Matthew Modine

Matthew Modine is an actor, activist, filmmaker and humanist.

His first film role was in John Sayles' Baby It's You. His
performance caught the eye of director Harold Becker, who cast him in
Vision Quest (Crazy for You) based on the novel by Terry Davis. The
director Robert Altman propelled Modine to international stardom with
his film adaptation of David Rabe's play Streamers. Modine and his
fellow castmates won an unprecedented Best Actor prize from the Venice
Film Festival for this tragic story of young American soldiers about
to be shipped to Vietnam. Modine played Mel Gibson's brother in Mrs.
Soffel and starred with Nicolas Cage in Alan Parker's Birdy. The film
was awarded a prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Modine might be best known for his role as "Private Joker," the main
character of Stanley Kubrick's 1987 war movie Full Metal Jacket.
Afterwards, he played the dangerous young criminal, Treat, in Alan
Pakula's film version of the hugely successful play Orphans by writer
Lyle Kessler; and the goofy, earnest FBI agent Mike Downey in Jonathan
Demme's screwball comedy Married to the Mob opposite Michelle
Pfeiffer. Modine was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performances
in And the Band Played On and What the Deaf Man Heard.

He made his feature directorial debut with If... Dog... Rabbit. This
came after the success of three short films that debuted at the
Sundance Film Festival: When I was a Boy (co-directed with Todd Field)
Smoking written by David Sedaris, and Ecce Pirate.

His most recent films include The Go Go Tales, Have Dreams, Will
Travel, Transporter 2, Opa!, and Mary, which won a prize at the Venice
Film Festival.

Modine plays the Majestic City developer throughout Season 3 on Weeds
(television) named Sullivan Groff, who besides being incredibly
crooked and creepy, has affairs with Nancy Botwin played by
Mary-Louise Parker and Celia Hodes played by Elizabeth Perkins.

His theater roles include parts in Arthur Miller's Finishing the
Picture in Chicago, Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues in London, and
an upcoming run as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird in Hartford,
Connecticut.

Full Metal Jacket Diary is a critically acclaimed book written by
Modine. The book is a day-to-day account of his experience while
working on Full Metal Jacket. In addition to the diary, the book is
filled with photos Modine shot using a Rolleiflex camera.

Bicycle For a Day (BFAD) is an environmental initiative Modine created
with Charles Finch. Modine directed the BFAD film for Young Global
Leaders presented to an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland (2006). BFAD's goal is to raise awareness of the need to
reduce carbon emissions and demonstrate simple things that each of us
can do everyday to make a cleaner world. On September 20, 2008 BFAD
had its first event at the South Street Seaport in New York City.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke to the 14,000 people who attended the
event. Ben Jellen and Lukas Haas sang and performed visitors learned
about the two charities BFAD supports, Water Keeper Alliance and
American Forests: Global ReLeaf.

Card Carrying Liberal (CCL) is a foundation that Modine started in
2007. The stated aim is to restore the meaning of the word "liberal".
Modine believes the ideals of liberal thought have been forced into
disrepute because of a dishonest attempt to place them only in a
political context. The foundation, which does not describe itself as a
political entity, also has the objective of protecting the ideals of
liberalism and supporting the liberties and human rights that liberal
societies helped to establish.

To learn more, watch videos, connect and support Matthew in his
efforts with Bicycle For A Day and Card Carrying Libeal, visit
Matthew's Leader page on Causecast

www.causecast.org/leader/matthew-modine

www.cardcarryingliberal.org/

www.bicycleforaday.org/

Show full bio

Hide full bio