Ewan McGregor

Ewan Gordon McGregor is possibly the most noted Scottish actor aside from Sean Connery. With excellent acting skills as well as his determination to portray any character convincingly, no wonder he could impressively attain a terrific accomplishment in just a short period of time. Successfully making his way to enter Hollywood film industry, he surely has emerged as one of the prominent actors in the world.

Ewan's acting talent had been apparent since he was still a little boy. Although he was much involved in singing during his study at Morrison Academy, he often presented the impersonations of Elvis Presley to entertain his friends and family. This, without no doubt, had revealed that he was more interested in music and arts, unlike his older brother, Colin, who was considered as a bright student in academics. His desire to act rose when he saw his uncle, Denis Lawson, played the role of Wedge Antilles in the original "Star Wars" trilogy. "He had long hair, beads and a furry waistcoat," he recalled. "I aspired to be as different as he seemed to me."

Realizing Ewan's determination to be an actor, his parents, James Charles Stuart McGregor and Carol Diane Lawson gave their support by allowing him to quit high school. Born on March 31, 1971 in Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland, he left the town at the age of 16 to join Perth Repertory Theatre where he later worked as a stagehand. In the meantime, he took drama studies at Fife College of Further and Higher Education in Kirkcaldy, Scotland for a year before headed to London and entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1989 to spend another three years there to develop his acting skills. This stunning young man was close to his graduation when he received an offer to play the major role in a TV miniseries entitled "Lipstick On Your Collar" (1993).

After some consideration, Ewan ultimately decided to drop his study at Guildhall so that he was able to focus his attention on the character he portrayed in the miniseries. He then continued to perform in TV movie entitled "Family Style" and a mini TV series of "The Scarlet and the Black" which both came up in 1993. Still in the same year, a promising chance approached when he made his big screen debut in Bill Forsyth's "Being Human." Despite its notable cast, the movie unfortunately failed to be a box-office hit. However, the gloomy situation quickly changed as he teamed up with Danny Boyle and John Hodge in "Shallow Grave" (1994). This stylish feature resulted very well, gaining BAFTA Alexander Korda Award for the Outstanding British Film of the Year while also bringing Ewan's name to the surface.

The year of 1996 probably has become an unforgettable period for him as it marked the great moments he experienced both in his life and career. Being married to Eve Mavrakis, a French production designer whom he met in the set of "Kavanagh QC" (1995), he lovingly embraced the birth of his first child, Clara Mathilde, in February. Meanwhile, his next film, "Trainspotting" (1996), surprisingly made its way to penetrate Hollywood and was even nominated for Best Writing at the 69th Academy Awards. Once again collaborated with Boyle and Hodge in this adaptation of Irvine Welsh's book, he received huge praise from critics, which unquestionably put him into the international recognition. From this point, he set out to establish himself as one of the most celebrated actors of his generation.

Instead of sticking to the commercial flick, Ewan was more involved in independent and low-budget movies. Exploring a wide variety of roles, he starred in "The Pillow Book" (1996), "Emma" (1996), "Brassed Off" (1996), "Nightwatch" (1997), "The Serpent's Kiss" (1997), and "A Life Less Ordinary" (1997) in which he worked together with Boyle for the third time. In 1998, he exhibited his singing skills by portraying a debauched glam-rock star in "Velvet Goldmine" while also taking part in a British feature entitled "Little Voice." To everyone's surprise, he suddenly crossed to the mainstream, taking the role of the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the highly anticipated prequel of George Lucas' phenomenal saga, "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" (1999).

The result of "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" without doubt was tremendous as it scored more than 413 million U.S. dollars. This automatically boosted his career to its peak as well as enabled him to embrace worldwide fame. Despite the vast popularity he had obtained, Ewan returned his attention to smaller-budget films of little popular notice, such as "Rogue Trader" and "Eye Of The Beholder" which both came up in 1999. He also appeared in "Nora" (2000) which was the project of Natural Nylon, the production company he founded with fellow actors, like Jude Law, Jonny Lee Miller, and Sadie Frost. In the following year, he created sensation by joining the cast of "Moulin Rouge!" opposite Nicole Kidman. His brilliant performance as Christian led him to earn a nomination of Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy at the 59th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

Ewan went on to maintain his acting career; this time enacted a member of U.S. Special Forces in Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down" (2001). Following this, he was about to film "Nautica" alongside Heath Ledger. Nevertheless, the project was cancelled due to the tragic death of the proposed director, Ted Demme. In the meantime, he and Eva welcomed their second daughter, Esther Rose, on November 17. After his re-appearance as Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones" (2002), Ewan was busily involved in three films by 2003, namely "Down with Love", "Young Adam" and "Big Fish." He then underwent a marathon motorcycle trip around the world with Charley Boorman in 2004. This journey was later compressed into a mini TV series and a book entitled "Long Way Round."

As "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" came up in 2005, Ewan unexpectedly admitted that he in fact was depressed during the production of Episode I and began to drink heavily. Fortunately, he managed to cease the awful habit. During this year, he also contributed his voice to the animated "Robots" and "Valiant" while joining the cast of "Stay" and "The Island" which turned out well by garnering nearly $163 million worldwide. Coming back to the stage through a new production of "Guys and Dolls" alongside Jane Krakowski at Piccadilly Theatre in London, he kept staying busy throughout the following year, starring in "Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker", "Miss Potter", and a U.K. feature entitled "Scenes of a Sexual Nature."

By the next two years, Ewan wonderfully has added at least eight more high-profile projects in his big screen resume with two of them namely "Cassandra's Dream" and "The Tourist" being slated for 2007 releases. Apart from his voice-acting stint in animated comedy "Jackboots on Whitehall" alongside Alan Cumming and Rosamund Pike, the rest five were "Incendiary", "Number Thirteen", "Frankyln", "I, Lucifer", and "The Great Pretender", all set to come up in 2008.