- Born
- Birth nameMatthew Avery Modine
- Height6′ 3½″ (1.92 m)
- The youngest of seven, Matthew was born in Loma Linda, Ca, to Dolores (Warner), a bookkeeper, and Mark Alexander Modine, a drive-in theater manager. After graduating high school in Imperial Beach, Ca. Modine moved to NYC (1979). Matthew studied with Stella Adler at her Conservatory of Acting. While still a student of hers, he began landing starring roles in film, and later theatre and television. Matthew has worked with many of the most highly regarded directors including, Christopher Nolan, Oliver Stone, Sir Alan Parker, Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, Abel Ferrara, Alan J. Pakula, John Schlesinger, Tony Richardson, Robert Falls, Sir Peter Hall, Spike Lee, Tom DiCillo, Mike Figgis, Jonathan Demme and John Sayles. A partial list of his films include: The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Birdy (1984), Vision Quest (1985), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Married to the Mob (1988), Gross Anatomy (1989), Memphis Belle (1990), Pacific Heights (1990), Short Cuts (1993), The Browning Version (1994) and Any Given Sunday (1999).
Matthew is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup and Golden Lion. Mary (2005), directed by Abel Ferrara, co-starring Juliette Binoche and Forest Whitaker, won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. Birdy won the Cannes Film Festival Gran Prix. Equinox (1992), directed by Alan Rudolph, received four Independent Spirit Award nominations including Best Actor and Best Film. For his work in television, Matthew was part of the Emmy winning Showtime series Weeds (2005). He has received Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations for the M.O.W. What the Deaf Man Heard (1997) and HBO's Emmy winning And the Band Played On (1993). Modine has directed several distinguished short films: When I Was a Boy (1993), Smoking (1994), Ecce Pirate (1997), I Think I Thought (2008) and To Kill an American (2008).- IMDb Mini Biography By: MM
- SpouseCaridad Modine(October 31, 1980 - present) (2 children)
- Children
- ParentsMark Alexander ModineDolores Modine
- RelativesMark Modine(Sibling)Nola Modine(Aunt or Uncle)Avery Modine(Grandchild)
- Towering height and slender frame
- Learning to fly-fish; his teacher is Liam Neeson.
- Was originally offered Tom Cruise's role in Top Gun (1986). Turned down the part because he disagreed with the film's cold-war politics.
- Is a horticulturist and a carpenter.
- Is a neighbor of Liam Neeson.
- Founder of Bicycle For A Day (BFAD), a global initiative bringing together people who choose to ride a bicycle rather than use gas-powered motor vehicles, immediately reducing their carbon footprint.
- Vision Quest (1985) was maybe the hardest film I've ever done, because I never wrestled before in my life. I was a struggling actor that wasn't really fast. I was in drama school smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee and trying to like every young actor at a drama school, trying to be James Dean and be posing. So when I met Harold Becker, he said, "Can you do five push-ups?" I was pretty skinny, so I had to get in shape to do Vision Quest, and that was really, really, really hard and a real pleasure to work with that girl Linda Fiorentino. She's a tough New Jersey broad, very much like her role in the film. It was just fun and a very, very, very hard film to make.
- Birdy (1984) was the movie that every actor of my generation wanted. The interesting thing about Birdy is that I auditioned for the role of Al Columbato. I didn't audition for Birdy. I imagined somebody very, very different playing Birdy. I was up in Toronto working with Mel [Gibson]. We were living together, we were sharing a house together, and Alan Parker called and said, "Congratulations, I want you to be in my film." I was like, "Are you going to change the name of Columbato, or am I going to play an Italian-American?" And he goes, "You're not playing Al. You're playing Birdy." I was like, "What?" I had to get my head around playing Birdy. I never read one line for Birdy, and he cast me as Birdy. Later that day, it was really weird. We were at Mel's house, and it was kind of a weird snowy day, and this big red robin came into the house and crashed into the glass. It was like a scene out of Birdy. I picked up the robin and kind of held it for a minute. It was clearly dead. I held the bird for a little while and stroked it, and in fact, it wasn't dead, and it hopped up on my finger and just sat there. I have a great photo of Mel and I standing there that my wife took. He's laughing and going, "This is a sign! This is a sign! You were meant to play Birdy. Look at this, man." So a wonderful omen. One of my favorite films I've worked on was Birdy.
- The Hotel New Hampshire (1984) was the first time I played a real scumbag. I was working in Toronto with Mel Gibson and Diane Keaton on a movie called Mrs. Soffel (1984), and I went to see the movie open up there in a theater in Toronto. And I remember the people sitting behind not recognizing me and going, "I hate that guy. What a prick." And I thought "I'm never going to play another bad guy again, because people don't like you." The Hotel New Hampshire was fun because it was Tony Richardson, who had directed Tom Jones (1963), and he in his own way is a legendary filmmaker. I was working with Nastassja Kinski and Jodie Foster, so that was real pleasurable.
- (On Streamers (1983)) That was a tremendous opportunity to meet a legend, Robert Altman. Just the whole rehearsal process, the casting process, and then going down to Texas to work in his brand-new studio that had been built in Las Colinas. It was a really, really, intense experience. It was a bunch of guys who didn't have their girlfriends or their wives and who all went down, and it was a very drunken... You know... working with Robert Altman. It was a great experience. It was a lot of drinking that went on down in Texas. There was a lot of partying that went on down in Texas. Then we won the prize at the Venice Film Festival. It was an unprecedented award that gave the Best Actor award to the cast. It was an ensemble.
- (On Baby It's You (1983)) This was a great opportunity to work with one of America's really interesting independent film directors, John Sayles, who had given so many young actors an opportunity to work when they were struggling to get their foot in the door. Robert Downey Jr., Fisher Stevens, Meg Ryan, Rosanna Arquette, they sort of had the leads. There were all these other people where this was their first film. Their entrée into the world of film. Vincent Spano and Rosanna Arquette and Tracy Pollan, Michael J. Fox's wife. It was just really fun to be working with people that you met in the acting community of New York, everyone that you would meet on auditions. All of a sudden, all of us had jobs on a film.
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