Matt Dillon
Birthdate: Feb 18, 1964
Birthplace: New Rochelle, New York, USA
Matt Dillon (birthname: Matthew Raymond Dillon) has always benefited from being under-estimated, playing off a misleading image as, in his own words, “a thug,” to reveal an actor with considerable layers and emotional temperatures. That underestimation has resulted, ironically, in a number of career achievement awards, including from the Orange Antalya and San Sebastian Film Festivals, and, in 2022, from the Locarno Film Festival.
Although Matt Dillon’s “tough” image was established from the start with his bracing debut performance in Jonathan Kaplan’s Over the Edge (1979), and in the hit comedy-drama My Bodyguard (1980), with Chris Makepeace and Adam Baldwin, he displayed more sensitive sides in the romantic working-class drama, Liar’s Moon (1982), and in three consecutive films adapted from the fiction of S.E. Hinton: Tim Hunter’s Tex (1982), with Meg Tilly and Ben Johnson; Francis Ford Coppola’s indie-feeling The Outsiders (1983), with Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Diane Lane, Emilio Estevez, Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, and Ralph Maccio; and Coppola’s follow-up Hinton drama, Rumble Fish (1983), with Lane, Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper, and Mickey Rourke.
The triple play firmly established Dillon as a significant face of American independent cinema, which made his move to a Garry Marshall studio comedy, The Flamingo Kid (1984) somewhat surprising, as much as his turn to a debut on the Broadway stage with The Boys of Winter. An important artistic move for Dillon was co-starring with Gene Hackman in Arthur Penn’s thriller, Target (1985); he has since cited his time working with Hackman and Penn as having a fundamental influence on his acting and work. Dillon then appeared in an underseen version of Richard Wright’s Native Son (1986), co-starring Victor Love, Carroll Baker, Oprah Winfrey, Elizabeth McGovern, and Geraldine Page; he then reunited with Lane for the noirish The Big Town (1987), with Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Dern, Lee Grant, and Tom Skerritt.
Matt Dillon’s indie cred catapulted in 1989 as the co-star with Kelly Lynch in Gus Van Sant’s breakthrough film, Drugstore Cowboy (1989), a vivid true-crime tale of drug addiction in the Portland area, with James LeGros, Heather Graham, Grave Zabriskie, and novelist William S. Burroughs. Dillon’s next major work was again with Van Sant in, To Die For (1995), with Nicole Kidman, followed by John McNaughton’s hit noir Wild Things (1998), with Kevin Bacon, Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, and Bill Murray, and the Farrelly Brothers’ smash comedy hit, There’s Something About Mary (1998), with Cameron Diaz, Ben Stiller, and Chris Elliott, and earning an extraordinary (for an American comedy) $369 million worldwide box office.
Dillon secured his first project as writer-director-star (co-written with novelist Barry Gifford) with the crime thriller, City of Ghosts (2002), with James Caan, Stellan Skarsgård, and Gérard Depardieu, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. In 2004, Matt Dillon received universal acclaim and many award nominations (including a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nom) for his role as a cop in Paul Haggis’ Best Picture-winning Crash (2004), with Sandra Bullock, Thandiwe Newton, Don Cheadle, Brendan Fraser, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, and Ryan Phillippe.
Dillon rejoined Bacon for Bacon’s own directed film, Loverboy (2005), with Kyra Sedgwick and Oliver Platt; acted in his first European film, Bent Hamer’s Factotum (2005), based on Charlies Bukowski’s writings; co-starred with Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson in the Russo Brothers’ comedy, You, Me and Dupree (2006); and joined the ensemble of Shari Spring Berman’s and Robert Pulcini’s comedy Girl Most Likely (2012), with Kristen Wiig, Annette Bening, and Natasha Lyonne.
Matt Dillon continued to work in varied tempos and styles, as in the Tribeca-premiering marriage drama, Sunlight Jr. (2013), with Naomi Watts, Tess Harper, and Norman Reedus. Dillon made his boldest artistic move after a period of minor films with Lars von Trier’s stark, surreal serial killer tale, The House That Jack Built (2018), featuring Dillon in easily his darkest role, with Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Riley Keough, and Jeremy Davies. Dillon continued to work with European filmmakers, this time with French filmmaker Alice Winocour for the female astronaut drama, Proxima (2019), with the fine cast of Eva Green, Lars Eidinger, and Sandra Hüller.
Dillon played support in the Josh Trank true-crime portrait of the American gangster, Capone (2020), with Tom Hardy, Jack Lowden, and Kyle MacLachlan. In a major departure, Dillon made his first documentary (as director and producer) on one of his personal obsessions—Cuban music—with El Gran Fellove (2020), a study of Cuban scat-singer Francisco Fellove. In another unusual gambit, Dillon joined fellow actors Sheila Vand, Isabella Rossellini, Anna Gunn, and Christopher McDonald for the Shoja Azri/Shirin Neshat comedy, Land of Dreams (2021), notable for being based on one of the final screenplays by Jean-Claude Carrière, who died the same year.
At the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, Dillon’s next indie film was Paul Doktor/Theodore Melfi’s black comedy, American Dreamer, with Peter Dinklage, Shirley MacLaine, and Danny Glover. For the first time, Dillon has joined the regular ensemble of writer-director Wes Anderson for Asteroid City (2022), with Anderson newbies Margot Robbie, Bryan Cranston, Fisher Stevens, Steve Carell, and Rita Wilson. Dillon tackled a rare project in which he portrays an actual figure, with An Ocean Apart (date to be announced), in which he played journalist Nelson Algren opposite Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Simone de Beauvoir.
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Personal Details
Matt Dillon was born in New Rochelle, New York, and raised in Mamaroneck, New York by his father Paul, and mother Mary Dillon in New Rochelle, New York. His father was a golf coach at Fordham University, a sales manager, a portrait painter, and a toy bear manufacturer. Matt Dillon has five siblings, including actors Kevin and Paul Dillon, as well as Katy, Timothy, and Brian. His grand-uncle is Alex Raymond, creator of Flash Gordon.
While attending (and ditching classes) at Hommocks Middle School near Mamaroneck, Dillon was scouted for the cast of Jonathan Kaplan’s acclaimed youth drama, Over the Edge (1979). Dillon was in a relationship with Cameron Diaz from 1996 to 1998. Dillon’s height is 5’ 10¾”. His net worth is $40 million.
Awards
Nominee, Best Supporting Actor, Academy Awards (2006); Nominee, Best Supporting Actor, BAFTA Awards (2006); Winner, Lifetime Success Award, Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival (2017); Two-time Winner, Best Male Lead/Best Supporting Actor, Independent Spirit Award (1990, 2006); Nominee, Best Supporting Actor, Golden Globes Awards (2006); Nominee, Best Spoken Word Album, Grammy Awards (2001); Winner, Lifetime Achievement Award, Locarno Film Festival (2022); Winner, Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award, San Sebastian Film Festival (2006); Winner, Best Motion Picture Cast, Screen Actors Guild Awards (2006).
Independent Spirit Award
Film Independent Spirit Awards
BAFTA Film Award
BAFTA Awards
Filmography
actor
Previous (57)
- 2024 | Haunted HeartasMax
Haunted Heart
When Alex joins the team of a boutique seaside restaurant, sexual tensions rise as she falls for the enigmatic restaurant manager Max. Blinded by her feelings, the relationship slowly slides into a harrowing tale of survival.
- 2024 | American DreamerasDell
American Dreamer
Phil's a dreamer. Most dreams don't come true. Phil hates that. But that's not going to stop Phil from dreaming.
- 2022 | Haunted Heartas Self - Panelist
- 2021 | An Ocean Apartas Mr. Delihon
- 2021 | Land of Dreamsas Alan
- 2020 | Caponeas Johnny
- 2020 | El Gran Fellove
- 2020 | Roy's World: Barry Gifford's Chicagoas Narrator
- 2019 | Proximaas Mike Shannon
- 2018 | The House That Jack BuiltasJack
The House That Jack Built
In five episodes, failed architect and vicious sociopath Jack recounts his elaborately orchestrated murders -- each, as he views them, a towering work of art that defines his life's work as a serial killer in the Pacific Northwest.
- 2019 | Head Full of HoneyasNick
Head Full of Honey
A man suffering from Alzheimer's embarks on a final road trip with his granddaughter.
- 2018 | The House That Jack Built: Uncensored VersionasJack
The House That Jack Built: Uncensored Version
The story follows Jack, a highly intelligent serial killer, over the course of twelve years, and depicts the murders that really develop his inner madman.
- 2018 | Running for GraceasDoc
Running for Grace
A timeless tale that takes place against the backdrop of the segregated coffee fields in 1920s Hawaii - a coming-of-age journey about a young man who transcends the boundaries of race and class in pursuit of a forbidden love.
- 2017 | City of GhostsasJimmy
City of Ghosts
A documentary that follows the efforts of "Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently," a handful of anonymous activists who banded together after their homeland was taken over by ISIS in 2014. With deeply personal access, this is the st...
- 2017 | Going in StyleasFBI Agent Arlen Hamer
Going in Style
Desperate to pay the bills and come through for their loved ones, three lifelong pals risk it all by embarking on a daring bid to knock off the very bank that absconded with their money.
- 2017 |
- 2014 | Bad Countryas Jesse Weiland
- 2014 | Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart
- 2013 | Sunlight Jr.as Richie
- 2012 | Girl Most Likelyas George Bousche
- 2010 | Takersas Jack Welles
- 2009 | Armoredas Mike Cochrane
- 2008 | Nothing But the Truthas Patton Dubois
- 2006 | Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmosas Narrator
- 2006 | You, Me and Dupreeas Carl
- 2005 | Factotumas Hank Chinaski
- 2004 | Crashas Officer Ryan
- 2004 | Employee of the Monthas David Walsh
- 2003 | Rockets Redglare!
- 2001 | One Night at McCool'sas Randy
- 2001 | Orientations: Chris Doyle - Stirred But Not Shaken
- 1998 | There's Something About Maryas Healy
- 1998 | Wild Thingsas Sam Lombardo
- 1997 | In & Outas Cameron Drake
- 1996 | Albino Alligatoras Dova
- 1996 | Beautiful Girlsas Tommy 'Birdman' Rowland
- 1995 | Frankie Starlightas Terry Klout
- 1995 | To Die Foras Larry Maretto
- 1994 | Hollywood Waterloo
- 1993 | Golden Gateas Agent Kevin David Walker
- 1993 | Mr. Wonderfulas Gus
- 1993 | The Saint of Fort Washingtonas Matthew
- 1991 | A Kiss Before Dyingas Jonathan Corliss
- 1989 | Drugstore Cowboyas Bob
- 1988 | Kansasas Doyle Kennedy
- 1987 | The Big Townas J.C. Cullen
- 1986 | Native Sonas Jan
- 1985 | Rebelas Rebel
- 1985 | Targetas Chris Lloyd
- 1984 | The Flamingo Kidas Jeffrey Willis
- 1983 | Rumble Fishas Rusty James
- 1983 | The Outsidersas Dallas Winston
- 1982 | Texas Tex McCormick
- 1981 | Liar's Moonas Jack Duncan
- 1980 | Little Darlingsas Randy
- 1980 | My Bodyguardas Moody
- 1979 | Over the Edgeas Richie
Some Facts About Matt Dillon
Humanitarian: Matt Dillon has worked with Amani Global Works in the Democratic Republic of Congo to improve health care.
Music Collector: Dillon claims a large vinyl collection, particularly Cuban music on 78rpm discs.
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