Owen Wilson

About Owen Wilson

Born in Dallas, Texas to Robert and Laura Wilson, Owen Wilson's free-spirited personality was evident from a young age. By his sophomore year in high school, he had been kicked out of a prestigious prep school, St. Mark's Academy. Upon the abrupt ending of his academic career at St. Mark's, Owen completed his sophomore year at a local public school and was then shipped off to the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico.

Owen is one of three Wilson brothers, all of which are actors. Andrew, the oldest brother, has starred in Fever Pitch, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and The Big Bounce; youngest brother Luke is known for his roles in The Family Stone, the Legally Blonde movies and Alex & Emma. Middle brother Owen is best known for the following roles:

• Armageddon 1998
• Permanent Midnight 1998
• The Haunting 1999
• Meet the Parents 2000
• Zoolander 2001
• The Royal Tenenbaums 2001
• Behind Enemy Lines 2001
• Starsky and Hutch 2004
• The Wedding Crashers 2005
• You, Me and Dupree 2006

Beyond Acting

Although the self-proclaimed "Butterscotch Stallion" has found enormous success as an actor, reportedly banking $10,000,000 for the film The Wedding Crashers, Wilson claims that he never really wanted to be an actor.

Writer

After graduating from high school, Owen attended the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in English. Even though he left school a few credits short of his degree, Wilson claims that while acting is a lot of fun, writing remains his passion and he has writing credits on the following films:

• The Royal Tenenbaums 2001
• Rushmore 1998
• Bottle Rocket 1994

Of the three films, The Royal Tenenbaums was nominated for both an Academy Award in the Best Writing category and a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Screenplay.

Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn at the premiere of The Wedding Crashers

Producer

To further prove that Owen Wilson is more than just a "Butterscotch Stallion," along with his acting and writing credits, the multi-talented star was also a producer for the following films:

• As Good as it Gets 1997 – Associate Producer
• Rushmore 1998 – Executive Producer
• The Royal Tenenbaums 2001 – Executive Producer
• You, Me and Dupree 2006 – Producer

Recent Troubles

It has been widely reported that in August of 2007, Wilson was hospitalized for a reported attempted suicide. The phone logs of the Santa Monica Police Department later confirmed this report.

The exact details of Wilson's apparent attempted suicide are somewhat conflicting. First, it was reported that he had overdosed on his prescribed anti-depressants and he slit his wrists. His lawyer later stated that while Wilson was in fact, taking anti-depressants, there was no indication of an overdose and he did not have his stomach pumped when he arrived at the hospital. His lawyer also stated that there were no other drugs found in Owen's system at the time of his hospitalization.

The Incident

His brother Luke, who placed the 911 call to Santa Monica's Emergency Services, found Owen in his home. Wilson was then taken to St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica and then later moved to Cedars Sinai where he was treated and released.

Unnamed sources that claim to be close with the Wilsons have stated that Owen had been depressed for months before his suicide attempt. Other reports circulating stated that his addiction to cocaine and heroin led him to slitting his wrists and overdosing on prescription drugs. Wilson and his camp have vehemently denied reports of his heroin and cocaine use claiming that he has never done either of the dangerous drugs.

The Road to Recovery

Many months after the incident, Wilson's life seems to be returning to normalcy. He has been seen at a few Hollywood parties and is back on the dating seen, reportedly dating a model.

The only fallout (if you can really consider it that) from his health woes is that he dropped out of the Ben Stiller production of Tropic Thunder and was replaced by Matthew McConaughey.

So far, there has been no word on him dropping out of his current projects in various stages of production. Look for him in the following films set to be released sometime in 2008:

• Drillbit Taylor
• Marley and Me
• Outsourced

The support from his fans, peers and family, as well as his work on current projects prove that while this "Butterscotch Stallion" may have been down for awhile, no one can count him out just yet.