Owen Wilson

Name: Owen Wilson
Born: 18 November 1968 (Age: 42)
Where: Dallas, Texas, USA
Height: 5' 10"
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar and 1 BAFTA.

With a CV containing such giant hits as Wedding Crashers, Night At The Museum, Marley & Me, Zoolander, Shanghai Noon and Meet The Parents, Owen Wilson could quite reasonably be described as the biggest comedy star of the new millennium. As a prominent member of the Frat Pack - a loose group of comedians also including ben stiller,will ferrell vince vaughn and jack black he's won himself a huge audience with a persona that's kooky but cool, wired but easy-going , selfish but sincere. Yet Wilson is not simply a charming personality. Famed for his improvisation, he's also an Oscar-nominated writer and, both in comedy and out, an accomplished actor capable of real dramatic power. His serial killer in The Minus Man was one of the most disturbed and disturbing of them all.

He was born Owen Cunningham Wilson on the 18th of November, 1968 in Dallas, Texas, to Robert Andrew Wilson and his wife Laura (nee Cunningham). A brother, Andrew, was born four years earlier, with another, Luke, arriving three years later.

Robert was a well-educated Bostonian writer and budding entrepreneur, who'd graduated from prestigious Dartmouth College in the class of 1963. Laura was also raised in New England, in a small town just south of Boston, but had been born in Fort Worth to James Cunningham, the city's most prominent engineer, and Lawrie Ann. Robert and Laura, both of Irish Catholic stock, would marry young, produce baby Andrew, then take off for Laura's home state of Texas, Robert being transferred west by the Scott Paper Company. In Dallas, Robert would meet Ralph Rogers, president of Texas Industries, a company producing construction materials, mostly cement and steel. Rogers would hire Wilson as his administrative assistant, valuing his experience in advertising and corporate communications. When Rogers in the late 1960s took over as chairman of KERA, a public TV and radio station in Dallas that served the whole of north Texas, he'd make Wilson president.

At this stage KERA was small but pushing to grow. Though it was part-funded by public funds and advertising, it also needed to attract subscribers, members of the public paying an annual fee to become - theoretically at least - the company's owners. Imagination was needed to boost figures and Wilson was the man for the job. Stylish, erratic, a mine of ideas (many of which he'd never follow up), he'd burn through five or six secretaries a year as he drove the company forward. As the majority of subscribers were middle class and based in north Dallas, Wilson would concentrate on cultural diversity. He'd put on ballet and opera, the Boston symphony orchestra, he'd screen meetings of Dallas City council meetings live. There'd be specialist shows for women and black people.

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