Matt Dillon

Matthew Raymond Dillon, born February 18, 1964, is an American actor and filmmaker. He first gained national prominence as a teen idol during the late 1970s and 1980s before establishing a decades-long career across independent and mainstream film. In a 1991 review, film critic Roger Ebert highlighted Dillon alongside Sean Penn as one of the best actors in his age group.

Dillon was raised in Mamaroneck, New York, in an Irish Catholic family. His mother, Mary Ellen, was a homemaker, and his father, Paul Dillon, worked as a portrait painter, sales manager, and golf coach. Dillon is the second of six children, and his brother Kevin is also an actor. His paternal grandmother was the sister of comic strip creator Alex Raymond. In 1978, Dillon was discovered while cutting class at Hommocks Middle School and was cast in the teen drama Over the Edge (1979), which marked his feature film debut.

Following his debut, Dillon established himself as a teen idol by appearing in box office successes such as Little Darlings (1980), My Bodyguard (1980), and Liar's Moon (1982). He gained further prominent roles by starring in three film adaptations of S. E. Hinton novels: Tex (1982), The Outsiders (1983), and Rumble Fish (1983). He followed these with The Flamingo Kid (1984), made his Broadway debut in The Boys of Winter (1985), and earned widespread critical praise for playing a drug addict in Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy (1989).

Throughout the 1990s, Dillon maintained a steady screen presence with roles in Singles (1992), The Saint of Fort Washington (1993), and To Die For (1995). He achieved further success in the late 1990s starring in ensemble features and comedies, including Beautiful Girls (1996), In & Out (1997), Wild Things (1998), and There's Something About Mary (1998), the latter earning him an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.

In 2002, Dillon expanded his career by writing, directing, and starring in the film City of Ghosts. He received critical praise for his performance in the ensemble drama Crash (2004), winning an Independent Spirit Award and receiving nominations for both a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His subsequent film projects include Factotum (2005), Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), You, Me and Dupree (2006), The House That Jack Built (2018), Asteroid City (2023), and portraying Marlon Brando in Being Maria (2024).

Beyond feature films, Dillon narrated the audiobook version of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, earning a Grammy Award nomination for Best Spoken Word Album. He hosted Saturday Night Live in 2006, starred in the first season of the television series Wayward Pines (2015), which earned him a Saturn Award nomination, and received the Premio Donostia at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Outside of acting, Dillon is an avid collector of Latin music.