Clive Owen is an Academy Award -nominated, and Golden Globe- and BAFTA-award winning English actor, now a regular performer in
The fourth of five brothers, Owen was born in
Initially, Owen carved out a career in television: in 1988 Owen starred as Gideon Sarn in a BBC television production of 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 Stephen Poliakoff film called Close My Eyes, about a brother and sister who embark on an incestuous love affair. 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
He then 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 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.
He became well known to North American audiences in the summer of 2001 after starring as The Driver in the The Hire, a series of short films sponsored by BMW and made by prominent directors. He then appeared in Robert Altman's
Owen appeared in the
After Closer, he appeared in Derailed alongside Jennifer Aniston, the comic book thriller
In 2006, Owen starred in the highly acclaimed Children of Men. He received widespread praise for his role as the former political activist-turned-reluctant hero Theo Faron. The film was nominated for various awards including an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; Owen worked on the screenplay, although he was uncredited. The next year he starred alongside Paul Giamatti in the film Shoot 'Em Up and appeared as Sir Walter Raleigh opposite Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth I of England in the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
In 2007, Owen appeared in the Christmas special of the Ricky Gervais show Extras, as revealed in the video pod cast teaser. He also uttered the immortal phrase "Fuck off, I'm Clive Owen, That's mental" when presented with a woman who he was supposed to have slept with in a film.
Owen lives in
In November 2006, he became patron of the Electric Palace Cinema in
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
1988 Vroom
1989 Precious Bane
1990 Chancer
1990 Lorna Doone
1991 Close My Eyes
1993 Class of '61
1993 Century
1993 The Magician
1994 The Return of the Native
1994 Doomsday Gun
1994 An Evening with Gary Lineker
1994 Nobody's Children
1994 The Turnaround
1995 Bad Boy Blues
1996 Privateer 2: The Darkening
1996 The Rich Man's Wife
1996 Sharman
1997 Croupier
1997 Bent
1998 The Echo
1999 Split Second
1999 Second Sight DCI Ross Tanner
2000 Greenfingers
2000 Second Sight: Kingdom of the Blind
2000 Second Sight: Parasomnia
2000 Second Sight: Hide and Seek
2001 The Hire
2001
2001 Walk On By
2002 The Bourne Identity
2003 Beyond Borders
2003 I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
2004 Closer
2004 King Arthur
2005 Derailed
2005
2006 Children of Men
2006 Inside Man
2006 The Pink Panther
2007
2007 Shoot 'em Up
Filming
2008 The International
Pre-production
2008 The Boys Are Back in Town
2009 Duplicity
2009