Woody Harrelson
Born: 23rd July 1961
Where: Midland, Texas
The self-confessed stoner's breakthrough came when he was cast as Billy Hoyle alongside Wesley Snipes in White Men Can't Jump.
He went on to capitalise on his success as the cuckolded husband in Indecent Proposal and psychopath Mickey Knox in Natural Born Killers.
He was raised by his mother after his father was jailed for life for the murder of a federal judge when he was seven.
(urban myth alleges his father Charles Voyde Harrelson was one of three tramps taken away by police from the "grassy knoll" after JFK's assassination).
His mother, a legal secretary, brought him and his two brothers up in a religious atmosphere and he landed a scholarship to a presbyterian college.
After obtaining a degree in 1983 in English and theatrical arts from Hanover College, Indiana, Harrelson went to New York to pursue a career in acting.
The same year he was charged with disorderly conduct for punching a police officer to the ground after he was spotted disrupting traffic by dancing in the street in Columbus, Ohio.
Rumour has it, he was fired from 17 menial jobs in one year while waiting for his big break.
His theatre career began as an understudy in Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues but it was as dim-witted bartender Woody Boyd on the TV series Cheers that made his name.
In 1988, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series as well as starring in his self-written drama Furtheest From The Sun.
He had made his big screen debut in the Goldie Hawn comedy Wildcats in 1986 and co-starred with Glenn Close and Laura Dern in 1991's Brooklyn Laundry.
In the comedy Doc Fox, he demonstrated some big-screen credibility as the romantic rival of Michael J Fox.
Harrelson landed his first lead in the box office hit White Men Can't Jump and followed it quickly with Indecent Proposal with Demi Moore and Robert Redford.
After some indifferent appearances, he convinced as the crazed murderer in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killer with Juliette Lewis.
In 1996, he starred in The Sunchaser directed by The Deerhunter's Michael Cimino, and followed it with the Farrelly Brothers' irreverent Kingpin.
Next up he won the title role in Milos Forman's The People vs Larry Flynt - his poignant portrayal of the disabled porn baron earned an Oscar nomination.
In his next project, Harrelson took a supporting role in the low budget film Welcome to Sarajevo by rising director Michael Winterbottom.
Other appearances included the political satire Wag the Dog, the film noir Palmetto and the modern western, the Hi Lo Country.
After delivering a memorable cameo in The Thin Red Line, he returned to his comic roots as Matthew McConaughey's brother in Ron Howard's EDtv.
In 1999, he starred alonside Antonio Banderas in Play It To The Bone and joined Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson for Anger Management.
An activist for the legalisation of marijuana, he was once arrested for cultivating his own industrial hemp.
As well as a slice of Costa Rican rainforest, Harrelson also co-owns (with his wife Laura Louie) and "Oxygen Bar" in Los Angeles.
He recently had a supporting role in Spike Lee's woeful She Hate Me and played Pierce Brosnan's cop nemesis in the action thriller After The Sunset.
