Biography
A suave, darkly handsome actor reminiscent of the young
Sean Connery in looks and charisma, Clive Owen first came to international attention with his sinuous, understated portrayal of the amoral protagonist of
Mike Hodges'
Croupier (1998). A flop in Britain, where Owen had long been a staple of various BBC TV series, the film was a sleeper hit in the States, its success duly generating a flurry of interest in the relatively unknown actor who lent the film its seductive intensity. A product of Coventry, Warwickshire, Owen got a bumpy start in his chosen career, living on the dole for two years after he left school. Fortunately, respite arrived in the form of an acceptance to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1984, and following his graduation from RADA, the young actor joined the Young Vic Theatre Company, where he performed a number of the classics.
Owen broke into TV in 1986 with a guest appearance on the series
Boon, and subsequently made his film debut in
Beeban Kidron's
Vroom (1988), a road movie co-starring
David Thewlis and
Diana Quick. More television work followed in the form of
Chancer, a popular miniseries that cast Owen as its heroic protagonist. The actor also found himself increasingly busy with big-screen performances, turning in a complex portrayal of a man involved in an obsessive and incestuous relationship with his sister (
Saskia Reeves) in
Close My Eyes (1991). Owen received one of his biggest roles to date in Sean Mathias' 1997 screen adaptation of Martin Sherman's Bent, a Holocaust drama in which Owen starred as a bisexual concentration camp inmate who falls in love with a fellow prisoner (
Lothaire Bluteau). Although the film earned a substantial degree of critical acclaim and boasted the talents of such luminaries as
Ian McKellen and
Mick Jagger, it failed to garner much commercial notice.
Owen finally broke through to an international audience with Hodges'
Croupier, earning almost unanimous acclaim for his portrayal of a struggling writer who becomes caught up in an intricate scam after taking a job in a casino. He subsequently starred as a prisoner who takes up gardening in
Greenfingers, a comedy that also starred
Helen Mirren and had its premiere at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. The actor also remained active on the stage, even as his screen work thrived, starring in the original 1997 London production of
Patrick Marber's highly feted Closer, and performing alongside
Rachel Weisz and
Paul Rhys in Sean Mathias' acclaimed revival of
Noël Coward's Design for Living at London's Donmar Warehouse.
The new millennium saw Owen appearing in an eclectic range of projects. In 2001, he starred as the only recurring character in BMW's
Hire series of ambitious short films by directors such as
Ang Lee and
Guy Ritchie and also appeared in
Robert Altman's acclaimed
Gosford Park. Following a memorable supporting performance opposite
Matt Damon in 2002's popular
The Bourne Identity, Owen moved up to a starring role as an international relief worker who has an affair with
Angelina Jolie in 2003's
Beyond Borders. The next year, he took on the title role in
King Arthur,
Antoine Fuqua's non-fantasy retelling of the legendary story, with then it-girl
Keira Knightley as his Guinevere. Both
Beyond Borders and
King Arthur failed to garner much of an audience, with the latter especially disappointing in light of its 120-million-dollar budget. Despite buzz about the possibility of Owen taking over the James Bond role in the iconic series, his prospects as a Hollywood leading man seemed to be faltering.
Also in 2004, Owen appeared stateside in a smaller-budget U.K. film from
Croupier director
Mike Hodges called
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, about a former gangster investigating the mysterious death of his younger brother. Starring an impressive cast that included
Charlotte Rampling,
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, and
Malcolm McDowell, the film was well-received by critics but relegated to only small arthouse exposure in the States. Later that year, Owen appeared in the big-screen adaptation of Closer, directed by
Mike Nichols and co-starring such big names as
Julia Roberts,
Jude Law, and
Natalie Portman. In 2005, Owen joined an even more star-studded cast with a role in
Robert Rodriguez' adaptation of Frank Miller's comic Sin City, and he would also star opposite
Julianne Moore in
Savage Grace and
Jennifer Aniston in
Derailed.
His biggest success to date came in early 2006, when he played the criminal mastermind behind a savvy bank heist in director
Spike Lee's first blockbuster genre picture,
The Inside Man. He would follow that with Alfonso Cuaron's
Children of Men, a futuristic thriller where Owen plays a man protecting a pregnant woman at a time when no human beings have been born in nearly two decades. Owen also took a part in Shekar Kapur's Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a sequel to his Oscar nominated biopic
Elizabeth. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide