On this date in 1961, Woodrick Tracy “Woody” Harrelson was born in Midland, Texas, to Diane (née Oswald) and Charles Harrelson. His father, a convicted murderer-for-hire, died in 2007 in prison. Harrelson was raised Presbyterian and grew up in Lebanon, Ohio, and graduated from Hanover College with a degree in theater arts and English in 1983. Hanover is a Presbyterian school. Future vice president Mike Pence was a classmate.
Harrelson’s television acting career began in 1985 when he was cast as bartender Woody Boyd on “Cheers.” After “Cheers” ended in 1991, Harrelson focused on his film career, notably appearing in “Indecent Proposal” (1993), “Natural Born Killers” (1994) and “The People vs. Larry Flint” (1996), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Harrelson appeared in the award-winning “No Country for Old Men” (2007), for which he and the rest of the cast won a Screen Actor’s Guild Award for Best Cast. In 2009 he played an army captain in “The Messenger.” He also had roles in “Friends with Benefits” (2011), “The Hunger Games” (2012 and three sequels), “Game Change” (2012), “War for the Planet of the Apes” (2017) and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017), for which he received Oscar and Screen Actors Guild nominations. In 2018 he co-starred in “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
Harrelson is a vegan and is very active in the green movement, working for organic living and social change. Harrelson is also not shy in expressing his opinions about cannabis legalization or his lack of religion. In an October 2009 interview with Playboy magazine, he said, “I like the mellow vibe of herb, its uninhibiting effect. … Whether your drug is sugar, coffee, sex, exercise or religion — everybody has something.” In the same interview he discussed his personal loss of faith.
In 2008 he married his longtime partner Laura Louie. They have three daughters: Deni, born in 1993; Zoe, born in 1996; and Makani, born in 2006.
