He is one of the most popular actors in Hollywood with a long list of comedic and dramatic roles. Was Owen Wilson also in the military?
Owen Wilson did not serve in the military. He did attend military school, specifically the New Mexico Military Insitute in Roswell, after being expelled from St. Mark’s preparatory school in Dallas. He then attended the University of Texas, where he met director Wes Anderson.
For more on Owen Wilson’s early life and his time in military school, read on.
Growing Up
Owen Cunningham Wilson was born in Dallas, Texas on November 18, 1968. His parents were Robert Andrew Wilson, an advertising executive who also operated a public TV station, and Laura Cunningham, a photographer.
Both of Wilson’s parents are of Irish descent and originated from Massachusetts. Owen was one of three sons; his older brother, Andrew, and younger brother, Luke, are also actors.
Despite Robert managing a Dallas PBS affiliate, in 1969 he and his wife decided that their household would be television-free. Owen loved TV but was forced to visit a friend’s house to watch it, usually catching the afternoon movie before heading home.
Owen, Andrew, and Luke were very active youths, playing sport together and creating their own entertainment due to their lack of TV. They created some short plays together, using the name the Farquhar Players, named after the Dallas street where they lived.
Military School
Despite the positives of his home life, Wilson did get into trouble as a teenager. He attended St. Mark’s, an exclusive preparatory school in Dallas.
He and some friends were able to discover the answers to a geometry exam in his sophomore year. Wilson was generally a C or D grade student and feels he would have gotten away with his cheating if he hadn’t correctly answered numerous extra-credit questions.
Wilson also believes that it was not the cheating that saw him expelled, but his refusal to name one of his accomplices. He spoke to his father and both agreed that it was unfair to ask a teenager to snitch on his friends, with Owen deferring to what he calls “a kind of shabby nobility“.
He was kicked out of St. Mark’s and transferred to the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. It’s easy to assume that being sent to military school was a punishment for Wilson but in reality, it was his decision to attend NMMI.
Wilson used the opportunity to focus on writing and became the editor of the school’s magazine. He also met a friend who would later introduce him to Wes Anderson.
College
After graduating from NMMI, Wilson enrolled at the University of Texas, with the intention of earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. In a 1990 playwriting class, Wilson first encountered future film director Wes Anderson; his first impression was that Anderson’s fashion sense was “kind of obnoxious“.
The following summer, Wilson’s friend from NMMI properly introduced him and Anderson. They bonded over their mutual love of movies and became good friends, with the pair moving into a house just outside campus.
UT regularly screened movies and Wilson and Anderson were often the only people in attendance, with Anderson working as the projectionist for a period. They began making short films together and aired them on the public access channel in Austin.
Wilson left the college in 1991, just a few classes short of earning his degree. He moved into an apartment in Dallas with his brothers and Anderson soon joined them.
While living in the apartment, Wilson and Anderson wrote the script for “Bottle Rocket”. They showed a short demo of the film at the Sundance Film Festival in 1993 and earned a Sony Entertainment movie deal.
“Bottle Rocket” became Owen Wilson’s screen debut and Wes Anderson’s directorial debut. Had Wilson not attended NMMI, his film career might never have happened.
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