Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson (born July 23 1961) is an American Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated actor. He is probably best known for his role in the classic sitcom Cheers as Woody Boyd. Notable film roles include Roy Munson in Kingpin, Mickey Knox in Natural Born Killers, Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt, Dusty in A Prairie Home Companion and Carson Wells in No Country for Old Men.

Biography

Early life

Harrelson was born in Midland, Texas, the son of Diane Lou (née Oswald) and Charles Voyde Harrelson, who divorced in 1964; he has two brothers, Jordan and Brett, the latter of whom is a professional motorcycle racer. In 1979, in San Antonio, Federal Judge John H. Wood, Jr. was shot and killed by rifle fire by Charles Harrelson, who was a free-lance contract killer. He was convicted and eventually died during his life sentence in maximum security prison.

Harrelson grew up in Lebanon, Ohio, with his mother. Harrelson attended Lebanon High School and later Hanover College in Indiana, becoming a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, and receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Arts and English in 1983.

Career

After graduation, Harrelson moved to New York City. In 1985, he was cast as the naive but genial Midwestern bartender Woody Boyd on the classic television series Cheers, and won an Emmy for the role. His first film was 1986's Wildcats with Goldie Hawn. Harrelson became friends with Wesley Snipes and starred with him in the box-office hits White Men Can't Jump and Money Train. He appeared in mostly minor roles until he starred in Robert Redford's Indecent Proposal in 1993, a role which helped open doors for Harrelson in the film industry.

In 1994 Harrelson starred in arguably his best known role to date, Mickey Knox in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. During this time he also starred in the Farrelly brothers cult classic Kingpin. In 1996, he starred in the title role of the controversial film The People vs. Larry Flynt, for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Following this performance Harrelson went to star in films such as Wag the Dog, EDtv, The Thin Red Line and Palmetto.

More recently, he had a fairly long run on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace as Grace's love interest Nathan and played FBI agent Stan in 2004's After the Sunset. His most recent films are A Prairie Home Companion, A Scanner Darkly, and No Country for Old Men which were released in June and July of 2006 and November of 2007, respectively.

Personal life

In 1985, Harrelson married Nancy Simon, daughter of playwright Neil Simon, in Tijuana. The two intended to divorce the following day, but the storefront marriage/divorce parlor was closed when they had returned to it, and the two remained married for ten months.

On January 11, 1998, Harrelson married Laura Louie, his former assistant of two years and a co-founder of Yoganics, an organic food delivery service. The couple, who have been together since 1990, have three daughters, Deni Montana (born February 28, 1993), Zoe Giordano (born September 22, 1996), and Makani Ravello (born June 3, 2006). When announcing Makani's birth, the couple referred to the three as their "goddess trilogy".

Activist work

Harrelson is a supporter and activist for the legalization of marijuana and hemp in the US. On June 1, 1996, he was arrested in Kentucky after he symbolically planted four hemp seeds to challenge state law that failed to distinguish between industrial hemp and marijuana. Harrelson won the case.

Harrelson is also an environmental activist. He once scaled the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco with members of North Coast Earth First! group to unfurl a banner that said, "Hurwitz. Aren't ancient redwoods more precious than gold?" in protest of PALCO CEO Charles Hurwitz, who once stated, "He who has the gold, makes the rules". Harrelson, an ethical vegan and raw foodist, has also denounced animal experiments in the cosmetics industry.

He has travelled the American West Coast on a bike and domino caravan with a hemp oil-fueled biodiesel bus (the subject of the independent documentary, Go Further) and has narrated the documentary Grass. Harrelson briefly owned an oxygen bar in West Hollywood called "O2". He is also a peace activist and has often spoken publicly against the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Wildcats	Krushinski	film debut
1987	Bay Coven	Slater
1988	Cool Blue	Dustin	Direct-to-video
	Mickey's 60th Birthday	Woodrow Tiberius "Woody" Boyd	TV-Movie
	Killer Instinct	Charlie Long	TV-Movie
1990	L.A. Story	Harris' Boss	Cameo
	Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme	Lou the Lamb	Cameo
1991	Doc Hollywood	Hank Gordon
	Ted and Venus	Homeless Vietnam Veteran	Cameo
1992	White Men Can't Jump	Billy Hoyle
1992	Cheers: Last Call!	Woodrow Tiberius "Woody" Boyd	NBC special
1993	Indecent Proposal	David Murphy
1994	Natural Born Killers	Mickey Knox
	The Cowboy Way	Pepper Lewis
	I'll Do Anything	Ground Zero Hero
1995	Money Train	Charlie
1996	The People vs. Larry Flynt	Larry Claxton Flynt Jr.	Nominated for an Oscar: Best Actor in a Leading Role
	Kingpin	Roy Munson
	The Sunchaser	Dr. Michael Reynolds
1997	Wag the Dog	Sgt. William Schumann
	Welcome to Sarajevo	Jordan Flynn
1998	The Thin Red Line	Sgt. Keck
	Palmetto	Harry Barber
	The Hi-Lo Country	Big Boy Matson
1999	Play It to the Bone	Vince Boudreau
	EDtv	Ray Pekurny
	''Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me	Himself	Cameo
2003	Anger Management	Galaxia/Security Gary
	Go Further	Himself	documentary
	Scorched	Jason 'Woods' Valley
2004	After the Sunset	Stanley "Stan" P. Lloyd
	She Hate Me	Lenald Power
2005	North Country	Bill White
	The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio	Leo "Kelly" Ryan	Limited
	The Big White	Raymond "Ray" Barnell
2006	Free Jimmy	Roy Arnie (voice)	English version
	A Scanner Darkly	Ernie Luckman
	A Prairie Home Companion	Dusty
2007	The Walker	Carter Page III
	No Country for Old Men	Carson Wells
	Battle in Seattle	Dale
	The Grand	One Eyed Jack Faro
	Nanking	Bob Wilson
2008	Semi-Pro	Ed Monix
	Sleepwalking	Randall
	Transsiberian	Roy	awaiting release
	Bolt	Rhino the Hamster (voice)	post-production
	Management	Jango	post-production
	Seven Pounds	TBA	post-production
	The Messenger	Anthony 'Tony' Stone	filming
2009	Bunraku	The Bartender	filming

References

External links

• VoiceYourself
• Woody Harrelson myspace.com
• No Country for Old Men Official Canadian site