On this date in 1964, actor Matthew Raymond Dillon was the second of six children born into an Irish-Catholic family in New Rochelle, N.Y. Raised in Mamaroneck by homemaker Mary Ellen and toy manufacturer and portrait painter Paul Dillon, he started acting in 1979 and soon attained teen heartthrob status.
In his first 10 years in show business, Dillon had roles in such popular films as “The Outsiders” (1983), “Rumble Fish” (1983), “The Flamingo Kid” (1984), “Rebel” (1985), “Native Son” (1986) and “Drugstore Cowboy” (1989).
He transformed into a serious and often comedic actor, with successful parts in “A Kiss Before Dying” (1991), “Mr. Wonderful” (1993), “To Die For” (1995), “Beautiful Girls” (1996), “In and Out” (2001), “Wild Things” (1998), the popular Ben Stiller movie “There’s Something About Mary” (1998), “One Night at McCool’s” (2001), “Loverboy” (2005) and “You, Me and Dupree” (2006), among others.
Dillon co-starred in the 2005 Oscar-winning film “Crash” and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Dillon had earlier directed, wrote the screenplay and starred in “City of Ghosts” (2002). In an interview after the movie was released, he described himself as a lapsed Catholic who thinks Jesus was a “great holy man” but is put off by the “magical realism” of miraculous stories like Jesus walking on water.
In 2018 he played the lead role of a serial murderer in the Lars von Trier thriller “The House That Jack Built.” He co-starred in Wes Anderson’s rom-com drama “Asteroid City” (2023) and portrayed Marlon Brando in the Maria Schneider biopic “Being Maria,” which premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
He dated actress Cameron Diaz from 1995-98 and Italian actress Roberta Mastromichele from 2014 to 2023 and has led an active dating life but has never married.
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