Share on Facebook
Learn 50 things you didn't know about Woody Harrelson.
1. Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an actor, activist and playwright.
2. He is a two-time Academy Award nominee.
3. Won one Emmy Award out of seven nominations.
4. His breakout role came in 1985, joining the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd, for which he earned five Emmy Award nominations.
5. Some notable film characters include basketball hustler Billy Hoyle in White Men Can't Jump, one-handed bowler Roy Munson in Kingpin, Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games film series, serial killer Mickey Knox in Natural Born Killers, magazine publisher Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt, and country singer Dusty in A Prairie Home Companion.
6. For The People vs. Larry Flynt and The Messenger, Harrelson earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.
7. In 2014, he starred as Detective Martin Hart in the HBO crime drama True Detective with Matthew McConaughey, which earned him and McConaughey nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
8. Harrelson was born in Midland, Texas.
9. He has two brothers, Jordan and Brett.
10. In 1973, Harrelson moved to his mother's native city, Lebanon, Ohio, where he was raised.
11. Harrelson attended Lebanon High School, working through much of high school as a woodcarver at Kings Island amusement park.
12. He attended Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana, where he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity.
13. He received a Bachelor of Arts in theater and English in 1983.
14. In 1999, Harrelson guest-starred in the Cheers spin-off success Frasier, in which he reprised the role of Woody Boyd.
15. Harrelson was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for this performance.
16. He appeared in several 2001 episodes of Will & Grace as Grace's new boyfriend Nathan.
17. On the November 12, 2009 episode of the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, Harrelson was interviewed by Stephen Colbert, to promote his movie The Messenger. In response to Colbert's questioning of his support for the troops, Harrelson agreed to let Colbert shave his head on camera.
18. In 1999, Harrelson directed his own play, Furthest from the Sun, at the Theatre de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis.
19. He followed next in Roundabout's Broadway revival of the N. Richard Nash play The Rainmaker in 2000, Sam Shepard's The Late Henry Moss in 2001, John Kolvenbach's On an Average Day opposite Kyle MacLachlan in London's West End in the fall of 2002, and in the summer of 2003, Harrelson directed the Toronto premiere of Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth at the Berkley Street Theater.
20. In the winter of 2005/2006 Harrelson returned to London's West End, starring in Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana at the Lyric Theater.
21. Harrelson directed Bullet for Adolf (a play written by himself in collaboration with Frankie Hyman) at the esteemed Hart House Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, which ran from April 21 to May 7, 2011.
22. Harrelson returned to television in 2014, starring along with Matthew McConaughey in the first season of a new HBO's crime series, True Detective, where he plays Marty Hart, a Louisiana cop investigating murders that took place over a timespan of 17 years.
23. On June 6, 2010, Harrelson took part playing in Soccer Aid 2010 for UNICEF UK at Old Trafford in Manchester, UK. The match was broadcast live on UK's ITV television. After being brought on as a substitute for Gordon Ramsay, Harrelson took the final penalty in the penalty shootout, following a 2-2 draw after 91 minutes. Despite being initially unaware of exactly from where his kick had to be taken, Harrelson scored to win the game for "The Rest of the World" team, beating England for the first time since the tournament began.
24. Harrelson also took part in Soccer Aid 2012 on May 27, 2012.
25. His first movie had been Wildcats, a football comedy in 1986 with Goldie Hawn.
26. Harrelson reunited and became friends with Wesley Snipes and starred with him in the box-office hit White Men Can't Jump and the box office bomb Money Train.
27. In 1993, he had a starring role opposite Robert Redford and Demi Moore in the drama Indecent Proposal, which was a box office success, earning a worldwide total of over $265,000,000.
28. Harrelson then played Mickey Knox in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers and Dr. Michael Raynolds in the Michael Cimino film The Sunchaser.
29. Harrelson's career gained momentum when he starred in the Miloš Forman film The People vs. Larry Flynt, in which he played Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine. The film was a success and Harrelson's performance was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Actor.
30. He starred in the 1997 war film Welcome to Sarajevo and in 1997 had a featured role as Sergeant Schumann in Wag the Dog.
31. In 1998, Harrelson starred in the thriller Palmetto and played Sergeant Keck in The Thin Red Line, a war film nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1999.
32. Harrelson made other films such as The Hi-Lo Country and portrayed Ray Pekurny in the comedy EDtv.
33. Also in 1999, he appeared as boxer Vince Boudreau in the Ron Shelton film Play It to the Bone.
34. Harrelson did not appear in films again until 2003, when he co-starred as Galaxia in the comedy film Anger Management.
35. He appeared in the action film After the Sunset and the Spike Lee film She Hate Me.
36. In 2005, Harrelson was in The Big White and North Country.
37. Also in 2005 he appeared as Kelly Ryan, husband of a contest-obsessed woman in the film The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio.
38. Harrelson made two films in 2006, the animated film version of Free Jimmy and also A Scanner Darkly.
39. In 2007 he played Carter Page III, gay escort of privileged Washington D.C. women, in the film The Walker.
40. In 1985, Harrelson married Nancy Simon, daughter of playwright Neil Simon, in Tijuana.
41. 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.
42. On December 28, 2008, Harrelson married Laura Louie, his girlfriend since 1987.
43. The couple have three daughters, Deni, Zoe, and Makani.
44. When announcing Makani's birth, the couple referred to the three as their "goddess trilogy".
45. Laura is his former assistant and a co-founder of Yoganics, an organic food delivery service.
46. Harrelson is also an ethical vegan and raw foodist.
47. Along with not eating meat or dairy, Harrelson also does not eat sugar or flour.
48. In Zombieland, in which he plays a character with an affinity for Twinkies, he did not eat the confectionery, replacing them with vegan faux-Twinkies made from cornmeal.
49. He appeared on a postage stamp (as a PhotoStamp) in 2011 as one of PETA's 20 famous vegetarians.
50. He was named PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian in 2012 (along with Jessica Chastain).
Source: Wikipedia.org
