Woody Harrelson

Harrelson was married to Nancy Simon, the daughter of playwright Neil Simon, from 1985 to 1986. He has been married to Laura Louie since 2008, and they have three daughters, Deni, Zoe, and Makani. Louie co-founded the organic food delivery service Yoganics and previously worked as Harrelson's personal assistant.

Harrelson's father, Charles Harrelson, was convicted of killing federal judge John H. Wood Jr. in 1979 and received a life sentence. Harrelson grew up with his brothers Brett and Jordan, and Brett later became an actor.

Harrelson's breakthrough came in 1985 when he joined the cast of the NBC sitcom Cheers as Woody Boyd, a charming and naive bartender. He remained with the series through its conclusion in 1993 and received five Primetime Emmy nominations for the role, winning Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1989.

While appearing on Cheers, Harrelson began building a film career with Wildcats and White Men Can't Jump, in which he starred alongside Wesley Snipes. His performance in Indecent Proposal, opposite Demi Moore and Robert Redford, helped establish him as a leading film actor, while Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers demonstrated his ability to play darker characters.

Harrelson received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for portraying Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996). He followed the film with roles in Wag the Dog, Welcome to Sarajevo, and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line, expanding his work into political satire, war drama, and ensemble films.

His later performances included Carson Wells in No Country for Old Men, an army officer in The Messenger, and Tallahassee in Zombieland. He received further Oscar nominations for The Messenger and for playing police chief Bill Willoughby in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Other prominent roles included the Colonel in War for the Planet of the Apes, Lyndon B. Johnson in LBJ, Tobias Beckett in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and Cletus Kasady in Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

Harrelson played Haymitch Abernathy in all four films of The Hunger Games series, released between 2012 and 2015. The character, a former champion who mentors the young contestants, became one of his best-known franchise roles.

He returned to television in the HBO film Game Change (2012), portraying political strategist Steve Schmidt in a story about John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. In the first season of HBO's True Detective (2014), he played Louisiana detective Marty Hart opposite Matthew McConaughey, with both actors also serving as executive producers. Harrelson later portrayed E. Howard Hunt in the HBO limited series White House Plumbers.

Harrelson has also worked as a playwright and director. He wrote and directed the play Furthest From the Sun, co-wrote Bullet for Adolf with Frankie Hyman, and directed Bullet for Adolf in Toronto and Off-Broadway. In 2017, he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in Lost in London, a film shot in a single take and premiered live.

He has advocated for environmental causes and the legalization of marijuana and industrial hemp. In 1996, he planted hemp seeds in Kentucky to challenge a law that did not distinguish industrial hemp from marijuana, and he was acquitted of the resulting charges. He joined NORML's advisory board in 2003, participated in UNICEF's Soccer Aid matches, and has supported environmental organizations and campaigns concerning the California redwoods.