Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991. He then garnered critical acclaim for his work in the film Close My Eyes (1991) before getting international notice for his performance as a struggling writer in Croupier (1998). In 2005, Owen won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his appearance in the drama Closer (2004). He has since played leading roles in films such as Sin City (2005), Inside Man (2006), Children of Men (2006), and The International (2009).

Initially, Owen carved out a career in television. In 1988 Owen starred as Gideon Sarn in a BBC production of Precious Bane and the Channel 4 film Vroom before the 1990s saw him become a regular on stage and television in the UK, notably his lead role in the ITV series Chancer, followed by an appearance in the Thames Television production of Lorna Doone.
In 1997, Clive had a huge hit on the London stage with “Closer,” a cynical, contemporary ensemble piece about relationships. Controversy surrounded him again in the film role of Max in Bent (1997) playing a brash, reckless homosexual lothario in decadent pre-war Germany who finds unconditional love while interned in a Nazi war camp. His biggest film break, however, was in Mike Hodges’ Crupier (1998), as a struggling writer-turned-casino employee who gets in over his head with a femme fatale scam artist. English audiences stayed away in droves but the U.S. embraced the film and Hollywood took notice of Clive, who was virtually unknown outside of England. Despite playing detective Ross Tanner in a series of successful “Second Sight” mini-movies and finding critical acclaim on stage with “The Day in the Death of Joe Egg” in 2001, Clive has focused primarily on film, including the offbeat Brit romantic comedy Flower power, como una regadera (2000), the classy and popular Robert Altman film Gosford Park (2001), the Matt Damon star-vehicle El caso Bourne (2002), and the title role in El rey Arturo (2004). He has since reached the top rungs of the Hollywood ladder with the film version of his stage smash Closer (2004/I) co-starring Julia Roberts, in which he received an Academy Award nomination and won the BAFTA award for “Supporting Actor”; opposite Denzel Washington in Plan oculto (2006); and alongside Julianne Moore and Michael Caine in Hijos de los hombres (2006). Upcoming is his portrayal of Sir Walter Raleigh opposite Cate Blanchett’s Elizabeth I in the film Elizabeth: La edad de oro (2007). There seems to be only bigger and better things awaiting this versatile talent. Ever since playing the ultra-cool driver in BMW’s “The Hire” series, there has been constant pressure for Clive to don a tux and become filmdom’s next “James Bond”.