Ewan MacGregor

• Genre: Film Soundtracks

About

This multi-talented Scotsman is best known as a dashing film star who first came to the public's attention as a heroin addict with his head in the toilet in Irvine Welsh's gritty urban drama Trainspotting. Establishing himself as the best-known Scottish actor since Sean Connery, MacGregor surprised everyone by taking a turn as a song and dance man in Moulin Rouge. His role as a young, star-crossed lover racked up a Golden Globe award and confirmed that his vocal pipes and his dancing shoes were as splendid as his acting chops. Hitting those high notes in Moulin Rouge proved to be quite a change from Ewan's past musical screen performance in the 1998 glam rock film Velvet Goldmine. But his zigzagging musical range goes back to his childhood; he drummed in a local rock band as a teenager, but also studied the classical French horn. More recently, he taught himself how to play the banjo for his part in the war drama Black Hawk Down. After filming his role as the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel, MacGregor jumped on a motorcycle and rode 20,000 miles across the continent with his closest friend, filmmaker Charley Boorman. This 115-day bumpy trek through Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Alaska and New York was fully documented in wonderfully excruciating detail in the "Long Way Round," shown on the Bravo network, illustrating that there is nothing this Scottish rogue won't attempt.

- Michele K-Tel