Ewan McGregor

Profession: Actor
Place/Date of Birth: Crieff, 31 March 2020

Ewan's life or death moment - Oct 30 2007
Ewan McGregor has apparently revealed that he had a very near miss with an antelope on his latest motorbike expedition.

The 36-year-old actor and his biking pal Charley Boorman ventured from John O'Groats to South Africa in BBC Two's Long Way Down, and they had a rather hairy encounter on their last day, reports the Daily Star.

Ewan is quoted as saying: "We were doing about 80mph on this left-hand band in Namibia. All of a sudden I saw this huge kudu, or antelope. I couldn't really change direction. This thought came into my head: 'He can either walk left and it's all f****** over for me. Or he can turn right and everybody is laughing."

He added: "Luckily for me the kudu went right. I thought I'd be road kill. And they eat road kill."

But the run in with the antelope wasn't Ewan's only potentially disastrous experience on the trip - they also braved sandstorms in Libya, machine gun attacks from bandits and food poisoning.

’Nanny state’ may force Ewan abroad - Oct 23 2007
Actor Ewan McGregor says Britain’s "nanny state" could cause him to move abroad.

The Trainspotting star has just completed an epic 15,000-mile motorbike journey across Africa with best friend Charley Boorman.

And he told the Radio Times: "Our trip opened my eyes to how insane the rules are in Britain - CCTV cameras everywhere, congestion charge - a ludicrous nanny state.

"If anything drives me out of the country it will be that - not tax, I don’t earn enough."

Health and safety rules can affect actors - when Daniel Craig was unveiled as the new James Bond, he was made to wear a life jacket during a River Thames boat stunt before the world’s media.

"It’s not his fault. He’s doing what he’s told," Ewan sympathised. "Today, health and safety are out of control. In Africa, garage attendants smoked as they filled the bikes. I took great pleasure in that."

The pair’s trip from John O’Groats to Cape Agulhas at the tip of South Africa was captured on film for BBC2 series Long Way Down.

The journey took them through 18 countries and Ewan said he was touched by the kindness of the people he met in Africa.

"People are nice to us because we’re travellers, and the most generous and happiest are often those who have the least, whereas in Britain we’re devastatingly depressed, yet have so much."

Ewan flies to Iraq - Oct 8 2007
Ewan McGregor flew to Iraq to meet Britain’s only female bomb disposal expert working in the war-torn country and present her with a bravery award, it has been revealed.

Ewan was so impressed by Michelle Cunningham’s courage that he agreed to take the risk of travelling to Basra air base himself to meet her and her unit.

Staff Sgt Cunningham, 32, from Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, single-handedly put out a fire at an explosives factory in Middle Wallop, Hampshire, last year.

Firefighters had decided it was too dangerous to go inside the burning building and one man had already died when the Staff Sgt Cunningham decided to take action.

She marched into the building with two fire extinguishers, went to the heart of the blaze and managed to control the flames and secure hundreds of explosives.

The Army decided her courage merited a nomination for a Pride of Britain Award in recognition of her "displaying complete disregard for her personal safety".

Ewan, 36, said he had been amazed by the officer’s courage and that he would never have had the guts to do her job.

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Biography

Ewan Gordon McGregor was born on March 31st 1971 on the small Scottish coastal town of Crieff.

He started out at the local Morrison Academy and at the age of sixteen made his way down to the big smoke to train at the Guildhall School. Ewan got an early break thanks to Dennis Potter, who cast him in the critically acclaimed TV show Lipstick on Your Collar in 1993, just before his graduation. The small role got Ewan noticed and soon after leaving Guildhall he was cast in Bill Forsyth’s Being Human.

Ewan wasn’t about to hang around making mediocre movies though. In 1994 he was cast as Alex, one of three lead characters in Danny Boyle’s excellent Shallow Grave, which won a Bafta for Best British Film. His breakthrough came two years later, again thanks to Danny Boyle. Ewan was cast as the lead character, heroin addict Mark Renton, in cult classic Trainspotting. The controversial movie became the seminal nineties film, loved by young people all over Britain while Ewan became British cinema’s hottest property, the film world’s answer to Damon Albarn in a Brit-pop obsessed country.

From then on Ewan made sure he didn’t become stereotyped, taking parts in everything from arty intelligent projects like Peter Greenaway’s The Pillow Book (which helped to cement the reputation of a certain of Ewan’s body parts as a star as...ahem, big as its owner) to costume dramas - Jane Austen’s Emma - to gritty northern dramas such as the critically acclaimed Brassed Off.

By 1997’s A Life Less Ordinary Ewan was a global superstar and was the obvious choice for a role in then biggest movie franchise in history. Ewan’s role as Obi Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels may not have allowed him to flex his acting muscles but it did send him stratospheric, and while he kept on with the quirky projects such as Big Fish and Moulin Rouge! he was also able to command huge salaries for each appearance and make action blockbusters such as The Island and Stormbreaker as well as costume dramas such as Miss Potter. He is set to appear in Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream and as the devil in I, Lucifer in 2007.

The huge fame that came with these movies also allowed Ewan to branch out with his own projects - notably The Long Way Round, a TV show which saw Ewan and pal Charley Boorman attempt a motorcycle trip from London to New York. As well as plenty of time in front of the camera Ewan, along with Sadie Frost, Jude Law, Sean Pertwee and Jonny Lee Miller, keeps his hand in behind the lens with Natural Nylon a production company owned by the Brit Pack A list.
updated January 2007

Ewan has been married to make up artist Eve Mavrakis since 1995. They met on the set of TV drama Kavanagh QC and now have two daughters Clara Mathilde and Esther Rose. In April 2006 the couple also adopted a four year old girl from Mongolia.
October 2007

Star Ratings