Birth Name: Ewan Gordon McGregor
Birthdate: March 31, 1971
Birthplace: Crieff, Scotland
Occupation: Actor
Quote: "I won't buy into the Hollywood thing - I want to be in
good movies." - Time magazine, July 15, 1996 "I'm so driven - working
madly, and almost arrogantly ambitious. But I've never known towards
where or what." - Details magazine, November 1997
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Claim to Fame: 1995: Starred in Danny Boyle's Trainspotting (released
in USA 1996)
Significant Other(s):
Wife: Eve Mavrakis, production designer; French; born 1964; married July 1995;
met while both were working on Kavanagh QC, a British series
Family:
Father: James McGregor, teacher
Mother: Carol McGregor, teacher
Uncle: Denis Lawson, actor; appeared in the three Star Wars movies
Brother: Colin, Royal Air Force pilot; born 1969; married; has son, born June
1999
Daughter: Clara Mathilde; born February 1996; mother, Eve Mavrakis
Biography
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 historical drama 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 film 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. 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. The actor stayed in
period costume for his other film that year, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge. 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).
Filmography
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Moulin Rouge (2001)
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Nora (2000)
Killing Priscilla (2000)
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Eye of the Beholder (1999)
Tube Tales (1999)
Nightwatch (1998)
Velvet Goldmine (1998)
Little Voice (1998)
Rogue Trader (1998)
The Serpent's Kiss (1997)
A Life Less Ordinary (1997)
Trainspotting (1996)
Emma (1996)
Brassed Off (1996)
Blue Juice (1995)
Shallow Grave (1994)
Awards:
1996: London Film Critics' Circle: Best British Actor, Trainspotting; tied with
Ian McKellen (Richard III)
Factoids:
With Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Jonny Lee Miller and others, McGregor is one of the
cofounders of the independent production company Natural Nylon
Education:
Morrison's Academy, Crieff, Scotland (McGregor's father was the gym teacher)
Drama school in Kirkaldy, Scotland; studied for one year
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, England
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