Matt Dillon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Matt Dillon
Dillon at the 2010 FICG
Born	Matthew Raymond Dillon (1964-02-18) February 18, 1964 (age 60) New Rochelle, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1979–present
Partner(s)	Cameron Diaz (1995–1998) Roberta Mastromichele (2014–2024)
Relatives	Kevin Dillon (brother) Jim Raymond (great uncle) Alex Raymond (great uncle)
Awards	Full list

Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award nomination and Grammy nomination.

Dillon made his feature film debut in Over the Edge (1979) and established himself as a teen idol by starring in the films My Bodyguard (1980), Little Darlings (1980), Liar's Moon (1982), The Flamingo Kid (1984) and three of five S. E. Hinton book adaptations: Tex (1982), Rumble Fish (1983) and The Outsiders (1983). From the late 1980s onward, Dillon achieved further success, starring in Drugstore Cowboy (1989), Singles (1992), The Saint of Fort Washington (1993), To Die For (1995), Beautiful Girls (1996), In & Out (1997), There's Something About Mary (1998), and Wild Things (1998). In a 1991 article, movie critic Roger Ebert referred to him as the best actor within his age group, along with Sean Penn.

In 2002, he made his directing debut with City of Ghosts and has since continued to act in films such as Factotum (2005), You, Me and Dupree (2006), The House That Jack Built (2018), and Asteroid City (2023). For Crash (2004), he won an Independent Spirit Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He had earlier been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for narrating Jack Kerouac's On the Road. On television, he starred in the first season of the FOX television series Wayward Pines (2015), for which he was nominated for a Saturn Award.

Early life

Dillon was born in New Rochelle, New York, to Mary Ellen, a homemaker, and Paul Dillon, a portrait painter and sales manager for Union Camp, a toy bear manufacturer. Paul Dillon also was the long-time golf coach at Fordham University, having been enshrined in the school's Hall of Fame in 2019 His paternal grandmother was the sister of comic strip artist Alex Raymond, the creator of Flash Gordon. Dillon is the second of six children with one sister and four brothers, one of whom is actor Kevin Dillon. Dillon was raised in a close-knit Roman Catholic family of Irish descent. He grew up in Mamaroneck, New York.

Career

Dillon at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival

In 1978, Jane Bernstein and a friend were helping director Jonathan Kaplan cast the teen drama Over the Edge when they found Dillon cutting class at Hommocks Middle School in Larchmont. Dillon auditioned for a role and made his debut in the film. The film received a regional, limited theatrical release in May 1979, and grossed only slightly over $200,000. ..... The films, released in March and July 1980, respectively, were box office successes and raised Dillon's profile among teen audiences.

Another of Dillon's early roles was in the Jean Shepherd PBS special The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters. The only available copies of this film are stored at UCLA, where a legal dispute makes it unavailable to the public.

One of his next roles was in Liar's Moon, where he played Jack Duncan, a poor Texas boy madly in love with a rich banker's daughter. In the early 1980s, Dillon also had prominent roles in three adaptations of S. E. Hinton novels: Tex (1982), The Outsiders (1983) and Rumble Fish (1983). All three films were shot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hinton's hometown. The Outsiders and Rumble Fish had Dillon working with Francis Ford Coppola and Diane Lane. He followed those up with The Flamingo Kid in 1984. He made his Broadway debut with the play The Boys of Winter in 1985. Dillon did voiceover work in the 1987 documentary film Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. In 1985, Dillon was namechecked in the lyrics of the Roger Daltrey song 'After The Fire' (written by Pete Townshend). .....

Dillon continued to work in the early 1990s with roles in films like Singles (1992). He had a resurgence when he played Nicole Kidman's husband in To Die For (1995), as well as starring roles in Wild Things (1998) and There's Something About Mary (1998), for which he received an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.

In 2002, he wrote and directed the film City of Ghosts, starring himself, James Caan and Gérard Depardieu. In 2005, he starred in Factotum, a film adaptation of an autobiographical work by Charles Bukowski. Two years later he received critical praise and earned Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for his role in Crash, a film co-written and directed by Paul Haggis. In 2005, Dillon co-starred in Disney's Herbie: Fully Loaded and on March 11, 2006, hosted Saturday Night Live, in which he impersonated Greg Anderson and Rod Serling in sketches.

Dillon starred in the comedy You, Me and Dupree, opposite Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson. The film opened on July 14, 2006. On September 29, 2006, Dillon was honored with the Premio Donostia prize in the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

Dillon contributed his voice as the narrator, Sal Paradise, in an audiobook version of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. In 2006, he narrated Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos.

Dillon appeared in several music videos during his career. He made a cameo appearance as a detective in Madonna's Bad Girl music video which also stars Christopher Walken. ..... In 2007, the band Dinosaur Jr. hired Dillon to direct the video for their single "Been There All The Time" from the album Beyond. That year, he guest-starred on The Simpsons episode "Midnight Towboy". Early in 2015, he played the role of a Secret Service agent in the FOX 10-episode series Wayward Pines.

In 2018, Dillon played the lead role in the Lars von Trier thriller The House That Jack Built.

He portrayed Marlon Brando in the upcoming biopic Being Maria

Personal life

Matt was in a relationship with Cameron Diaz from 1995 to 1998. From 2014 to 2024 he was in a relationship with Italian actress, dancer and choreographer Roberta Mastromichele.

Dillon is an aficionado and collector of Latin music, with a large collection of vinyl, including a notable library of Cuban 78s.

Filmography

Dillon at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1979	Over the Edge	Ritchie White
1980	My Bodyguard	Melvin Moody
	Little Darlings	Randy Adams
1982	Tex	Tex McCormick
	Liar's Moon	Jack Duncan
1983	The Outsiders	Dallas "Dally" Winston
	Rumble Fish	Rusty James
1984	The Flamingo Kid	Jeffrey Willis
1985	Target	Chris Lloyd / Derek Potter
	Rebel	Sergeant Harry Rebel
1986	Native Son	Jan Erlone
1987	The Big Town	J. C. Cullen
1988	Kansas	Doyle Kennedy
1989	Drugstore Cowboy	Bob Hughes
	Bloodhounds of Broadway	Regret
1990	Bad Influence
1991	A Kiss Before Dying	Jonathan Corliss
1992	Singles	Cliff Poncier
1993	The Saint of Fort Washington	Matthew
	Mr. Wonderful	Gus DeMarco
1994	Golden Gate	Kevin Walker
1995	To Die For	Larry Maretto
	Frankie Starlight	Terry Klout
1996	Grace of My Heart	Jay Phillips
	Albino Alligator	Dova
	Beautiful Girls	Tommy "Birdman" Rowland
1997	In & Out	Cameron Drake
1998	There's Something About Mary	Patrick "Pat" Healy
	Wild Things	Sam Lombardo
2001	One Night at McCool's	Randy
2002	Deuces Wild	Fritzy Zennetti
	City of Ghosts	Jimmy Cremming	Also writer/director
2003	Abby Singer	Himself
2004	Employee of the Month	David Walsh
	Crash	Officer John Ryan
2005	Loverboy	Mark
	Factotum	Henry Chinaski
	Herbie: Fully Loaded	Trip Murphy
2006	You, Me and Dupree	Carl Peterson
2008	Nothing but the Truth	Patton Dubois
2009	Old Dogs	Barry
	Armored	Mike Cochrane
2010	Takers	Det. Jack Welles
2012	Girl Most Likely	George / The Bousche
2013	Pawn Shop Chronicles	Richard
	The Art of the Steal	Nicky Calhoun
	Sunlight Jr.	Richie Barnes
2014	Bad Country	Jesse Weiland
2017	Rock Dog	Trey	Voice only
	Going in Style	Hamer
2018	The House That Jack Built	Jack
	Running for Grace	Doc
	Head Full of Honey	Nick
2019	Nimic	Father	Short film
	Proxima	Mike Shannon
2020	Capone	Johnny
	The Great Fellove	N/A	Documentary; Executive producer/director
2021	Land of Dreams	Alan
2022	American Dreamer	Dell
2023	Asteroid City	Walter Geronimo
2024	Being Maria	Marlon Brando
	Haunted Heart

Television

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Matt Dillon para niños