Ewan McGregor

Ewan McGregor (born March 31, 1971, Perth, Perthshire, Scotland) is a Scottish actor of stage, film, and television who is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the second Star Wars trilogy: Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace (1999), Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones (2002), and Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith (2005). McGregor has also worked with Academy Award-winning director Danny Boyle on several notable films, including the actor’s breakthrough movie, Trainspotting (1996).

Early life

Ewan McGregor, whose brother, Colin McGregor, became a fighter pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF), is the son of schoolteachers Carol (née Lawson) McGregor and James McGregor. They encouraged his pursuit of a life in the arts, and he studied at a number of theaters in Scotland before moving to London for a three-year stint at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He left shortly before graduating, however, after securing a role in the TV miniseries Lipstick on Your Collar (1993), a well-received musical set in the 1950s. McGregor was cast as Private Hopper, and it was his first on-camera role. In 1994 he made his film debut, appearing in Being Human, a dramedy starring Robin Williams. Later that year McGregor starred in Shallow Grave, playing the darkly comedic Alex Law. The crime thriller was Boyle’s first feature film, and it earned largely positive reviews.

Trainspotting and Danny Boyle

In 1996 McGregor reunited with Boyle, assuming the star-making role of the heroin-addicted Mark Renton in Trainspotting. The dark comedy, which was based on the novel by Irvine Welsh, takes an unsparing look at the ravages of drugs and poverty in 1990s Scotland, and it includes a famous surreal scene in which Renton dives into a revolting toilet in search of drug suppositories. The film was an international hit, and it established both McGregor and Boyle. The two then worked on A Life Less Ordinary (1997), a quirky romance about a man who kidnaps an heiress (played by Cameron Diaz). As McGregor told Esquire magazine in 2016, “Danny was my first movie director and the most important of my life, because I was part of his filmmaking team for those three first movies…I thought: I’m Danny Boyle’s actor.” The two famously had a falling out over the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio in Boyle’s The Beach (2000), but they reconciled years later, with McGregor returning for the popular sequel T2 Trainspotting (2017).

Star Wars

In 1999 McGregor took on arguably his best-known role, Obi-Wan Kenobi, in Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace. Playing the character made famous by Alec Guinness in the original trilogy, McGregor shared scenes with such costars as Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman. McGregor reprised the role in the two sequels (2002 and 2005). He also provided the voice of Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: Episode IX—The Rise of Skywalker (2019), and in 2022 he portrayed the Jedi master in the TV miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi. Interestingly, McGregor’s uncle, Denis Lawson, appeared in the original Star Wars trilogy, playing the rebel pilot Wedge Antilles (he later was cast in The Rise of Skywalker). McGregor and Lawson also shared the screen in the movie Perfect Sense (2011).

Moulin Rouge!, Fargo, and Halston

During this time McGregor also appeared in movies that highlighted his versatility. In 1998 he played an Iggy Pop-inspired singer in Velvet Goldmine, Todd Haynes’s exploration of music and gender fluidity. He later starred in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! (2001), a visually stunning musical set in 1890s Paris. McGregor portrayed a bohemian writer who falls in love with a doomed courtesan (played by Nicole Kidman). His other credits from 2001 include Ridley Scott’s acclaimed military drama Black Hawk Down, about a 1993 battle between U.S. soldiers and armed rebels in Mogadishu, Somalia. McGregor later teamed up with director Tim Burton on the fantastical drama Big Fish (2003) and then appeared with Renée Zellweger in Miss Potter (2006), a biopic about children’s author Beatrix Potter.

Noted for his commitment to roles, McGregor was highly sought after. His credits from 2010 include Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, a thriller about an author hired to pen a politician’s memoirs, and the family comedy Nanny McPhee Returns. That year he also starred with Christopher Plummer in Beginners, a well-received dramedy about a man who discovers that his dying father is gay. McGregor later appeared in The Impossible (2012), about tourists caught in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; August: Osage County (2013), a family drama starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts; and A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014), a comedic western. In 2016 McGregor went behind the camera to direct American Pastoral, an adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel about a couple whose daughter becomes a terrorist; McGregor also starred in the drama.

In 2017 McGregor turned to television, playing two brothers—one suave and successful, the other balding and bitter—in the third season of the anthology series Fargo. For his immersive performances, McGregor won a Golden Globe Award. He then appeared as the title character in the comedy adventure Christopher Robin (2018), inspired by A.A. Milne’s series about Winnie-the-Pooh. McGregor shifted gears in 2019, starring in the horror film Doctor Sleep, an adaptation of Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining. He later earned acclaim—and an Emmy Award—for his starring role in the TV miniseries Halston (2021), about the legendary fashion designer. In 2022 McGregor lent his voice to the stop-motion animated film Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, a dark tale that is mostly set in fascist Italy in the 1930s.

Are you a student?

Get a special academic rate on Britannica Premium.

Subscribe

Theater and other credits

McGregor has memorably appeared on stage throughout his career. In 2005 he appeared in a West End production of the musical Guys and Dolls, earning acclaim as Sky Masterson. He then played Iago to Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Othello in a 2007 production of Shakespeare’s famed drama. In 2014 McGregor appeared in his first Broadway production, starring alongside Maggie Gyllenhaal in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing.

An avid motorcycle enthusiast, McGregor and longtime friend Charley Boorman filmed three docuseries in which they rode their motorcycles around the world: Long Way Round (2004–10), Long Way Down (2007), and Long Way Up (2020). McGregor also narrated the documentary Speed Is Expensive: Philip Vincent and the Million Dollar Motorcycle (2023).

Personal life

In 1995 McGregor married production designer Eve Mavrakis, and they had four daughters. The couple separated in 2017 and divorced three years later. While filming Fargo, he met actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and they married in 2022. The couple share a son.

Although McGregor left Scotland as a teen, he has remained proud of his roots. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2013 for his efforts on behalf of charity and the arts, and he wore a Scottish kilt for the ceremony. After the United Kingdom voted (2016) to leave the European Union, McGregor came out in support of Scottish independence.