Woody Harrelson
Birthdate: Jul 23, 1961
Birthplace: Midland, Texas, USA
A colorful and unbridled actor with a larger-than-life personality that can sometimes blur his actual self and his characters, Woody Harrelson (birthname: Woodrow Tracy Harrelson) has carved a savvy, wide-ranging film career spanning thirty years and nearly every corner of movie culture, from portraying porn king Larry Flynt and Pres.
Lyndon B. Johnson to co-starring in Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness (2022). Although his first popular character was Woody Boyd on the long-running hit sitcom, Cheers (1985-1993), Harrelson has devoted himself far more to the movies since 1991, when he had his first significant role in Doc Hollywood, with Michael J. Fox.
Woody Harrelson’s true breakthrough role was as co-star with Wesley Snipes in Ron Shelton’s signature sports comedy, White Men Can’t Jump (1992). This led to a robust 1990s string of hits and ultra-vivid characters, working with many top directors. These included: Adrian Lyne’s Indecent Proposal (1993) with Demi Moore. Oliver Stone’s Wild and Wooly Natural Born Killers (1994) with Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey, Jr., and Tommy Lee Jones. His astonishing portrayal of porn industry magnate Larry Flynt in Milos Forman’s The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996).
Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s bowling comedy, Kingpin (1996), with Bill Murray and Randy Quaid. Michael Cimino’s final film, Sunchaser (1996). Barry Levenson’s political satire, Wag the Dog (1997), with Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman. Michael Winterbottom’s bracing war drama, Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), with Marisa Tomei and Kerry Fox. Another exceptional war drama, from writer-director Terrence Malick, The Thin Red Line (1998), with a huge ensemble including Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel, George Clooney, John Cusack, Nick Nolte, John C.
Reilly and John Travolta; Volker Schlöndorff’s Palmetto (1998), with Elisabeth Shue and Gina Gershon; Stephen Frears’ modern Western, The Hi-Lo Country (1998), with Billy Crudup, Penélope Cruz, and Patricia Arquette; another sports movie with Shelton, Play It to the Bone (1999), with Antonio Banderas; Ron Howard’s broad comedy, EDtv (1999), with Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Ellen DeGeneres, and Rob Reiner; plus a good-natured jab at himself in Jay Roach’s Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), and serving as narrator for Ron Mann’s documentary celebration of cannabis, Grass (1999).
After a break and a few box-office failures, Woody Harrelson joined Spike Lee’s ensemble for She Hate Me (2004), with Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington, and Julianne Moore and Laura Dern for Jane Anderson’s The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005).
Harrelson continued working with leading American filmmakers in the new century, including Richard Linklater (A Scanner Darkly in 2006, with Keanu Reeves), Robert Altman (A Prairie Home Companion in 2006, with Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan, Garrison Keillor, Kevin Kline, and Lily Tomlin), Paul Schrader (The Walker in 2007, with Kristen Scott Thomas, Tomlin, and Willem Dafoe), The Coen Brothers (No Country for Old Men in 2007, with Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin), Brad Anderson (Transsiberian in 2008, with Emily Mortimer), and Oren Moverman (The Messenger in 2009, with Samantha Morton and Steve Buscemi).
One of Woody Harrelson’s most successful movies in this period was the runaway hit comedy, Zombieland (2009), which earned $102 million globally with a cast including Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone, and spawned a 2019 sequel, Zombieland: Double Tap. An extremely busy actor (he worked in five movies in both 2013 and 2016, and six in 2017), Harrelson starred or co-starred in several smash hits during this period, led by his running role as the evil Haymitch in The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire (2013), Mockingjay—Part 1 (2014), and Mockingjay—Part 2 (2015). It also included the heist comedy series, Now You See Me (2013) and Now You See Me 2 (2016), with Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, and Morgan Freeman, which combined for a worldwide box office take of $680 million.
Harrelson joined Christian Bale, Forest Whitaker, and Casey Affleck for Scott Cooper’s drama, Out of the Furnace (2013), and later portrayed Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson in Rob Reiner’s biopic, LBJ (2016). Woody Harrelson secured his third Oscar nomination as the colorful Sheriff Willoughby in Martin McDonagh’s spiky comedy, Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), with Oscar-winning co-stars Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell. In 2017, Harrelson reunited with director Reiner and fellow actor Tommy Lee Jones for Shock and Awe.
In 2018, Woody Harrelson plunged into both the worlds of Star Wars and MCU with Marvel’s Venom, starring Tom Hardy, and Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, with Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, and Thandiwe Newton. Harrelson portrayed another historical figure, World War II hero Admiral Chester Nimitz, in Roland Emmerich’s Midway (2019), with Nick Jonas, Patrick Wilson, and Aaron Eckhart.
(Upcoming historical figures getting the Harrelson touch is Watergate burglar, E. Howard Hunt, and LSD guru Timothy Leary, for the TV mini-series The White House Plumbers and The Most Dangerous Man in America.) Harrelson was part of the ensemble of Ruben Östlund’s Cannes-competing Triangle of Sadness with Harris Dickinson and Charlie Dean. Harrelson appears next with Kevin Hart and Kaley Cuoco in the comedy, The Man from Toronto (2022), and with Ernie Hudson and Cheech Marin in Bobby Farrelly’s Special Olympics basketball movie, Champions (release date to be announced).
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Personal Details
Texas-born Woody Harrelson was raised by his mother Diane and father Charles Voyde Harrelson, an organized crime hitman convicted of a life sentence for the first assassination of a U.S. federal judge in the 20th century. Charles died in federal prison in 2007. Harrelson’s brothers are Jordan and actor Brett Harrelson. Diane raised her family in her hometown of Lebanon, Ohio, where Harrelson spent most of his upbringing.
Harrelson attended Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana on a Presbyterian scholarship, and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Theater in 1979. Harrelson was married to playwright Neil Simon’s daughter Nancy Simon from 1985 to 1986, and since 2008, has been married to Laura Louie, with whom he has three children, Makani, Zoe, and Deni. His height is 5’ 9½”.
Filmography
actor
Upcoming (1)
- 2025 | Last Breath
Last Breath
A true story that follows seasoned deep-sea divers as they battle the raging elements to rescue their crew mate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean's surface.
Previous (26)
- 2024 | Fly Me to the MoonasMoe Berkus
Fly Me to the Moon
Marketing maven Kelly Jones wreaks havoc on NASA launch director Cole Davis's already difficult task. When the White House deems the mission too important to fail, the countdown truly begins.
- 2023 |
- 2022 |
- 2022 | The Man From Toronto
The Man From Toronto
The world's deadliest assassin and New York's biggest screw-up are mistaken for each other at an Airbnb rental.
- 2021 | Dear Rider: The Jake Burton StoryasNarrator
Dear Rider: The Jake Burton Story
An irreverent entrepreneur overcomes a series of adversities to create a new sport- and unexpectedly launches a global cultural phenomenon: snowboarding.
- 2021 | Venom: Let There Be CarnageasCletus Kasady
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Eddie Brock attempts to reignite his career by interviewing serial killer Cletus Kasady, who becomes the host of the symbiote Carnage and escapes prison after a failed execution.
- 2021 |
- 2019 |
- 2019 | Zombieland: Double TapasTallahassee
Zombieland: Double Tap
Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock move to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors, and the growing pains of the snarky makeshift family.
- 2019 | Jim Allison: BreakthroughasNarrator
Jim Allison: Breakthrough
Renegade Texan scientist Jim Allison devotes his life work to find a cure for cancer after the disease takes the life of his mother.
- 2018 |
- 2018 | Shock and AweasJonathan Landay
Shock and Awe
A group of journalists of the Knight-Ridder news service covering President George W. Bush's planned invasion of Iraq in 2003 are skeptical of the President's claim that Saddam Hussein has "weapons of mass destruction."
- 2018 | Solo: A Star Wars StoryasBeckett
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in an epic action-adventure that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga's most unlikely heroes.
- 2017 | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MissouriasWilloughby
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
- 2017 |
- 2017 | The Glass CastleasRex
The Glass Castle
A young girl comes of age in a dysfunctional family of nonconformist nomads with a mother who's an eccentric artist and an alcoholic father who would stir the children's imagination with hope as a distraction to their poverty.
- 2017 | War for the Planet of the ApesasThe Colonel
War for the Planet of the Apes
After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind.
- 2017 |
- 2016 | Now You See Me 2asMerritt McKinney/Chase McKinney
Now You See Me 2
The Four Horsemen resurface, and are forcibly recruited by a tech genius to pull off their most impossible heist yet.
- 2015 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2asHaymitch Abernathy
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
Katniss and a team of rebels from District 13 prepare for the final battle that will decide the fate of Panem.
- 2014 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1asHaymitch Abernathy
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
Katniss Everdeen is in District 13 after she shatters the games forever. Under the leadership of President Coin and the advice of her trusted friends, Katniss spreads her wings as she fights to save Peeta and a nation moved by her courage.
- 2013 | Out of the FurnaceasHarlan DeGroat
Out of the Furnace
When Rodney Baze mysteriously disappears and law enforcement doesn't follow through fast enough, his older brother, Russell, takes matters into his own hands to find justice.
- 2013 | Free BirdsasJake
Free Birds
Two turkeys from opposite sides of the tracks must put aside their differences and team up to travel back in time to change the course of history, and get Turkeys off the Thanksgiving menu for good.
- 2013 | Now You See MeasMerritt McKinney
Now You See Me
An F.B.I. Agent and an Interpol Detective track a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances, and reward their audiences with the money.
- 2007 | No Country for Old MenasCarson Wells
No Country for Old Men
Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and over two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
- 1998 | The Thin Red LineasSgt. Keck
The Thin Red Line
Adaptation of James Jones' autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War.
Some Facts About Woody Harrelson
Veep Buddies: Woody Harrelson was classmates with future Vice President Mike Pence at Hanover College in Indiana, and recalled that he “actually quite liked him. We were both very religious.”
Addiction Admission: Harrelson has admitted that he has had a sex addiction.
Theater Guy: Woody Harrelson’s theater credits include co-starring in a production of Biloxi Blues, written by his former father-in-law, Neil Simon.
Arrest Record: Harrelson has an arrest record, including a 1983 disorderly conduct charge in Columbus, Ohio, and a marijuana possession charge in 1996 in Beattyville, Kentucky.
Oscar Voter: When Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell were both nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2018 for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), Harrelson said that he voted for Rockwell rather than himself.
Hemp Advocate: Harrelson led a hemp-powered caravan bus down the Pacific Coast in 2001 to promote hemp as an energy-producing resource, documented by filmmaker Ron Mann in Go Further (2003).
Politics: Woody Harrelson describes himself as politically an anarchist.
