Woody Harrelson Biography (3)

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Woody Harrelson is reunited with director Ron Shelton who directed the actor in his breakthrough film performance in White Men Can't Jump. He is one of the select group of actors who has successfully made the transition from the small screen to motion pictures. An Emmy Award winner in his role of lovable bartender Woody Boyd over the course of eight seasons on Cheers, Harrelson has moved deftly between comedy and drama in his choice of film roles.

Born in Midland, Texas and raised in Lebanon, Ohio, Harrelson majored in Theatre Arts and English at Hanover College in Indiana. Upon graduating, he moved to New York to pursue a career in acting, and a year later landed his first professional role as an understudy in Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues.

He made his motion picture debut as a high school football player in Wildcats, which also featured Wesley Snipes, with whom he would later star in White Men Can't Jump and then again in Money Train. He starred opposite Demi Moore and Robert Redford in Indecent Proposal and received critical acclaim for his portrayal of the homicidal Micky Knox for director Oliver Stone in Natural Born Killers. His other film credits include Doc Hollywood, L.A. Story, The Cowboy Way, Sunchaser, Kingpin, Welcome To Sarajevo, Palmetto and Wag the Dog. Harrelson received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for his portrayal of outlandish publisher Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt, directed by Milos Forman. Most recently, the actor appeared in Terence Malick's The Thin Red Line, and starred in The Hi Lo Country for Stephen Frears.

He is currently starring on Broadway in The Rainmaker.

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