Background
DILLON, Matt was born on February 18, 1964 in New Rochelle, New York, United States. Son of Paul Dillon and Mary Ellen Dillon. Films include.
DILLON, Matt was born on February 18, 1964 in New Rochelle, New York, United States. Son of Paul Dillon and Mary Ellen Dillon. Films include.
There was a moment when the world seemed reach—it was the late eighties—to say that Matt Dillon hadn’t really made the transition from a teen to a young man. Then came Drugstore Cowboy (89, Gus Van Sant). A few years later, opinion had shifted: now the pretty-boy adult was never going to take on a fully adult edge. Next came Wild Things (98, John McNaughton), and his amazing restraint in the face of a witty, sexy movie all set up for him. At this rate, he could outlive the medium.
He began when he was still in junior high school: Over the Edge (79, Jonathan Kaplan); Little Darlings (80, Ronald F. Maxwell); My Bodyguard (80, Tony Bill); Liar’s Moon (81, David Foster); attracting real attention in the S. E. Hinton adaptation Tex (82, Tim Hunter), and then in two more films from Hinton—The Outsiders (83, Francis Ford Coppola) and Rumble Fish (83, Coppola); excellent in The Flamingo Kid (84, Garry Marshall); Gene Hackmans son in Target (85, Arthur Penn); to Australia to make Rebel (85, Michael Jenkins); Native Son (86, Jerrold Freedman); disappointing in The Big Town (87, Ben Bolt); Kansas (SS, David Stevens); The Bloodhounds of Broadway (89, Howard Brookman).
After his electric junkie for Gus Van Sant, he did the manipulative lead in A Kiss Before Dying (91, James Dearden); Singles (92, Cameron Crowe); Mr. Wondeiful (93, Anthony Minghella); The Saint of Fort Washington (93, Hunter); Golden Gate (93, John Madden); Frankie Starlight (95, Michael Lindsay-Hogg); the dumb husband in To Die For (95, Van Sant); Albino Alligator (96, Kevin Spacey); Beautiful Girls (96, Ted Demme); Grace of My Heart (96, Allison Anders); In & Out (97, Frank Oz); There’s Something About Mary (98, Bobby and Peter Farrelly).
He has branched out further still. He started directing, for the If BO series Oz, and in 2001 lie directed a movie, Beneath the Banyan Tree, a noir story set in Cambodia, and coscripted with Barrv Gifford. It all suggests how much the “kid" has learned.