50 Fun Facts About Clive Owen

A 2005 Sky News poll made Clive Owen the public's pick for James Bond; who got the role instead?

Daniel Craig was announced as the new 007 in the very month the poll came out. Owen later said he was never offered the part, or even approached about it.

In Shoot 'Em Up, Clive Owen's gunslinging drifter is constantly eating which vegetable?

Carrots are his snack and, in one scene, his weapon against a hitman. Critics compared the hero and Paul Giamatti's villain to Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.

A full-size copy of which New York museum was built in Germany for Clive Owen's The International?

The Guggenheim was copied at full size, 118 feet wide, for the film's central gunfight. Owen called it one of the most exquisitely executed sequences he had been involved in.

Which US president did Clive Owen play in the 2021 series Impeachment: American Crime Story?

Bill Clinton was Owen's role, with Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky. Lewinsky herself signed on as a co-producer of the season.

Clive Owen met his future wife, Sarah-Jane Fenton, when both acted in which Shakespeare play?

Romeo and Juliet brought them together at the Young Vic in London in 1988, where both were in the cast. They began dating soon afterwards and married in March 1995.

Which sitcom star directed Clive Owen in Trust, a 2010 drama about an online predator?

David Schwimmer, Ross in Friends, drew on 14 years of involvement with The Rape Foundation. He always wanted the teenage victim to be played by a real 14-year-old.

Clive Owen played the nameless Driver in The Hire, online short films made by which carmaker?

BMW paid for eight shorts by directors such as Guy Ritchie, John Woo and Tony Scott, with Madonna among the passengers. They introduced Owen to North American audiences in 2001.

Clive Owen learned to ride a horse to play which title character in a 2004 Antoine Fuqua epic?

King Arthur is reimagined in the film as a Roman officer rather than a medieval knight. Keira Knightley plays Guinevere and Ioan Gruffudd is Lancelot.

Clive Owen played Dan in Closer on stage in 1997; which actor took the role in the 2004 film?

Jude Law played Dan on screen, while Owen switched to the dermatologist Larry. The swap brought Owen a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and an Oscar nomination.

Which director talked a reluctant Clive Owen into playing the masked bank robber in Inside Man?

Spike Lee won him over after Owen nearly turned the part down, worried by a disguise of hood, mask and sunglasses. The script was revised to add scenes that showed his face.

Clive Owen plays Theo Faron in Children of Men, set in a 2027 Britain facing which crisis?

Human infertility has lasted two decades when the story begins, leaving civilisation on the brink of collapse. Owen made uncredited contributions to the Oscar-nominated screenplay.

Clive Owen earned his first Emmy nomination playing which novelist opposite Nicole Kidman?

Ernest Hemingway was the part, with Nicole Kidman as the journalist Martha Gellhorn, who became his wife. The 2012 HBO film had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

Clive Owen plays antihero Dwight McCarthy in which 2005 film based on Frank Miller's comics?

Sin City earned Owen and Rosario Dawson an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Kiss. Robert Rodriguez directed it alongside Frank Miller, who created the comics.

Clive Owen plays the Professor, an assassin sent to kill an amnesiac agent, in which 2002 thriller?

The Bourne Identity pits him against Matt Damon's hero, who mortally wounds him. Dying, the Professor reveals that both men are tied to the same Treadstone programme.

Clive Owen played which explorer opposite Cate Blanchett's queen in Elizabeth: The Golden Age?

Sir Walter Raleigh enthrals the queen with tales of the New World, then begins a secret affair with her favourite lady-in-waiting. She has him imprisoned for it.

Clive Owen spoofed his James Bond rumours as Agent 006 in the 2006 remake of which comedy?

The Pink Panther gave him an uncredited turn as Nigel Boswell, an MI6 man who foils a casino robbery. Steve Martin's Inspector Clouseau mistakenly receives the credit.

Which actress played Lucinda Harris opposite Clive Owen's cheating ad executive in Derailed?

Jennifer Aniston plays the woman Owen's married character meets on a commuter train. Derailed was the first film The Weinstein Company released in the United States.

In The Knick, Clive Owen's surgeon John Thackery regularly injects himself with which drug?

Cocaine fuels Thackery by day, and he spends his nights in a Chinatown opium den. The character is partly based on the real surgeon William Stewart Halsted.

Clive Owen narrated a 2012 fly-on-the-wall documentary about which football club, his lifelong team?

Liverpool is the club he follows, even though he was born in Coventry. The series Being: Liverpool tracked the squad on a pre-season tour of North America.

Clive Owen shared a Screen Actors Guild cast award for which Robert Altman country-house mystery?

Gosford Park cast Owen as the valet Robert Parks, who was raised in an orphanage. Its writer, Julian Fellowes, went on to create Downton Abbey, first planned as a spin-off.

Clive Owen broke through in America as a writer drawn into a casino robbery in which 1998 film?

Croupier won a strong following among North American critics and launched Owen's career there. Its director, Mike Hodges, had made his debut with the crime drama Get Carter.

Which ITV drama made Clive Owen a star in Britain in 1990, casting him as a likeable conman?

Chancer starred Owen as Stephen Crane, a rogue who sets out to save an ailing car firm. Its theme music was written by Jan Hammer, the composer of the Miami Vice soundtrack.

Clive Owen trained at which London drama school before performing Shakespeare at the Young Vic?

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art training came only after a long, fruitless search for work changed his mind. Owen had at first been opposed to drama school altogether.

Which actor plays Jasper, the former cartoonist who shelters Clive Owen's Theo in Children of Men?

Michael Caine based Jasper on his friend John Lennon. It was the first time he had portrayed a character who smoked cannabis.

Clive Owen played which Dashiell Hammett detective, retired to 1960s France, in a 2024 miniseries?

Sam Spade has swapped San Francisco for the quiet French town of Bozouls by 1963. The murder of six nuns at the local convent brings his peaceful life to an end.

Which actor plays hostage negotiator Keith Frazier opposite Clive Owen's bank robber in Inside Man?

Denzel Washington plays the New York detective. A sequel was announced in 2006, with both leads later confirmed to return, but the plans were cancelled in 2011.

Clive Owen's villain in Gemini Man sends a young clone to kill an assassin played by which star?

Will Smith plays both the retiring sniper and his clone, with digital de-ageing for the younger one. The project had spent nearly twenty years in development.

Clive Owen plays the usurping Claudius in Ophelia, a 2018 retelling of which Shakespeare tragedy?

Hamlet is retold from Ophelia's point of view, with the dialogue in modern English. The film, starring Daisy Ridley, is based on a 2006 novel by Lisa Klein.

Which actress starred opposite Clive Owen in Beyond Borders, a 2003 romance about aid workers?

Angelina Jolie was by then a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN refugee agency, much like her character. She published a book of journals from her travels as the film came out.

Which film director made The Knick, the hospital drama starring Clive Owen as surgeon John Thackery?

Steven Soderbergh directed all ten episodes of the first season. Thackery's death in the season two finale was planned from the beginning, and Owen had only a two-year contract.

Which director showed Clive Owen The Battle of Algiers to explain his vision for Children of Men?

Alfonso Cuarón also co-wrote the film, noted for its long single-shot action scenes. One of them took fourteen days to prepare and five hours to set up again for each retake.

Which actress starred opposite Clive Owen in both Children of Men and the miniseries Lisey's Story?

Julianne Moore plays his estranged wife Julian in the film and his widow Lisey in the series. The 2021 miniseries was directed by Pablo Larraín for Apple TV+.

Clive Owen plays a widowed sportswriter raising his sons in The Boys Are Back, set in which country?

Australia is the setting, on an isolated homestead near Adelaide. The 2009 film is based on The Boys Are Back in Town, a memoir by Simon Carr.

Clive Owen faces Jason Statham in Killer Elite, based on a novel by which English explorer?

Ranulph Fiennes published the source novel, The Feather Men, in 1991. The film's plot turns on a deposed sheikh who wants three former SAS troopers killed.

Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman star in Last Knights, a film loosely based on which Japanese legend?

The forty-seven rōnin avenged their dead master, and the film keeps that plot. Owen's Commander Raiden leads a band of warriors against the corrupt minister responsible.

Which director cast Clive Owen as Commander Filitt in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets?

Luc Besson independently financed the space opera, which cost around $180 million. It is based on the French comics series Valérian and Laureline.

Which rock star appears as Greta opposite Clive Owen in Bent, a 1997 drama set in 1930s Berlin?

Mick Jagger plays Greta in the film, which Martin Sherman adapted from his own 1979 play. Owen stars as Max, a gay man arrested by the Gestapo and put on a train to Dachau.

Which future Harry Potter star played the rich husband opposite Clive Owen in Close My Eyes?

Alan Rickman plays the stock analyst whose wife begins an affair with her own brother, Owen's character. The film won the Evening Standard award for Best British Picture.

Clive Owen and Julia Roberts play rival spies turned corporate con artists in which 2009 comedy?

Duplicity has her CIA officer drug his MI6 agent at a party in Dubai and steal his classified documents. Years later the two join forces for a corporate con.

Clive Owen made his Broadway debut in 2015 in Old Times, a play by which British dramatist?

Harold Pinter wrote the play, which Douglas Hodge directed with music by Thom Yorke. Owen played Deeley, with Kelly Reilly and Eve Best as the two women.

Which playwright wrote The Night of the Iguana, revived in London in 2019 with Clive Owen starring?

Tennessee Williams wrote the play, revived at the Noël Coward Theatre in the West End. Owen played the defrocked Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon in James Macdonald's limited run.

Clive Owen sent himself up in the Christmas special of which Ricky Gervais sitcom?

Extras brought Owen in for its feature-length finale alongside George Michael, Gordon Ramsay and David Tennant. Its celebrity guests all sent up their public personas.

Clive Owen plays an MI5 officer handling an informer in Shadow Dancer, set during which conflict?

The Troubles frame the story: after a failed bombing in London, a young mother must spy on her own family or spend 25 years in jail. Tom Bradby adapted his own 1998 novel.

Which French actress plays the painter who clashes with Clive Owen's teacher in Words and Pictures?

Juliette Binoche plays Dina, an artist whose rheumatoid arthritis makes it hard to hold a brush. Owen's English teacher provokes an argument with her over which matters more.

Clive Owen plays the adult Dovidl, a childhood prodigy on which instrument, in The Song of Names?

Violin lessons bring nine-year-old Dovidl from Poland to England, where a London family takes him in. Tim Roth plays the grown-up Martin, the boy who came to see him as a brother.

Clive Owen's first major Hollywood film, The Rich Man's Wife, starred which future Oscar winner?

Halle Berry plays the title character, who becomes a suspect when her husband is murdered. Amy Holden Jones wrote and directed the 1996 thriller, with Owen as Jake Golden.

Clive Owen played a detective hiding a rare disease from his bosses in which BBC drama?

Second Sight follows Tanner as a condition called AZOOR gradually takes away his vision. He has just been named head of an elite murder unit and struggles to keep it secret.

Clive Owen plays a tech billionaire in A Murder at the End of the World, set in which country?

Iceland hosts the isolated glacial compound, where Emma Corrin's amateur detective is one of nine invited guests. The series was the fifth collaboration between its two creators.

Clive Owen's father, Jess, left the family when the actor was three; what was his job?

Country and western singer was his father's trade, and the two were briefly reconciled when Owen was 19. Owen has described his childhood as rough.

Which Closer co-star joined Clive Owen in winning a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination?

Natalie Portman and Owen both won Golden Globes and both received Oscar nominations. Mike Nichols directed the film from Patrick Marber's adaptation of his own play.