Woody Harrelson

Woody Harrelson
Harrelson in 2019
Born
Woodrow Tracy Harrelson

(1961-07-23) July 23, 1961 (age 63)
Alma materHanover College (BA)
OccupationActor
Years active1985–present
WorksFilmography
Spouses
  • Nancy Simon
    (m. 1985; div. 1986)
  • Laura Louie
    (m. 2008)
Children3
FatherCharles Harrelson
RelativesBrett Harrelson (brother)
AwardsFull list

Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor. He first became known for his role as bartender Woody Boyd on the NBC sitcom Cheers (1985–1993), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series from five nominations. He reprised his role in the acclaimed spinoff series Frasier in 1999 for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series nomination.

Harrelson received three Academy Award nominations: Best Actor for The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), and Best Supporting Actor for both The Messenger (2009) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). Other notable films include White Men Can't Jump (1992), Natural Born Killers (1994), Kingpin (1996), The Thin Red Line (1998), Play It to the Bone (1999), No Country for Old Men (2007), Seven Pounds (2008), Zombieland (2009), Rampart (2011), Seven Psychopaths (2012), Now You See Me (2013), The Edge of Seventeen (2016), LBJ (2016), War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), The Highwaymen (2019), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), and Triangle of Sadness (2022). He also played Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games film series (2012–2015).

Harrelson received further Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his portrayal of Steve Schmidt in the HBO film Game Change (2012), and for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Marty Hart in the HBO crime anthology series True Detective (2014). He portrayed E. Howard Hunt in the HBO political limited series White House Plumbers (2023) and received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film.