Today marks the 59th birthday of American actor and playwright Woody Harrelson. In celebration, we look back on his amazing career so far.
Woodrow Tracy Harrelson – or Woody, as we know him – was born on 23 July 1961 in Midland Texas to his mother Diane and father Charles Voyde Harrelson, who was a convicted hitman. His father was rarely around for his childhood as he was given a life sentence for killing Federal Judge John H. Wood in 1979.
Harrelson’s education began when he attended Hanover College in Indiana after graduating from Lebanon High School in 1979. From there, he received the BFA in Theatre and English in 1983 – setting him up for his career in the entertainment world.
Only two years later, his television career began when he joined the cast of Cheers in 1985 in season four as bartender Woody Boyd. Harrelson played this role for eight seasons until the show ended in 1993. During this time, he was nominated for five Emmy Awards and won one of these awards in 1989.
After Cheers was taken off air, its successful spin-off series Fraiser saw Woody reprise his role as the bartender Woody Boyd – leading him to be nominated once again for an Emmy award, however this time it was for “Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series”.
His career in film began only a year after starting in Cheers in 1986, appearing in the football comedy Wildcats alongside Goldie Hawn. However, he took a break from film as he was committed to Cheers. He returned to the film world in 1992 after appearing in box office hit White Men Can’t Jump (1992) and box office flop Money Train (1995).
One of his biggest roles came in 1993 where he starred opposite Robert Redford and Demi Moore in the drama film Indecent Proposal. This 1993 classic was a box office hit as it earned over $265 million worldwide. However, his career really gained more popularity after he starred in The People vs Larry Flynt – where he played Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine.
This led to Harrelson being nominated for the Golden Globe Award and even the Academy Award for Best Actor. After this film role, this opened up the door for Harrelson to portray more serious roles in films including playing Sergeant Keck in The Thin Red Line – a film nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1999.
Over the next few years Harrelson continued to appear in a number of other films including Anger Management (2003), No Country for Old Men (2007), Battle in Seattle (2007) and The Messenger (2009). For younger viewers out there, they will be more familiar with Woody Harrelson in his role as Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games trilogy.
More recently, he has appeared in films such as Solo: A Star Wars Story as Han Solo’s mentor and as a criminal. He also appeared as Cletus Kasady in the end of Venom (2018).
Harrelson is a triple threat as he also has had a career in Theatre. In 1999, he directed his own play Furthest from the Sun – performed at the Theatre de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis. He then went on to appear in other plays including The Rainmaker (2000), The Late Henry Moss (2001), Night of the Iguana (2005-2006) and others.
In terms of his personal life, Harrelson married his first wife Nancy Simon in 1985. Their marriage was intended to not be serious as they planned to divorce the next day. However the divorce parlour was closed and they were married for an additional ten months.
In 2008, Harrelson then married his current wife Laura Louie after they met as he was his personal assistant in 1987. Together, they have three daughters Deni, Zoe and Makani.
Woody Harrelson has granted us with some great roles in the past and will continue to do so in his amazing career as an actor.
By Katie Green
Feature image: The Independent