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Recently breaking into the top ranks of British superstars making it big in Hollywood, the smoothly virile actor Clive Owen was born on October 3, 1964, in Coventry. His father was a country/western singer who deserted his family when Clive was only 3. He attended Binley Park Comprehensive School and joined the youth theater at 13 after playing the scene-stealing role of the Artful Dodger in a production of _Oliver!_. In 1984, following graduation, Clive applied and was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for three years. While there, he built up a classical resume including roles in _Henry IV, Part I_ and _The Lady from the Sea_. He subsequently joined the Young Vic Theatre Company and, in 1988, as it goes, the actor playing Romeo fell in love with his Juliet, Sarah-Jane Fenton. The couple eventually married in 1995 and have two daughters. 1988 was a good year for another reason. Clive made his film debut in the British-made Vroom (1988) co-starring with David Thewlis as two fellows who restore a classic American car and take off on the road. Within two years, Clive became a full-fledged TV star playing devilishly handsome rogue Stephen Crane in _Chancer (1990)_. However, the now-sought-after Clive abandoned the star-making part during the show's peak because of unwanted invasion of privacy and his fear of typecasting. His next project raised more than few eyebrows after he filmed Close My Eyes (1991) in which he played a brother who acts on his incestuous desires for his older sister. Clive's popular reputation as a lovable shyster was completely shattered and he lost profitable commercial endorsements and film offers for the next two years as a result. But the persistent Clive pursued with stage roles, including playing a bisexual in a production of Noel Coward's _Design For Living_. He returned to TV at that time as well and played a number of roles in both mini-movies and series. In 1997, he had a hit on the London stage with _Closer_, an ensemble contemporary piece about relationships. Controversy surrounded him again in the film role of Max in Bent (1997) as a brash, reckless homosexual lothario in decadent prey-war Germany who finds unexpected love while interned in a Nazi war camp. His biggest film break, however, was in Mike Hodges' Croupier (1998), as a struggling writer-turned-casino employee who gets in over his head with a femme fatale scam artist. English audiences stayed away in droves but the U.S. embraced the film and Hollywood finally took notice of Clive, who was virtually unknown outside of England. Despite playing detective Ross Tanner in a series of successful "Second Sight" mini-movies and earning another stage hit with "The Day in the Death of Joe Egg" in 2001, Clive has stuck primarily with film, including the offbeat Brit romantic comedy Greenfingers (2000), the classy and popular Robert Altman film Gosford Park (2001), the Matt Damon star-vehicle The Bourne Identity (2002), King Arthur (2004) (in the title role), and the film version of his stage hit Closer (2004/I) with Julia Roberts. There seems to be only bigger and better things awaiting him. Ever since playing the ultra-cool driver in BMW's _The Hire_ series, there has been constant pressure for Clive to don a tux and become filmdom's next "James Bond". It would seem a perfect fit. |
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