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Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson in Eugene, Oregon, in 2004
Birth name	Woodrow Tracy Harrelson
Born	July 23, 1961 (age 45) Midland, Texas, USA
Spouse(s)	Laura Louie (m. Jan. 11 1998, present) 3 children Nancy Simon (m. Jun. 29 1985 div. 1986)
Notable roles	Mickey Knox in Natural Born Killers Woody Boyd in Cheers Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt
Academy Awards
Nominated: Best Actor in a Leading Role (1996) for The People vs. Larry Flynt
Emmy Awards
Won: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (1982) for Cheers
Golden Globe Awards
Nominated: Best Actor (1996) for The People vs. Larry Flynt

Woodrow 'Woody' Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American Emmy Award winning and Academy Award nominated actor.

Although he is best known for his role as Woody Boyd in the popular 1980s sitcom Cheers, he has also earned acclaim for his roles in films such as as Natural Born Killers, The People vs. Larry Flynt and, recently, A Prairie Home Companion.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Activist work 5 Selected filmography 6 External links

Harrelson was born in Midland, Texas, to Charles Voyde Harrelson and Diane Lou Oswald, who divorced in 1964; he has two brothers, Jordan and Brett, the latter of whom is a professional motorcycle racer. Harrelson grew up in Lebanon, Ohio, with his mother. Harrelson attended Lebanon High School and later Hanover College in Indiana, becoming a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, and receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Arts and English in 1983.

After graduation, Harrelson moved to New York City. In 1985, he was cast as the naive but genial Midwestern bartender Woody Boyd on the television series Cheers, and won an Emmy for the role. His first film was 1986's Wildcats with Goldie Hawn. Harrelson became friends with Wesley Snipes and starred with him in the box-office hits Money Train and White Men Can't Jump. He appeared in mostly minor roles until he starred in Robert Redford's Indecent Proposal in 1993, a role which helped open doors for Harrelson in the film industry.

In 1994 Harrelson starred in his best known role to date, Mickey Knox in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. During this time he also starred in the Farrelly brothers cult classic Kingpin. In 1996, he starred in the title role of the controversial film The People vs. Larry Flynt, for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Following this performance Harrelson went to star in films such as Wag the Dog, Edtv, The Thin Red Line and Palmetto.

More recently, he had a fairly long run on the NBC sitcom Will and Grace as Grace's love interest Nathan and played FBI agent Stan in 2004's After the Sunset. His most recent films are A Prairie Home Companion and A Scanner Darkly, which were released in June and July of 2006, respectively.

In 1985, Harrelson married Nancy Simon, daughter of playwright Neil Simon, in Tijuana. The two intended to divorce the following day, but the storefront marriage/divorce parlor was closed when they had returned to it, and the two remained married for ten months.[1] On January 11, 1998, Harrelson married Laura Louie, his former assistant and a co-founder of Yoganics, an organic food delivery service.[2] The couple, who have been together since 1990, have three daughters, Deni Montana (born March 5, 1993), Zoe Giordano (born September 22, 1996), and Makani Ravello (born June 3, 2006). When announcing Makani's birth, the couple referred to the three as their "goddess trilogy."[3]

Harrelson's father, Charles Harrelson, was a freelance hitman. He was accused of murdering a Texas businessman when Woody was just 7 years old, and convicted of the crime 6 years later. When Harrelson was in college, his father received two life term sentences for the killing of a federal judge. His father died in prison of a heart attack on March 15, 2007.[4]

Harrelson is an outspoken supporter and activist for the legalization of marijuana and hemp in the US. [5] On June 1, 1996, he was arrested in Kentucky after he symbolically planted four hemp seeds to challenge state law that failed to distinguish between industrial hemp and marijuana. Harrelson won the case.

Harrelson is also an environmental activist. He once climbed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco with members of North Coast Earth First! group to unfurl a banner that said, "Hurwitz. Aren't ancient redwoods more precious than gold?" in protest of MAXXAM/Pacific Lumber CEO Charles Hurwitz, who once stated, "He who has the gold, rules". [6] Harrelson, an ethical vegan and raw foodist, has also denounced animal experiments in the cosmetics industry.

He has travelled the American West Coast on a bike and domino caravan with a hemp oil-fueled biodiesel bus (the subject of the independent documentary, Go Further) and has narrated the documentary Grass. Harrelson briefly owned an oxygen bar in West Hollywood called simply, "O2". He is also an antiwar activist and has often spoken publicly against the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Wildcats	Krushinski
1991	Doc Hollywood	Hank Gordon
1992	White Men Can't Jump	Billy Hoyle
1993	Indecent Proposal	David Murphy
1994	Natural Born Killers	Mickey Knox
	The Cowboy Way	Pepper Lewis
	I'll Do Anything	Ground Zero Hero
1995	Money Train	Charlie
1996	The People vs. Larry Flynt	Larry Flynt	Nominated for an Oscar: Best Actor in a Leading Role
	Kingpin	Roy Munson
1997	Wag the Dog	Sergeant William Schumann
	Welcome to Sarajevo	Flynn
1998	The Thin Red Line	Sergeant Keck
	Palmetto	Harry Barber
1999	Play It to the Bone	Vince Boudreau
	EDtv	Ray Pekurny
	Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me	Himself	Cameo
2003	Anger Management	Galaxia/Security Guard Gary
	Go Further	Himself
2004	After the Sunset	Stan Lloyd
2005	North Country	Bill White
	The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio	Kelly Ryan	limited release
2006	Free Jimmy	Roy Arnie (voice)	Norwegian animation
	A Scanner Darkly	Luckman
	A Prairie Home Companion	Dusty
2007	No Country for Old Men	Wells

• Woody Harrelson at the Internet Movie Database
• VoiceYourself (Harrelson established this site)