Time Out New York (January 9, 1997) aptly compared Matt Dillon's enduring hit-or-miss acting career to an irregular EKG print-out, stating that just when you think he's a flat liner, he comes roaring back to life. Once typecast as just another doomed young rebel with smoldering good looks, Dillon went on to demonstrate his serious ambition and range. Although one may be hard-pressed to describe exactly what Dillon does on screen, but the camera simply loves his face. Amassing an impressive list of credits since his debut at age 15 as a troubled teen in Jonathan Kaplan's powerful "Over the Edge" (1979), he has been well utilized by a varied group of filmmakers including Tony Bill ("My Bodyguard" 1980) Tim Hunter ("Tex" 1982), Francis Ford Coppola ("The Outsiders" and "Rumblefish" both 1983), Garry Marshall ("The Flamingo Kid" 1984), Arthur Penn ("Targets" 1985) and later in career by the Farrelly brothers ("There's Something About Mary," 1998) and Paul Haggis ("Crash," 2005).

Dillon shot to stardom as the charismatic but confused lead of a trio of teen films adapted from the works of S.E. Hinton—"Tex", "The Outsiders" and "Rumblefish"—but many preferred his lighter and less mannered work in "The Flamingo Kid", a warm comedy about family values. A favorite pin-up boy of the Tiger Beat set during most of the 80s. the prolific actor received his greatest acclaim for his assured, mature performance as a narcotics-driven father-figure in Gus Van Sant's "Drugstore Cowboy". (1989). Although an Irish-American of middle-class suburban origins, Dillon proved convincing as a working-class urban Italian-American ("Mr. Wonderful" 1993). It was his hilarious performance as the sleazy, garbage-sifting private detective Ben Stiller hires to find his long lost love in "There's Something About Mary" (1998), however, that really caused audiences to rediscover Dillon after a string of unpopular choices in the early 1990s.

Dillon has chosen roles carefully (if not always wisely) throughout his career, perhaps even more so as an adult. Though the results have been uneven, he effectively graduated from teen to adult roles, and exhibited ease with both dramatic and comedic parts. While he has gained respect throughout his 20-plus year career, he has not starred in many runaway hits. "A Kiss Before Dying" (1991), a mainstream thriller, failed critically and commercially, but he fared better with his portrayal of a dim-witted Seattle grunge rocker in "Singles" (1992). He reunited with director Tim Hunter to play a disturbed young man who is befriended by a homeless Danny Glover in "The Saint of Fort Washington" (1993), a film that received mixed reviews.

The actor went on to star opposite Joan Chen as an FBI agent who falsely accused her father of Communist-dealings in the 1950s in "Golden Gate" (1994). Dillon proved effective in the relative minor part of Nicole Kidman's doomed husband in Van Sant's "To Die For" and displayed a winning chemistry with Anne Parillaud as her boyfriend in "Frankie Starlight" (both 1995). He further demonstrated his screen charisma in the ensemble comedy "Beautiful Girls" (1996) as a young man caught between two women (Lauren Holly and Mira Sorvino) and was hilarious as a self-impressed actor who unwittingly outs his closeted gay high school teacher (Kevin Kline) during the Academy Awards in the 1997 comedy "In & Out". The following year saw Dillon star as a popular guidance counselor wrongly accused of rape in the sexy, campy thriller "Wild Things" opposite Neve Campbell, Denise Richards and Kevin Bacon. Always popular and employed, Dillon got a huge career boost when he co-starred with then-girlfriend Cameron Diaz in what is to date the gross-out romantic comedy of all time, "There's Something About Mary". Audiences—and even critics—praised him for his deft comic performance as Pat Healy, the cartoonish, mustachioed private dick who stalks, then falls in love with the woman he was hired to track down (Diaz). While doing press for the movie, Dillon broke his long-time rule of talking about his personal life in public, speaking candidly about how much he loved the blonde beauty--the first celebrity with whom Dillon had ever seriously been linked. The couple reportedly broke up after nearly three years when neither would leave their homes or families to relocate to the other side of the country—he lives in NYC, she in L.A.

Although Dillon never finished high school, he prides himself on being a self-educated man who appreciates the finer things in life such as music, art and architecture, wine and food. When he's not hanging out with the ladies in a downtown Manhattan night club, the former teen idol says you might catch him strolling through museums or antique stores, traveling or reading—some of his favorite pastimes. Not that Dillon has all that much free time. In 2000, he juggled several projects including the ensemble-driven "Deuces Wild", a drama about gangs in 1950s NYC, co-starring Norman Reedus and Fairuza Balk and the star-studded flick "One Night at McCool's" with Michael Douglas, John Goodman and Paul Reiser. In 2002, Dillon took his first turn as a director in a film he also co-wrote and starred in. "City of Ghosts" was the story of con man who travels to Cambodia to get his share on an insurance scam but finds himself caught in a much more dangerous situation.

After appearing in the low-profile caper comedy "Employee of the Month" (2004), Dillon's career took another sudden upturn with his critically praised performance in the racially charged, multi-plot drama "Crash" (2005). Playing an angry LAPD patrol officer whose frustrations at home lead him to act out as a racist on the job, only to reveal an even more complicated side as his story plays out, Dillon delivered an unflinching, complex performance that stood out even among the film's top-flight acting ensemble. After winning a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Dillon earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Meanwhile, Dillon switched gears to more lighthearted fare, playing a NASCAR champ who gets beat racing a lovable, animated Volkswagen Bug in “Herbie: Fully Loaded” (2005).