| Activity | Mark Modine [father] was the manager of the Lyric Theater in downtown Salt Lake City. It was here that Matthew had his first brush with fame. He met Robert Redford when he visited the Lyric Theater doing publicity for the film Barefoot in the Park. When Matthew was ten years old, he saw a documentary about the making of the film Oliver!. Inspired by the young actors and their performances, Modine decided to become an actor.
His first film role was in John Sayles' Baby It's You. His performance caught the eye of director Harold Becker, who cast him in Vision Quest (Crazy for You) based on the novel by Terry Davis. The director Robert Altman propelled Modine to international stardom with his film adaptation of David Rabe's play Streamers. Modine and his fellow castmates won an unprecedented Best Actor prize from the Venice Film Festival for this tragic story of young American soldiers about to be shipped to Vietnam. Modine played Mel Gibson's brother in Mrs. Soffel and starred with Nicolas Cage in Alan Parker's Birdy. The film was awarded a prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Modine might be best known for his role as "Private Joker," the main character of Stanley Kubrick's 1987 war movie Full Metal Jacket. Afterwards, he played the dangerous young criminal, Treat, in Alan Pakula's film version of the hugely successful play Orphans by writer Lyle Kessler; and the goofy, earnest FBI agent Mike Downey in Jonathan Demme's screwball comedy Married to the Mob opposite Michelle Pfeiffer. Modine was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performances in And the Band Played On and What the Deaf Man Heard.
In 1995, he worked opposite Geena Davis in Cutthroat Island. He made his feature directorial debut with If... Dog... Rabbit. This came after the success of three short films that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival: When I was a Boy (co-directed with Todd Field) Smoking written by David Sedaris, and Ecce Pirate.
His most recent films include The Go Go Tales, Have Dreams, Will Travel, Transporter 2, Opa!, and Mary, which won a prize at the Venice Film Festival.
In 2003, he guest starred on in the episode The Long Goodbye (The West Wing) as a foil to C.J. Cregg. He portrays the character Marco, who went to high school with Cregg, and who helps her start to deal with her father's steady decline into Alzheimers.
He also guest starred in Law and Order:SVU. Acting as a enemy of Elliot Stabler from a previous episode.
Modine plays the Majestic City developer throughout Season 3 on Weeds (television) named Sullivan Groff, who besides being incredibly crooked and creepy, has affairs with Nancy Botwin played by Mary-Louise Parker and Celia Hodes played by Elizabeth Perkins.
His theater roles include parts in Arthur Miller's Finishing the Picture in Chicago, Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues in London, and an upcoming run as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird in Hartford, Connecticut.
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