Matt Dillon

Biography: For a long time a teen idol known mostly for his Tiger Beat-ready looks, Matt Dillon was able to make a successful transition from pubescent star to adult actor. As he has grown older, his physical attributes--the dark, pretty-boy eyes and glacier-cut cheekbones--have matured with him, making him well-suited to portraying characters whose golden boy pasts have been eclipsed by adult experience.

A native of New Rochelle, New York, where he was born on February 18, 1964, Matt was a product of a pop culture milieu. The nephew of comic-strip artist Alex Raymond, creator of Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, and Rip Kirby, he was named for the protagonist of the TV western Gunsmoke. Matt was raised as the second oldest of the five sons and one daughter of a stockbroker and a homemaker. He began acting in elementary school, and, at the age of fourteen, he was discovered by Warner Bros talent scouts while cutting class. After making a memorable impression on casting director Vic Ramos wit
h an eerily accurate impersonation of the character he was asked to audition for, he won the part and made his film debut as a school bully in Jonathan Kaplan's 1979 teenage drama Over the Edge. His work in the film opened the floodgates for roles in similar teen movies, and over the next few years, Matt could be seen as the photogenic mouthpiece for adolescent discontent in such films as My Bodyguard (1980), Little Darlings(1980), Tex(1982), Rumble Fish (1983), and that seminal exploration of teenage alienation, The Outsiders (1983).

By the mid-1980s, Matt sought to move beyond the teen mold and began taking more adult roles. His breakthrough into the grown-up realm came with his somber, unheroic portrayal of a junkie trying to come clean in Gus Van Sant's acclaimed Drugstore Cowboy (1989). His status as an adult performer firmly established, he went on to star in films of varying quality, doing some of his most memorable work in Singles (1992), as the egocentric slacker head of a terrifically bad grunge band; To Die For (1995), as the well-meaning but tragically dim husband of a psychotic weather girl (Nicole Kidman); Kevin Spacey's Albino Alligator (1995), as a small-time New Orleans crook; and Beautiful Girls (1996), in which he was perfectly cast as a small-town snow plower unable to make good on the promise of his high school glory days.

In 1997, Matt had pivotal roles in two Hollywood hits. The first, In & Out, called for him to caricature himself as a peroxided movie star who unwittingly outs his ex-high school teacher on national television. The second, There's Something About Mary, proved to be the year's most outrageous hit, and it allowed Matt to show his capacity for lowbrow comedy in his role as a sleazy private investigator. The following year, he again proved his capacity for bottom-dwelling when he played a woefully unqualified high school guidance counselor in the delightfully trashy Wild Things.

Matt's film career died down for three years after his split with long-term girlfriend Cameron Diaz, but when he returned with One Night At McCool's (2001) and Deuces Wild (2001) his career continued to move on up than have most people forget him in his away time from the big screen.

In 2001 and 2002, Matt appeared in an ad campaign for Skechers footwear.

His most recent hit was Crash (2004), which got him nominated for an Oscar award.

Matt has been thought to be one of the most underrated actors of our time.
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Matt Dillon's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average career score: 55
Highest Metascore:
Metascore: 86
Lowest Metascore:
Metascore: 16
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 24
  2. Negative: 4 out of 24
24 movie reviews
Title: Year: Credit: User score:
Metascore: tbd
Girl Most Likely
Jul 19, 2013 George tbd
Metascore: 45
Takers
Aug 27, 2010 Det. Jack Welles / Jack Welles 5.6
Metascore: 50
Armored
Dec 4, 2009 Mike Cochrone 5.4
Metascore: 19
Old Dogs
Nov 25, 2009 Barry 4.4
Metascore: 64
Nothing But the Truth
Dec 17, 2008 Patton Dubois 7.0
Metascore: 79
Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten
Nov 2, 2007 Himself 7.4
Metascore: 71
Factotum
Aug 18, 2006 Hank Chinaski 6.0
Metascore: 46
You, Me and Dupree
Jul 14, 2006 Carl 5.4
Metascore: 67
Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos
Jul 7, 2006 Narrator 6.3
Metascore: 45
Loverboy
Jun 16, 2006 Mark 6.0
Metascore: 47
Herbie Fully Loaded
Jun 22, 2005 Trip Murphy 4.8
Metascore: 69
Crash
May 6, 2005 Officer John Ryan 7.9
Metascore: 27
Rockets Redglare!
Sep 3, 2004 Himself 9.3
Metascore: 57
City of Ghosts
Apr 25, 2003 Director / Written By / Jimmy 6.1
Metascore: 16
Deuces Wild
May 3, 2001 Fritzy 6.6
Metascore: 46
One Night at McCool's
Apr 27, 2001 Randy 7.0
Metascore: 69
There's Something About Mary
Jul 15, 1998 Healy 7.3
Metascore: 52
Wild Things
Mar 20, 1998 Sam Lombardo 7.0
Metascore: 70
In & Out
Sep 19, 1997 Cameron Drake 8.3
Metascore: 48
Albino Alligator
Jan 17, 1997 Dova 5.2
Metascore: 64
Beautiful Girls
Feb 9, 1996 Tommy 'Birdman' Rowland 6.7
Metascore: 86
To Die For
Sep 27, 1995 Larry Maretto 7.5
Metascore: 82
Drugstore Cowboy
Oct 6, 1989 Bob 8.5
Metascore: 63
Rumble Fish
Oct 8, 1983 Rusty James 8.7
Metascore: 38
The Outsiders
Mar 25, 1983 Dallas Winston 7.5