 Ewan McGregor biography:
Ewan McGregor's life on stage began early on after he left school at age 16 and was hired as a stagehand at the Perth Theatre in Scotland. He went on to study acting at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, after which he got his first distinguishing role starring as Private Mick Hopper in a TV series called Lipstick on Your Collar.
McGregor got his big break three years later in the Irvine Welsh film, Trainspotting, where he played a heroin junkie deeply entrenched in Edinburgh’s drug world. Ewan won the London Critics Circle Film Award for Best British Actor of the Year in 1997 for this role in Trainspotting as Mark “Rent Boy” Renton.
Since then, he has had roles in numerous indie and art films, including The Pillow Book (1996), A Life Less Ordinary (1997), Little Voice (1998), and Big Fish (2003) as well as increasingly larger roles in blockbusters such as Black Hawk Down (2001), Moulin Rouge (2001) opposite Nicole Kidman, The Island (2005) with Scarlett Johanssen, and Star Wars Episodes I, II, and III.
Ewan McGregor has been married to Eve Mavrakis for the past 13 years after meeting on the set of Kavanagh QC in 1995 where she was a production designer and he was a young actor. McGregor describes her as “a brilliant woman” and the couple have three daughters named Clara Mathilde (12), Esther Rose (7), and Jamiyan (6), whom the McGregors adopted in 2006.
Ewan McGregor quote:
"Film-making is like a series of problems that need to be solved. And the excitement, the adrenaline that you get from making a small film is that you all have to pull together. You finish and you feel like you're walking away from your family. I love that." |
| Non-acting careers: Stagehand at the Perth Theatre in Perthshire, Scotland | | Big break: Mark "Rent Boy" Renton in Trainspotting (1996) | Defining characters:
Mark Renton in Trainspotting (1996)
Robert Lewis in A Life Less Ordinary (1997)
Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode I, II, III (1999, 2002, 2005)
Christian in Moulin Rouge (2001)
Young Edward Bloom in BIg Fish (2003)
Jonathan in Deception (2008) | Best movies:
The Pillow Book (1996)
Trainspotting (1996)
A Life Less Ordinary (1997)
Moulin Rouge (2001)
Big Fish (2003) | Best TV:
Lipstick on Your Collar (1993)
E.R. (1997) | | Stage credits: | | Endorsements: | | Other notable appearances/credits: | Top awards:
Won the Icon Award at the 2008 Empire Awards in the UK
Won the Film Actor Award for Moulin Rouge at The 2002 Variety Club Showbusiness Awards
Nominated for a Golden Globe in 2002 for his role in Moulin Rouge | | Other: |
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