Best known for his role as Lt. Chris Burnett in the first movie of ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ movie series, Owen Wilson was born in Dallas Texas, on 18th November 1968. He is popular for his subtle humour and quirky roles in films. Owen was born to the Wilson family as the second son of three. His father “Robert Wilson” was an advertising executive and his mother “Laura Wilson” was a photographer. His two brothers, Luke and Andrew are also actors by profession. Owen went to St. Mark’s School of Texas where he was expelled for misbehaviour. Owen then went to Thomas Jefferson school to complete his school life. He did his higher studies at the University of Texas Austin, where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree of Arts in English. When he was a youngster at school, he was caught stealing a notebook from a teacher. Owen describes himself as a troublemaker since early life. After graduating he joined the Military academy in New Mexico.
During his university time at Texas University, he met the director and frequent collaborator “Wesley Anderson”. Owen and Wesley both started their movie career together, writing the screenplay for their first-ever comedy crime movie “Bottle Rocket”. Both Owen and Wesley appeared as two of the three main characters of the movie alongside Owen’s brother Luke. The movie was an average success, as they received both positive and negative feedback, but was top trending in the Box Office list at the time. A few months later in 1996, Owen moved to Hollywood California, with his two brothers. This movement completely changed his film career. While at Hollywood he co-wrote two more films with his university friend, director Wesley Anderson. Rushmore in 1998 and the Royal Tenenbaums in 2001. Owen also co-wrote another movie, “Life Aquatic” with director “Steve Zissou” in 2004. Tenenbaums was nominated for the best original screenplay award, where Owen also co-starred in the movie. Owen also collaborated in several big-budget movies with comedy actor Ben Stiller. Meet the Parents in 2000, Zoolander 2001 and Starsky and Hutch in 2004 are best among them.
Owen became famous in Hollywood for his work in the Royal Tenenbaums movie but my personal favourite movie of Owen is always the first movie of the “Behind Enemy Lines” movie series. In the movie, it shows how Owen successfully escaped from a hostile area after his US Navy fighter jet F-18 was shot down by the enemies. Owen as Lieutenant Chris Burnett and his fellow pilot Jeremy Stackhouse was chased by the enemies to kill them to stop NATO from collecting the location data of hostile camps and their warehouses. Jeremy was badly injured and then killed by the enemies, however “Chris” managed to escape and save his life. This movie was released in 2001 and where Owen got popularised among a new generation of movie fans in the early 2000s.
Owen’s biggest Box Office success was with the movie “Wedding Crashers”, where he appeared as John Beckwith. He also contributed to the animated films “Cars” and “Mater and Ghostlight” in 2006 by his voice to one of the most popular animated characters, “Lighting McQueen”. Owen later co-produced and starred in two more movies, “You, Me and Dupree” in 2006 and John Grogan in “Marley and Me” in 2008. He also appeared in the romantic movie “Midnight in Paris” in 2011. He also appeared in some of the television shows including “Community” in 2010, “Drunk History” in 2013 and “Loki” in 2021. He also appeared as himself in “Saturday Night Love” earlier this year. Owen’s early 2000 movie the Royal Tenenbaums was nominated for the best original screenplay award and he also shared the MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo with Vince Vaughn for the movie ‘Wedding Crashers’ in 2006.
In the year 2007, Owen attempted suicide and was taken to Santa Monica hospital. He received healing and care privately during his bad time and was visited by his family members and friends, including his longtime friend Wesley Anderson. Owen recovered quickly and went back home within a week. He later announced his comeback to the movie industry in 2008. Owen also funded money to 63 families with low income. He has supported charity projects like BID 2 BEAT AIDS, Chandler Sky Foundation, City Hearts: Kids Say Yes to the Arts, Got Your 6, Solar Neighbors Program and STILLERSTRONG. The most recent news about Owen was, he is now working with Disney movies once again for their upcoming “CARS” animated series. During an interview, Owen once said that his kids don’t believe that he is ‘Lighting McQueen’.
Design by : Shanaka Vishwantha
References :
Images :
Leave a Comment