Background

Ewan McGregor was born in the Royal Infirmary on March 31, 1971, in Perth, Scotland, the United Kingdom, to James Charles Stewart and Carole Diane. His father was a teacher with the physical education department, and his mother was a school administrator and a teacher. He was raised in Crieff.

Fascinated by acting, as a child, he worshipped his uncle actor and director Denis Lawson, perhaps best known as the multi-talented hotel owner in Local Hero who often popped up from London to visit the McGregor household.

Education

McGregor attended the independent Morrison's Academy in Crieff. With acting in his blood, Ewan's decision to leave school at 16 to join Perth Repertory Theatre was wholeheartedly supported by his parents. At 18, the rising star was accepted into London's prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama and soon established himself as a young prodigy, going straight into Dennis Potter's Channel 4 TV series Lipstick On Your Collar.

Career

Ewan's first notable film role was that of cynical hack Alex Law in the low-budget but critically acclaimed thriller Shallow Grave. The film marked the start of a highly successful partnership between the actor and the Danny Boyle, John Hodge and Andrew MacDonald production team. The drug-fuelled Trainspotting was their next big project together, and a starring role opposite Cameron Diaz in A Life Less Ordinary followed soon after. The trio's relationship with Ewan foundered, however, when the studio decided to cast Leonardo DiCaprio instead of the Scottish star in 2000's The Beach.

McGregor’s first major breakthrough was in the 1996 blockbuster hit, Trainspotting. Directed by Danny Boyle, this movie centers around the life of heroin addicts, particularly one individual, Mark Renton, played by McGregor. The movie is rated as one of the Top 100 British films of all time and according to a public poll, is rated as the Best Scottish film of all time. The film collected a whopping $72,000,000 at the box-office and gave McGregor his first major hit. Once again collaborated with Boyle and Hodge in this adaptation of Irvine Welsh's book, he received huge praise from critics, which unquestionably put him into international recognition. From this point, he set out to establish himself as one of the most celebrated actors of his generation.

Instead of sticking to the commercial flick, Ewan was more involved in independent and low-budget movies. Exploring a wide variety of roles, he starred in The Pillow Book (1996), Emma (1996), Brassed Off (1996), Nightwatch (1997), The Serpent's Kiss (1997), and A Life Less Ordinary (1997) in which he worked together with Boyle for the third time. In 1998, he exhibited his singing skills by portraying a debauched glam-rock star in Velvet Goldmine while also taking part in a British feature entitled Little Voice.

McGregor starred in Moulin Rouge! (2001) as the young poet Christian, who falls in love with the terminally-ill courtesan Satine (Nicole Kidman), for which his performance was widely praised and nabbed McGregor his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination.

When he was offered the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the first of the long-promised prequels to the Star Wars trilogy he accepted the project with the same sang-froid with which he had taken on other roles. He was thrilled to be in the film, however, exclaiming at the time, "I've been waiting nearly 20 years to have my own lightsaber. Nothing's cooler than being a Jedi Knight."

After his re-appearance as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), Ewan was busily involved in three films by 2003, namely Down with Love, Young Adam and Big Fish. He then underwent a marathon motorcycle trip around the world with Charley Boorman in 2004. This journey was later compressed into a mini TV series and a book entitled Long Way Round.

As Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith came up in 2005, Ewan unexpectedly admitted that he, in fact, was depressed during the production of Episode I and began to drink heavily. Fortunately, he managed to cease the awful habit. During this year, he also contributed his voice to the animated Robots and Valiant while joining the cast of Stay and The Island which turned out well by garnering nearly $163 million worldwide. Coming back to the stage through a new production of Guys and Dolls alongside Jane Krakowski at Piccadilly Theatre in London, he kept staying busy throughout the following year, starring in Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker, Miss Potte", and a United Kingdom feature entitled Scenes of a Sexual Nature.

By the next two years, Ewan wonderfully has added at least eight more high-profile projects in his big-screen resume with two of them namely Cassandra's Dream and The Tourist being slated for 2007 releases. Apart from his voice-acting stint in animated comedy Jackboots on Whitehall alongside Alan Cumming and Rosamund Pike, the rest five were Incendiary, Number Thirteen, Franklyn, I, Lucifer, and The Great Pretender, all came up in 2008.

Although he's done plenty of full-frontal nudity in his films, in 2011, just before his 40th birthday, Ewan told the UK paper The Express that he wouldn't do anymore, calling nude scenes "terribly exposing" and "rarely of any use."

The actor has appeared in a slew of films since, including Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011), Haywire (2011), and Jack the Giant Slayer (2013), August: Osage County (2013), Mortdecai (2015) and the Western drama Jane Got a Gun (2016).

Ewan's latest credits include T2: Trainspotting (2017), the live-action Disney adaptation of Beauty and the Beast (2017) and also for Disney, the title role in the drama Christopher Robin (2018).

He made his directorial debut with the 2016 film American Pastoral, in which he also acted. His latest starring role is in Doctor Sleep (2019), the sequel to 1980 classic horror film The Shining, playing the role of a now grown-up Dan Torrance.

In August 2019, McGregor was reportedly in talks to reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in an unnamed series centered around the character on Disney+. Later at the D23 Expo, Lucasfilm officially announced said series with McGregor confirming his return as Kenobi.

Achievements

• 

  With excellent acting skills as well as his determination to portray any character convincingly, no wonder McGregor could impressively attain a terrific accomplishment in just a short period of time. Successfully making his way to enter the Hollywood film industry, he surely has emerged as one of the prominent actors in the world.
  
  He was ranked number 36 on Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list in 1997. In 2013, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to drama and charity. In 2016, he received the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. For his role as Emmit Stussy on the FX Network's TV series Fargo, Ewan won a 2018 Golden Globe.
  
  In 2001, at the graduation ceremony for the University of Ulster in Belfast, Northern Ireland, McGregor was presented with an honorary doctorate.
  
  In 2010, McGregor was appointed by the French government as a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres (Knight of the Order of the Arts and Letters).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Long Way Down

    (The fellow actors and co-authors of Long Way Round recoun...)

    2008
  • Long Way Round

    (It started as a daydream. Poring over a map of the world ...)

    2004

• movie

  • Little Voice

    (World-class stars Michael Caine (Hannah and Her Sisters),...)

    1998
  • Big Fish

    (To get to know the real man behind the myth, a son begins...)

    2003
  • I Love You Phillip Morris

    (Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor star in the outrageously fun...)

    2009
  • Angels & Demons

    (In Ron Howard's thrilling follow-up to The Da Vinci Code,...)

    2009
  • Haywire

    (Directed by Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh (Contagion), t...)

    2011
  • Scenes of a Sexual Nature

    (An impressive cast featuring Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge)...)

    2006
  • Nora

    (Ewan McGregor stars as James Joyce in this breathtaking b...)

    2000
  • Last Days in the Desert

    (An imagined chapter from Jesus' forty days and nights, st...)

    2015
  • Being Human

    (In five distinct yet cleverly interlocked roles, Williams...)

    1994
  • Fastest

    (Fastest explores the greatest feeling coupled with the gr...)

    2011
  • The Serpent's Kiss

    (In England, during the 17th-century, a Dutch garden archi...)

    1997
  • Beauty and the Beast

    (The story and characters you love come to life in the liv...)

    2017
  • A Life Less Ordinary

    (Disgruntled "divine interveners" foster a romance between...)

    1997
  • Our Kind Of Traitor

    (After a chance encounter with a larger than life "money-m...)

    2016
  • Stay

    (In the space between desire and fear, between reality and...)

    2005
  • Amelia

    (A look at the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Ear...)

    2009
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens

    (As a new threat to the galaxy rises, Rey, a desert scaven...)

    2015
  • American Pastoral

    (Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, and Dakota Fanning star...)

    2016
  • Christopher Robin

    (In this heartwarming Disney tale, Christopher Robin encou...)

    2018
  • Jane Got a Gun

    (Natalie Portman stars as a mother and wife fighting in th...)

    2016
  • Faster

    (After 10 years in prison, Driver (Dwayne Johnson) is now ...)

    2003
  • A Million Ways to Die in the West

    (A hilarious and irreverent comedy with Seth MacFarlane, C...)

    2014
  • Trainspotting

    (Trainspotting delivers a wild mix of rebellious action an...)

    1996
  • The Men Who Stare at Goats

    (In this quirky dark comedy inspired by a real-life story ...)

    2009
  • Jackboots on Whitehall

    (A satirical stop-motion alternative history of World War ...)

    2010
  • The Ghost Writer

    (Filmmaker Roman Polanski ramps up the suspense in a thril...)

    2010
  • Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

    (An inspirational film where a fisheries expert is enliste...)

    2012
  • Incendiary

    (A young mother turns guilt into strength when she finds h...)

    2008
  • Beginners

    (Ewan McGregor star in this uplifting comedy about a fathe...)

    2010
  • Shallow Grave

    (In this sinister thriller from director Danny Boyle, thre...)

    1994
  • The Island

    (A man goes on the run after he discovers that he is actua...)

    2005
  • Nightwatch

    (This edge-of-your-seat suspense thriller is a cash-strapp...)

    1997
  • T2 Trainspotting

    (After betraying them, Renton has to return to the only pl...)

    2017
  • Eye Of The Beholder

    (A reclusive surveillance expert (Ewan McGregor) is hired ...)

    1999
  • Miles Ahead

    (Jazz legend Miles Davis (Don Cheadle) and a music reporte...)

    2015
  • Mortdecai

    (Depp, Paltrow, and McGregor star in this globe-trotting c...)

    2015
  • Down With Love

    (In 1963 New York, a female advice columnist who has sworn...)

    2003
  • Black Hawk Down

    (Based on the true story of a war waged in Mogadishu by th...)

    2001
  • Jack the Giant Slayer

    (An age-old war is reignited when a young farmhand unwitti...)

    2013
  • Boiler Room

    (An ambitious, intelligent college dropout takes a job at ...)

    1999
  • Blue Juice

    (A British surfer in his late twenties is forced to face a...)

    1995
  • Velvet Goldmine

    (It's been 10 years since glam-rock superstar Brian Slade ...)

    1998
  • Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

    (Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn rescue Queen...)

    1999
  • Moulin Rouge

    (A passionate and ultimately tragic love affair set agains...)

    2001
  • Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

    (When Jedi apprentice Anakin Skywalker is assigned to prot...)

    2002
  • Young Adam

    (A vagrant Scotsman is wrapped up in the discovery of the ...)

    2003
  • Son of a Gun

    (A rookie criminal befriends a powerful underworld gangste...)

    2014
  • Deception

    (An accountant is introduced to a mysterious, sex-dating c...)

    2008
  • Emma

    (This delightfully fun and lighthearted comedy is based on...)

    1996
  • Cassandra's Dream

    (Two London brothers are hard-up for cash, and both have g...)

    2007
  • Doctor Sleep

    (Scarred by trauma he endured as a child, Dan Torrance has...)

    2019
  • Valiant

    (A pigeon becomes a hero in the Royal Air Force Homing Pig...)

    2005
  • Zoe

    (Zoe tells a tale of forbidden love between an engineer an...)

    2018
  • Perfect Sense

    (Susan is a scientist searching for answers to important q...)

    2011
  • August: Osage County

    (Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts lead an all-star cast. A f...)

    2013
  • Brassed Off

    (This ensemble cast hits all the right notes.)

    1996
  • Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

    (Clone Wars rage across the galaxy. The sinister Sith Lord...)

    2005
  • Miss Potter

    (Written by Richard Maltby, Jr., "Miss Potter" explores th...)

    2006
  • T.V. Eye 1999

• music

  • The Mob Song 2017
  • Something There 2017
  • Days In The Sun 2017
  • Beauty and the Beast 2017
  • The Sweetest Gift 2006
  • Your Song 2001
  • El Tango De Roxanne 2001
  • Elephant Love Medley 2001

• TV series

  • Lipstick on Your Collar

    (The main story is set in a British Military Intelligence ...)

    1993

Religion

Having played a fundamentalist Catholic in the film, Angels & Demons, Ewan McGregor said: "I don’t follow a religion, and I don’t have a belief in a Christian God. It wasn’t something that I realized, it was something I knew. It doesn’t mean that I am a spiritual-less person. I’m not. But I’ve often thought that talking about beliefs in that respect are private."

The film was considered, by many Catholics, to be anti-Catholic. McGregor denied it, however, and added that he felt it necessary to be respectful of religious beliefs. If he felt a film would be disrespectful, he simply wouldn’t do it.

Politics

Ewan McGregor has said he is “totally confused” about the issue of Scottish independence in the wake of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. Although the actor was against Scottish independence in the run-up to the referendum in September 2014, his pro-Union views have been called into question since the Brexit vote.

McGregor said he would have voted for Scotland to leave the United Kingdom if he had been able to cast his vote the day after the United Kingdom left the Europian Union.

He said he tried to steer clear of the Independence debate in 2014 because he is not allowed to vote in the Scottish referendum and has not lived in Scotland since he was 17. Nevertheless, he explained that the press dug up pro-union comments he made in the past regardless.

He told: "The truth is I didn’t want Scotland to be independent in 2014. I didn’t understand how it was going to work. I was worried that Scotland would flounder if it was on its own and I believed in the union and I felt like we were stronger together. Then Brexit’s happened. Now I’m totally confused."

Views

Ewan McGregor has been a Unicef UK Ambassador since 2004. McGregor hosted the annual Hollywood gala for the GO Campaign in 2009 and 2010. He has worked with the Children's Hospice Association Scotland, as featured in Long Way Down. In 2012, he traveled with UNICEF immunization workers to remote parts of India, Nepal and the Republic of Congo for a BBC2 documentary entitled Ewan McGregor: Cold Chain Mission.

Quotations: "Filmmaking 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."

"I was with a friend of mine recently who was dying and while he was lying there with his family around his bed, I just knew that was it, that was the best you can hope for in life - to have your family and the people who love you around you at the end."

"It's a great feeling of power to be naked in front of people. We're happy to watch actual incredible graphic violence and gore, but as soon as somebody's naked it seems like the public goes a bit bananas about the whole thing."

Personality

McGregor is an avid motorcyclist and in 2004 he put his skills to the ultimate test. Along with his friend Charley Boorman, McGregor took a motorcycle trip around the world, starting in London, England, and traveling east all the way across Europe and Asia before flying across the Pacific to Alaska and continuing across North America to finish in New York City. The trip became a book and eventually a documentary, both called Long Way Round. In 2007, the two of them reunited for a second epic adventure, this time riding their bikes from the northern tip of Scotland to the southern tip of Africa, calling this trip Long Way Down.

To prepare for his role in Trainspotting, McGregor read books about crack and heroin. He also visited an organization for recovering heroin addicts in Glasgow called the Calton Athletic Recovery Group. The group show up in the movie in a photograph as a football club. In 2007, on an episode of Parkinson, McGregor said he had given up alcohol after a period where he was arguably a functioning alcoholic, and that he had not had a drink in seven years.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, McGregor spoke out about the censoring of the sex scene in Trainspotting. For the American release of the film, censors cut down the sex scene, which McGregor found ridiculous: “They obviously didn’t like the idea of a young girl having enjoyable sex.”

Interests

• Motorcycling, playing chess

• Politicians

  Nicola Sturgeon

• Writers

  Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, The Scottish Nation 1700-2007 by T. M. Devine, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, The Long Way by Bernard Moitessier, Anton Chekhov

• Artists

  George Lucas, Tim Burton

• Sport & Clubs

  Fremantle Football Club

• Music & Bands

  Status Quo, Muse, Mumford & Sons, Oasis, Robbie Williams

Connections

McGregor married Eve Mavrakis, a French-Greek Jewish production designer whom he met on the set of Kavanagh QC, in 1995. Shortly after they tied the knot, McGregor and Mavrakis welcomed their first child, Clara and then Esther, arrived a few years after. In 2006, the pair adopted a 4-year-old girl, Jamyan, from Mongolia, and their youngest daughter, Anouk, arrived in 2011.

In May 2017, after separating from his wife, McGregor began a relationship with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, whom he met on the set of season 3 of Fargo in which they starred together. On 19 January 2018, McGregor filed for divorce from his wife, citing irreconcilable differences.

Father:

James Charles Stuart McGregor

Mother:

Carol Diane McGregor

Daughter:

Clara Mathilde McGregor

Daughter:

Esther Rose McGregor

Daughter:

Anouk McGregor

Daughter:

Jamyan McGregorbritish`

ex-spouse:

Eve Mavrakis

girlfriend:

Mary Elizabeth Winstead

colleague:

Gwyneth Paltrow

colleague:

Jonathan Meyers

colleague:

Renée Zellweger

colleague:

Dwayne Johnson

colleague:

Helena Bonham Carter

colleague:

Jessica Lange

colleague:

Michelle Williams

colleague:

Rosamund Pike

colleague:

Charlize Theron

colleague:

Amanda Seyfried

colleague:

Benedict Cumberbatch

References

• Ewan McGregor on Twitter