Woody Harrelson

Actor 

One of the most acclaimed actors of his generation, Academy Award nominated actor Woody Harrelson has long considered his work on behalf of the environment to be as important to him as his ever-burgeoning film career. In the summer of 2001, Harrelson created and took part in the SOL (Simple Organic Living) Tour, a spiritual and physical journey that had him and several other participants cycling from Seattle to Los Angeles. Along the way he stopped and spoke at college campuses, extolling his views on the importance of creating freedom from industry and striking a balance between economic growth and ecological sanity.

Long known as one of the country's most vocal supporters of the environment, Harrelson generated international headlines when he planted hemp seeds in the state of Kentucky to challenge the state's laws restricting the use of a plant that can be used as a valuable fuel and viable paper alternative. By actively challenging the state to differentiate between hemp and marijuana, he was arrested, tried and acquitted, all the time generating much national discussion about the issue.

He continues to work on animal rights issues, sustainability, and promoting healthy alternatives to the current cycle of consumer led environmental degradation. He has also long been a supporter in the fight to save Headwaters Forests - America's last stand of unprotected growth redwoods.

Harrelson also continues to act. He is one of a select group of actors that have triumphantly made the transition from the small screen to motion pictures. The actor first endeared himself to millions of viewers as a member of the ensemble cast of NBC's long-running hit comedy Cheers. For his work as the affable bartender Woody Boyd, Harrelson won an Emmy in 1988 and was nominated four additional times during his eight-year run on the show.

Harrelson won Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Nominations as Best Actor for his critically-acclaimed portrayal of controversial magazine publisher Larry Flynt in Milos Forman's drama, The People vs. Larry Flynt a particular triumph for Harrelson, since Flynt has also been known for years as a champion of free speech and social activism. He also starred with a stellar cast in Terence Malick's Oscar nominated war drama The Thin Red Line, in Stephen Frears acclaimed feature Hi-Lo Countryand in Ron Howard's EdTV opposite Matthew McConaughey.

He made his big screen debut as a high school football player in Wildcats, which also featured another burgeoning talent, Wesley Snipes, with whom Harrelson would later reunite in Ron Shelton's basketball comedy, White Men Can't, and the action thriller, Money Train. He starred opposite Robert Redford and Demi Moore in Adrian Lyne's drama, Indecent Proposal, and won acclaim as the homicidal Mickey for director Oliver Stone in the powerful drama, Natural Born Killers.

Harrelson also played the one-handed bowler Roy Munson in the Farrelly Brothers' comedy, Kingpin, a newspaperman caught in a web of intrigue in Volker Schion dorff's film noir thriller, Palmetto, and a journalist covering war-torn Bosnia in Welcome to Sarajevo. Other film credits include Wag The Dog, Sunchaser, Doc Hollywood, L.A.Story, The Cowboy Way, Ron Shelton's Play It To The Bone with Antonio Banderas, and opposite John Cleese and Alicia Silverstone in Scorched for director Gavin Grazer. Harrelson recently wrapped production on the comedy/drama Anger Management with Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler for director Peter Segal.

In addition to film and television, Harrelson has made his mark in the world of theater as well. He starred in the Roundabout's revival of the N. Richard Nash play, The Rainmaker, which centers on a con man who promises to bring rain to a drought-hit Midwestern town in the 1930s. Harrelson also starred opposite Sean Penn in Sam Shepherd's play The Late Henry Moss for San Francisco's Magic Theater. He also wrote and directed the dark comedy Furthest From the Sun. The play first premiered in Los Angeles at the Tiffany Theater and was later staged in Minneapolis. He was recently in London on stage appearing opposite Kyle MacLachlan in On An Average Day, a play by John Kolvenbach at the Comedy Theatre.