Claim: Woody Harrelson's breakout role was in 1985 on the television sitcom Cheers.

Woodrow Tracy `` Woody '' Harrelson -LRB- born July 23 , 1961 -RRB- is an American actor , activist and playwright . He is a two-time Academy Award nominee and has won one Emmy Award out of seven nominations . His breakout role came in 1985 , joining the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd , for which he earned five Emmy Award nominations -LRB- one win -RRB- . Some notable film characters include basketball hustler Billy Hoyle in White Men Ca n't Jump , one-handed bowler Roy Munson in Kingpin , Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games film series , Pepper Lewis in The Cowboy Way , Tallahassee in Zombieland , 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 , and magician/mentalist Merritt McKinney in Now You See Me . He will be portraying the Colonel in War for the Planet of the Apes .   For The People vs. Larry Flynt and The Messenger , Harrelson earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor , respectively . In 2014 , he starred as Detective Martin Hart in the first season of the HBO crime drama True Detective with Matthew McConaughey , which earned him and McConaughey nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series .