyde Harrelson, who divorced in 1964; he has two brothers, Jordan and Brett, the latter of whom is a professional motorcycle racer. In 1979, in San Antonio, Federal Judge John H. Wood, Jr. was shot and killed by rifle fire. Harrelson's father, who was a freelance contract killer, was arrested for the killing.¹ He was convicted and eventually died during his life sentence in maximum security prison.¹

Harrelson grew up in Lebanon, Ohio with his mother. Harrelson attended Lebanon High School, working through much of high school as a wood-carver at Kings Island amusement park. He later attended Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana, where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He received a bachelor of arts in theater arts and English in 1983.

Career

Television career

Harrelson is widely known for his work on the NBC sitcom Cheers. He played bartender Woody Boyd, who replaced Coach (played by Nicholas Colasanto, who died in the third season). He joined the cast in 1985 for season four and lasted eight seasons (1985-1993) on the show. For this role, Harrelson was nominated for five Emmy Awards, winning once in 1989. His character of Boyd was said to be from Hanover, Indiana, the town where Harrelson attended college.

In 1999, Harrelson guest-starred in the Cheers spin-off success Frasier, in which he reprised the role of Woody Boyd. Harrelson was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for this performance.

He appeared in several 2001 episodes of Will and Grace as Grace's new boyfriend.

In the November 12, 2009 episode of the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, Harrelson was interviewed by Stephen Colbert to promote his movie The Messenger. In response to Colbert's questioning of his support for the troops, Harrelson agreed to let Colbert shave his head on camera.

Movie career

While still working on Cheers, Harrelson pursued a film career. His first movie had been Wildcats, a football comedy in 1986 with Goldie Hawn. Harrelson reunited and became friends with Wesley Snipes and starred with him in the box-office hit White Men Can't Jump and Money Train.

In 1993 he had a starring role opposite Robert Redford and Demi Moore in the drama Indecent Proposal, which earned him a worst supporting actor Razzie Award. After that film's success, Harrelson played Mickey Knox in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers and Dr. Michael Raynolds in the Michael Cimino film The Sunchaser. In 1996, he starred in the comedy Kingpin alongside Randy Quaid and Vanessa Angel.

Harrelson's career gained great momentum when he starred in the Milos Forman film The People vs. Larry Flynt, in which he played Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine. The film was a success and Harrelson's performance was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Actor.

After that, Harrelson was cast in more serious film roles. He starred in the 1997 war film Welcome to Sarajevo and also in 1997 had a featured role as Sergeant Schumann in Wag the Dog. In 1998, Harrelson starred in the thriller Palmetto and played Sergeant Keck in The Thin Red Line, a war film nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1999.

Harrelson made other films such as The Hi-Lo Country and portrayed Ray Pekurny in the comedy EDtv. Also in 1999, he appeared as boxer Vince Boudreau in the Ron Shelton film Play It to the Bone.

Harrelson didn't appear in movies again until 2003 when he co-starred as Security Guard Gary in the comedy film Anger Management. He appeared in the action film After the Sunset and the comedy She Hate Me.

In 2005, Harrelson was in The Big White and North Country. Also in 2005 he appeared as Kelly Ryan, husband of a contest-obsessed woman in the film The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. Harrelson made two films in 2006, the animated film version of Free Jimmy and also A Scanner Darkly. In 2007 he played Carter Page III, escort of privileged Washington D.C. women, in the film The Walker.

In the Oscar-winning 2007 crime thriller No Country for Old Men, Harrelson had a small but key role as Carson Wells, a bounty hunter. The film won Best Picture and Best Director for Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. Harrelson also won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast, along with Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Kelly Macdonald.

In 2008, Harrelson appeared in several films, among them the Will Ferrell basketball comedy Semi-Pro and the Will Smith stark drama Seven Pounds. In 2009, he co-starred in the horror comedy Zombieland and Roland Emmerich's 2012 as Charlie Frost, a man who warns of the end of the world. Also in 2009, Harrelson received significant praise for his performance as Captain Tony Stone in The Messenger. In what many critics considered to be his best role, Harrelson was nominated for a Satellite Award, an Independent Spirit Award, a Golden Globe Award a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Harrelson has also won the Best Supporting Actor award in the 2009 National Board of Review award ceremonies and received accolades from various critics' societies.

Stage career

In 1999 Harrelson directed his own play, Furthest from the Sun, at the theater de la Juene Luene in Minneapolis. He followed next in Roundabout's Broadway rival at the N. Richard Nash played The Rainmaker in 2000, Sam Shepard's The Late Henry Moss in 2001, John Kolvenbach's On an Average Day opposite Kyle MacLachlan in London's West End in the fall of 2002, and in the summer of 2003, Harrelson directed the Toronto premiere of Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth at the Berkley Street Theater. In the winter of 2005/2006 Harrelson returned to London's West End, starring in Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana at the Lyric Theater.

Personal life

In 1985, Harrelson married Nancy Simon, daughter of playwright Neil Simon, in Tijuana. The two intended to divorce the following day, but the storefront marriage/divorce parlor was closed when they had returned to it, and the two remained married for ten months.²

On December 28, 2008, Harrelson married Laura Louie, his girlfriend since 1987. The couple have three daughters, Deni Montana (born February 28, 1993), Zoe Giordano (born September 22, 1996), and Makani Ravello (born June 3, 2006). When announcing Makani's birth, the couple referred to the three as their "goddess trilogy". Laura is his former assistant and a co-founder of Yoganics, an organic food delivery service.³

Harrelson's father, a convicted career criminal and hitman, died in Federal Supermax Prison. Harrelson tried to have his father's final conviction for murdering a federal judge reversed, but failed. His father was convicted of murder for hire once before which was related to illegal drug sales, an event which occurred in the late 1960s.

Activist work

Harrelson is a supporter and an activist for the legalization of marijuana and hemp.⁴ On June 1, 1996, he was arrested in Lee County, Kentucky, after he symbolically planted four hemp seeds to challenge the state law which did not distinguish between industrial hemp and marijuana. Harrelson won the case. Since 2003, Harrelson serves as a member on NORML's advisory board.⁵

Harrelson is also an environmental activist. He once scaled the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco with members of North Coast Earth First! group to unfurl a banner that read, "Hurwitz, Aren't ancient redwoods more precious than gold?" in protest of Maxxam Inc/PALCO CEO Charles Hurwitz, who once stated, "He who has the gold, makes the rules".^{4citation needed}

He once traveled to the west coast in the U.S. on a bike and a domino caravan with a hemp oil-fueled biodiesel bus (the subject of the independent documentary, Go Further) and narrated the documentary Grass. Harrelson briefly owned an oxygen bar in West Hollywood called "O2". He is a peace activist, and has often spoken publicly against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Harrelson is also a vegan and raw foodist. He did not eat Twinkies for his movie Zombieland, replacing them with vegan faux-Twinkies made from cornmeal.⁶ In October 2009, he was conferred an honorary degree by York University for his contributions in the fields of environmental education, sustainability, and activism.⁷

He now lives on Maui, Hawaii, in a mostly self-sustained community.^{citation needed}

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1986	Wildcats	Krushinski	film debut
1987	Bay Coven	Slater
1988	Cool Blue	Dustin	Direct-to-video
	Mickey's 60th Birthday	Woody Boyd	TV-Movie
	Killer Instinct	Charlie Long	TV Movie
1990	L.A. Story	Harris' Boss	Cameo
	Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme	Lou the Lamb	Cameo
1991	Doc Hollywood	Hank Gordon
	Ted & Venus	Homeless Vietnam Veteran	Cameo
1992	White Men Can't Jump	Billy Hoyle	Nominated — MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (shared with Rosie Perez) Nominated — MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo (shared with Wesley Snipes)
	Cheers: Last Call!	Woody Boyd	NBC special
1993	Indecent Proposal	David Murphy	MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (shared with Demi Moore) Razzie Award for worst supporting actor
1994	Natural Born Killers	Mickey Knox	Nominated — MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (shared with Juliette Lewis) Nominated — MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo (shared with Juliette Lewis)
	The Cowboy Way	Pepper Lewis
	I'll Do Anything	Ground Zero Hero
1995	Money Train	Charlie
1996	The People vs. Larry Flynt	Larry Flynt	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
	Kingpin	Roy Munson
	The Sunchaser	Dr. Michael Reynolds
1997	Wag the Dog	Sgt. William Schumann
	Welcome to Sarajevo	Jordan Flynn
1998	The Thin Red Line	Sgt. Keck
	Palmetto	Harry Barber
	The Hi-Lo Country	Big Boy Matson
1999	Play It to the Bone	Vince Boudreau
	EDtv	Ray Pekurny
	Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me	Himself	Cameo
	Grass	Himself	Narrator
2003	Anger Management	Galaxia/Security Gary
	Go Further	Himself	documentary
	Scorched	Jason 'Woods' Valley
2004	After the Sunset	Stanley "Stan" P. Lloyd
	She Hate Me	Lenald Power
2005	North Country	Bill White
	The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio	Leo "Kelly" Ryan	Limited
	The Big White	Raymond "Ray" Barnell
2006	Free Jimmy	Roy Arnie (voice)	English language version released in 2008
	A Scanner Darkly	Ernie Luckman
	A Prairie Home Companion	Dusty	Nominated — Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast
2007	The Walker	Carter Page III
	No Country for Old Men	Carson Wells
	Battle in Seattle	Dale
	The Grand	One Eyed Jack Faro
	Nanking	Bob Wilson
2008	Semi-Pro	Ed Monix
	Sleepwalking	Randall
	Transsiberian	Roy	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Surfer, Dude	Jack
	Management	Jango
	Seven Pounds	Ezra Turner
2009	The Messenger	Anthony 'Tony' Stone	Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Body of Work< Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Nominated — Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture Nominated — San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated — Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association for Best Supporting Actor
	Zombieland	Tallahassee	San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Body of Work Nominated — Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
	2012	Charlie Frost	San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Body of Work
2010	Defendor	Arthur Poppington
	Bunraku	The Bartender	post-production
2011	Zombieland 2	Tallahassee

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Woody Harrelson

• Woody Harrelson at the Internet Movie Database
• VoiceYourself
• Woody Harrelson at TV.com

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