Ewan McGregor Biography (2)
Six months before his graduation from London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, McGregor was offered the role of Private Mick Hopper in Dennis Potter's six-part musical comedy television series Lipstick on Your Collar (produced by Rosemarie Whitman). Shortly after this first break, McGregor landed his first film role in Bill Forsyth's Being Human, where the producer Lord David Puttnam was so impressed by McGregor's abilities that he added extra scenes for him on the spot.
Following roles in the play What the Butler Saw and in a BBC production of Scarlet and Black, McGregor starred in the BAFTA winning Shallow Grave, which pushed the young Scottish actor into the limelight. His portrayal of Alex Law earned him the Hitchcock D'Argent Best Actor Award and a nomination for Best Actor at the BAFTA Scotland Awards, as well as laying the roots for a highly successful partnership with the director Danny Boyle. McGregor had his first solo male lead in cult director Peter Greenaway's erotic film The Pillow Book.
Although Shallow Grave provided McGregor's breakout role, it was his portrayal of smack-addict Mark Renton in author Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting that catapulted McGregor to international fame. To prepare for this role, McGregor worked closely with ex-drug addicts who helped provide him with a level of insight needed to tackle the graphic portrayal of drug addiction and withdrawal. Trainspotting won a string of prestigious awards, including the BAFTA Scotland award for Best Feature Film, while McGregor himself picked up BAFTA Scotland's Best Actor accolade, and for the second year running, the Empire magazine award for Best British Actor, plus a London Film Critics' Circle Award.
After the success of Trainspotting, McGregor starred opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in an adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Emma. He next starred opposite Tara Fitzgerald in Mark Herman's César Award-winning Brassed Off, which juggled humor and pathos by portraying the fate of a brass band in a small community threatened by the politically-motivated coal-mine closures in the early 1980s.
McGregor's U.S. film debut was Nightwatch, in which he played the lead role of Marin Belos, a law student who worked part-time as a mortuary night watchman. Walk-on parts in the BBC series Karaoke and Cold Lazarus provided him with a chance to return to Britain before starring as a handsome Dutch landscape artist in Philippe Rousselot's The Serpent's Kiss.
Following his second short feature for director Justin Chadwick, Swimming with Fishes, McGregor teamed with Cameron Diaz in the quirky romantic fantasy A Life Less Ordinary, which reunited him with director Danny Boyle. McGregor's character portrayal of Robert won him the Best British Actor award in the 1997 Empire Movie Awards - for the third time in a row.
McGregor received an Emmy Award for a guest-starring role in an episode of ER. He then played a crazed seventies rock star in the glam rock film Velvet Goldmine, executive produced Michael Stipe of REM. McGregor next played infamous trader Nick Leeson in Rogue Trader opposite Anna Friel. He then teamed again with Brassed Off director Mark Herman in the Golden Globe Award winning Little Voice, which also starred Jane Horrocks and Michael Caine.
McGregor landed the coveted role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. He reprised the role in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones and again returns as Obi-Wan in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. Set for release in May 2005.
In 1998, McGregor founded Natural Nylon, along with his friends Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Jonny Lee Miller and Sean Pertwee. McGregor co-produced Natural Nylon's Nora, the story of the romance between writer James Joyce (McGregor) and Nora Barnacle (Susan Lynch).
In Baz Luhrmann's Oscar and BAFTA award-winning musical film Moulin Rouge!, McGregor played Christian, a poet who falls in love with Satine (Nicole Kidman), a courtesan of the tragic-comic underworld of the Moulin Rouge - with music drawn from twentieth century pop songs. In 2001, McGregor starred as an Army Ranger specialist in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down.
In 2003, McGregor starred in Young Adam, a thriller based on a novel by Scottish beat writer Alexander Trocchi, set in the working canals between Glasgow and Edinburgh. McGregor plays Joe, a young drifter, who finds work on a barge owned by Les (Peter Mullan) and his wife Ella (Tilda Swinton). That same year, he toplined Tim Burton's Big Fish, a fantasy tale about the life of a dying man, told in flashback. Albert Finney, Jessica Lange and Billy Crudup also star. In 2004 McGregor starred with Renée Zellweger in the Fox retro romantic comedy Down with Love. He recently completed a role in director Michael Bay's epic action picture The Island.
McGregor was in David Halliwell's play "Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs," which brought him back to work with his uncle Denis Lawson who directed the play at both the Hampstead and Comedy Theatres. McGregor also made a cameo appearance in The Play What I Wrote, the critically acclaimed celebration of the works of British comedians Morecambe and Wise.
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