Ewan McGregor Biography

Ewan McGregor
Biography

Birth Name
Ewan Gordon McGregor
Date of birth (location)
31 March 1971
Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland, UK

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Ewan McGregor rocketed to prominence over an impressively short period of time, thanks to a brilliant turn as a heroin addict in Trainspotting and the good fortune of being hired to play the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace, which was released with much hoopla in 1999. Thanks to his casting in the new trilogy, a great deal of media attention was directed toward the young actor, who, coincidentally enough, followed his uncle, Denis Lawson (who played pilot Wedge Antilles), into the Star Wars universe.

McGregor was born in the Scottish coastal town of Crieff on March 31, 1971. After the normal run of school, he joined the Perth Repertory Theatre, and then went on to train at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His studies at Guildhall led to a key role in Dennis Potter's 1993 Lipstick on Your Collar, a musical comedy set during the Suez Crisis. He also appeared in Scarlet & Black, another 1993 historical adaptation, this time taking the lead. The same year, McGregor made his big screen debut, playing a bit part in Bill Forsyth's episodic Being Human. He continued to turn up on television on both sides of the Atlantic until late 1996; some of his more notable work included his turn as a beleaguered gunman in an episode of E.R. and the Cold War episode of Tales From the Crypt.

The actor's breakthrough in motion pictures came with Shallow Grave (1994), a stylish, noir-influenced feature directed by Danny Boyle, in which McGregor essayed the role of Alex, a journalist who finds himself in a horrendous position after a murder. He quickly went on to appear in the British surfing parable Blue Juice and Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book before losing almost 30 pounds and shaving his head for his turn as heroin addict Mark Renton in the critically acclaimed Trainspotting, working once again with Danny Boyle. Having gained the attention of critics and audiences worldwide with this performance, McGregor proceeded to take something of a stylistic left turn by taking the role of Frank Churchill in the elegant historical comedy Emma (1996).

McGregor continued working at an impressive pace after Emma, appearing in Brassed Off (1996), Nightwatch, The Serpent's Kiss (1997), and yet another feature for Danny Boyle, the 1997 fantasy A Life Less Ordinary. This latter film concluded on a raffish note, with an animated puppet of McGregor dressed in a kilt, apparently in the McGregor tartan. In 1998, the actor began his work on the Star Wars prequels and appeared in Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine, in which he played an iconoclastic, Iggy Pop-like singer during the glam rock era of the 1970s. In 1999, along with his role in The Phantom Menace, McGregor appeared as infamous financier Nick Leeson in the biopic Rogue Trader, and had a full slate of projects before him. Some of these projects included several for his own production company, Natural Nylon, which he co-founded with fellow actors Jude Law, Sean Pertwee, Sadie Frost, and fellow-Trainspotter Jonny Lee Miller.

After the publicity frenzy preceding the Star Wars release, McGregor appeared in a string of smaller-budget films of little popular notice. In 2000, McGregor could be seen in one of Natural Nylon's projects, Nora. Based on the real-life relationship between James Joyce and Nora Barnacle, it starred McGregor as Joyce and Susan Lynch as the eponymous Nora.

He returned to public attention with 2001’s Moulin Rouge (for which McGregor received the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best British Actor). Set in 1899 Paris, it starred McGregor as a young poet who becomes enmeshed in the city's sex, drugs, and Can Can scene, and enters into a tumultuous relationship with a courtesan (Nicole Kidman). In 2003, McGregor appeared in the retro-romantic comedy Down with Love opposite Renee Zellweger. His next project will be the gritty drama Young Adam set in 1950s Scotland. McGregor will also be lending his voice for the CGI cartoon project Robots slated for 2005.

McGregor lives in London with his wife, French production designer Eve Mavrakis. They have two daughters, Clara Mathilde and Esther Rose.