Clive Owen

Clive Owen (born October 3, 1964) is a critically acclaimed British actor, now a regular performer in Hollywood and independent American films.
In 2005, Owen was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film version of Closer.
==Biography==
Owen was born in Coventry, West Midlands, England, the fourth of five brothers. At the age of three, his father (a country and western singer) left the family. Owen was raised by his mother and his step-father. While initially opposed to drama school, he changed his mind in 1984, after a long and fruitless period of searching for work. Owen graduated from RADA in 1987 in a class including both Ralph Fiennes and Jane Horrocks. After graduation, he won a position at the Young Vic, performing in several William Shakespeare plays. In an incident he later described as "very schmaltzy," he met his future wife Sarah-Jane Fenton while they were performing the title roles of Romeo and Juliet. They married in 1995, and have two daughters, Hannah and Eve. They lived in London before moving to Essex.
Initially, Owen carved out a career in television: in 1988 Owen starred as a psychopath in a BBC television production called Precious Bane and the Channel 4 film Vroom before the 1990s saw him become a regular on stage and television in the UK, notably his lead role in the ITV series Chancer followed by an appearance in the Thames Television production of Lorna Doone.
He won critical acclaim for his performances in a 1991 Channel 4 film called Close My Eyes, about a brother and sister who embark on a passionate but incestuous love affair (in which he appeared totally naked). Due to personal conflicts with the press Owen decided not to appear in television programmes for a while. However, he subsequently appeared in The Magician, Class Of '61, Century, Nobody's Children, An Evening With Gary Lineker, Doomsday Gun, Return Of The Native, The Turnaround and then a Carlton production called Sharman, about a private detective. In 1996 he starred in te film The Rich Man's Wife before finding international acclaim in a Channel 4 film directed by Mike Hodges called Croupier, where he played the title role of a struggling writer who takes a job in a London casino as inspiration for his work, only to get caught up in a robbery scheme, had followed. In 1999 he appeared as an accident-prone driver called Split Second; his first BBC production for a decade.
In 1998 he starred in a film called Bent, about homosexuals who live in a Jewish camp in which, for the role, he lost some weight but gained a huge gay following, then he starred in The Echo, a BBC1 drama. He also starred in a film called Greenfingers about a criminal who goes to work in a garden, before appearing in the well-written BBC1 mystery series Second Sight, in which he played DCI Ross Tanner. In 2001 he provided the voice-over for a BBC2 documentary about popular music through the years called Walk On By, as well as starring in a highly-acclaimed theatre production called The Day In The Death Of Joe Egg, about a couple with a severely handicapped daughter, and then he later appeared in the murder-mystery film directed by Robert Altman called Gosford Park, which won some critically-claimed BAFTAs and Oscars along the way, along with an all-star cast including Helen Mirren and Ryan Phillipe. He has also starred in The Bourne Identity, along with American actor Matt Damon. In 2003 he starred in other films including Trevor Preston's I'll Sleep When I'm Dead and Beyond Borders before taking on another role called King Arthur, in which he admitted that he had to take some horse-riding lessons before starring in the film, in an interview with Jonathan Ross.
He also appeared in the West End and Broadway hit play Closer, by Patrick Marber, which again became a film which was released in 2005, before he starred in another film called Derailed.
He became well known to North American audiences after starring as The Driver in the BMW films. Despite public denials, Owen had long been rumoured to be a possible successor to Pierce Brosnan in the role of James Bond. Rumours intensified after Brosnan admitted that he would not play the part again. Many had considered him to be perfect for the role, but in October 2005 it was announced that British actor Daniel Craig would take Brosnan's place. Unconfirmed sources stated that Owen had turned down the role to avoid typecasting and/or disagreement over financial terms. In 2006 he spoofed the Bond connection by making an appearance in the remake of The Pink Panther in which he plays a character named "Nigel Boswell, Agent 006" (another character in the film quips that Owen's character is "one short of the big time", referring to James Bond, who is widely recognized as Agent 007).
More recently, he's starred opposite Denzel Washington in Inside Man (2006) as the witty and mysterious bank robber; and alongside Julianne Moore and Michael Caine in Children of Men (2006). He plays Sir Walter Raleigh opposite Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth I in the film Golden Age (2007).
Clive Owen also is a Liverpool football supporter and currently stands at 6'2 1/2” tall.
==Filmography==
2001 Walk On By TV documentary - narrator
Year	Film 	Role 	Notes
2007	Sin City 2 	Dwight McCarthy 	Pre-production
2007	Elizabeth: The Golden Age 	Sir Walter Raleigh 	Filming
2007	Shoot 'em Up 	Mr. Smith 	Post-production
2006	Children of Men 	Theodore Faron 	
2006	Inside Man 	Dalton Russell 	
2006	The Pink Panther 	Nigel Boswell/Agent 006 	Uncredited
2005	Derailed 	Charles Schine 	
2005	Sin City 	Dwight McCarthy 	
2004	Closer 	Larry 	
2004	King Arthur 	Arthur 	
2003	Beyond Borders 	Nick Callahan 	
2003	I'll Sleep When I'm Dead 	Will 	
2002	The Bourne Identity 	The Professor 	
2001	The Hire 	The Driver 	
2001	Gosford Park 	Robert Parks 	
2000	Greenfingers 	Colin Briggs 	
2000	Second Sight: Kingdom of the Blind	DCI Ross Tanner 	TV movie
2000	Second Sight: Parasomnia 	DCI Ross Tanner 	TV movie
2000	Second Sight: Hide and Seek 	DCI Ross Tanner 	TV movie
1999	Split Second 	Michael Anderson 	TV movie
1999	Second Sight 	DCI Ross Tanner 	TV movie
1998	The Echo 	Michael Deacon 	TV movie
1997	Croupier 	Jack Manfred 	
1997	Bent 	Max 	
1996	The Rich Man's Wife 	Jake Golden 	
1996	"Sharman" 	Nick Sharman 	TV series
1995	Bad Boy Blues 	Paul 	TV movie
1994	The Return of the Native 	Damon Wildeve 	TV movie
1994	Doomsday Gun 	Dov 	TV movie
1994	An Evening with Gary Lineker 	Bill 	TV movie
1994	Nobody's Children 	Bratu 	TV movie
1994	The Tournaround 	Nick Sharman 	
1993	Class of '61 	Devin O'Neil 	TV movie
1993	Century 	Paul Reisner 	
1993	The Magician 	Det. Con. George Byrne 	TV movie
1991	Close My Eyes 	Richard 	
1990	Chancer 	Stephen Crane/Derek Love	TV series
1990	Lorna Doone 	John Ridd 	TV movie
1989	Precious Bane 	Gideon Smith 	TV movie
1988	Vroom 	Jake 	
==External links==
* 
* Clive Owen Official Site
* Clive Owen Fan Site
* Clive Owen Russian Fan Site
Category:Actors
Category:1964 births
Category:Living people