Matt Dillon Biography

Matt Dillon a native of New Rochelle, NY, where he was born on February 18, 1964. Dillon 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. Dillon 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 14, he was discovered by Warner Bros. talent scouts while cutting class. After making a memorable impression on casting director Vic Ramos with an eerily accurate impersonation of the character he was asked to audition for, Dillon 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, Dillon 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). The year (2002) found Dillon in the director's chair as well as on the big screen in The City of Ghosts, Though the film -- which Dillon also helped write -- received mixed reviews critically, Dillon was lauded for a nonetheless impressive directorial debut. After participating in 2003's Breakfast With Hunter, which centers on gonzo writer Hunter S. Thompson, Dillon went on to film 2004's Employee of the Month with Steve Zahn and Christina Applegate.