- published: 25 Sep 2014
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Luke Cunningham Wilson (born September 21, 1971) is an American film actor known for his roles in Old School, Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, Legally Blonde, Idiocracy and Death at a Funeral.
Wilson was born in Dallas, Texas, a son of Robert Andrew Wilson, an advertising executive and previous executive at KERA, a public television station, and Laura Cunningham Wilson, a photographer. His family, originally from Massachusetts, is Irish Catholic. He is the younger brother of Andrew Wilson and Owen Wilson. All three brothers attended St. Mark's School of Texas. According to his brother Owen, Luke was voted class president the first year he attended St. Mark's. He was a football player, and a track athlete at St. Mark's in the 400 meter, 800 meter and 800 meter relay and holds records in the 3200 relay and 1600 relay (breaking the record two years in a row).
Wilson's acting career began with the lead role in the short film Bottle Rocket in 1994, which was co-written by his older brother Owen Wilson and director Wes Anderson. It was remade as a feature-length film in 1996. After moving to Hollywood with his two brothers, he was cast opposite Calista Flockhart in Telling Lies in America and made a cameo appearance in the film-within-the-film of Scream 2, both in 1997. Wilson filmed back-to-back romantic films in 1998, opposite Drew Barrymore, Best Men, about a group of friends who pull off a heist on their way to a wedding, and Home Fries, about two brothers interested in the same woman for different reasons. He played the doctor beau of a schoolteacher in Rushmore (also 1998), also directed by Anderson and co-written by brother Owen.