Clive Owen was born in the UK village Keresley (east of Birmingham), got his first acting credit for the crime show Rockliffe’s Babies (1987), his first film was Vroom (1988 romance), and was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Closer (2004 drama opposite Natalie Portman who was also nominated). He appeared in multiple UK productions such as Chancer (1990-1991 crime series), Close My Eyes (1991 drama starring Alan Rickman), and Greenfingers (2000 comedy with Helen Mirren), before getting more exposure opposite Matt Damon in The Bourne Identity in 2002. Owen balances playing tough guys on either side of the law in action films with being the co-lead in romantic films, both of which are usually dramatic. In 2003, Owen acted opposite Angelina Jolie in Beyond Borders (about lovers in dangerous parts of the world), and the next year he was the lead in King Arthur (2004 action with Keira Knightley). Crime films kept him busy with Sin City (2005 crime based on the Frank Miller graphic novels), Derailed (2005 with Jennifer Aniston), and Inside Man (2006 with Denzel Washington), before appearing in perhaps his best, Children of Men (2006 sci-fi drama about a future where women are infertile). Acting opposite Julianne Moore, Owen then worked with a few more of the most talented actresses in the business, Monica Bellucci in Shoot ‘Em Up (2007), Naomi Watts in The International (2009), Julia Roberts in Duplicity (2009), Marion Cotillard in Blood Ties (2013), and Juliette Binoche in Words and Pictures (2013). Working in tv again, Owen lead The Knick (2014-2015), a drama about the lives of staff at a hospital in New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. Most recently he was in The Confirmation (2016 comedy with Maria Bello), Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017 sci-fi by writer/director Luc Besson), and will next be seen in Anon (sci-fi thriller with Amanda Seyfried), Ophelia (re-imaging of Shakespeare’s Hamlet with Daisy Ridley), and Three Seconds (crime about an ex-convict working undercover in a maximum security prison).

Thank you and Happy 53rd Clive!

Links

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