The Wilson Brothers: All About Owen, Luke and Andrew (2024)

A love of acting runs deep for the Wilson brothers.

Owen, Luke and Andrew Wilson are a trio of siblings from Dallas, Texas, who all began working as actors in the 1990s. The first role for all three brothers was in the 1996 film Bottle Rocket, which also served asWes Anderson's feature directorial debut. In the years that followed, they found individual fame from films including Charlie's Angels, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander and Legally Blonde.

They also collaborated on additional projects, including 2005's The Wendell Baker Story, which was written by Luke, co-directed by Luke and Andrew and starred Luke and Own.

In 2008, Luke talked about the experience of working with his siblings, telling PEOPLE that mixing business and family "can be good and bad." He also revealed how they settled their differences when they didn't see eye-to-eye.

"Owen basically said he was done with the scene, and we didn't feel like we'd gotten it," Luke explained at the time. "So Andrew is like, 'You're done? You're not going to do it again?' [He] looks at me and I'm like, 'I can't, you're bigger than he is, just kick his ass. Just kick his ass, man.' "

But despite their differences at times, there was something between them that "[made] things easier," Luke said. "[We] just have the same kind of sense of humor. It's great to be so close to people you're working with."

The brothers have mainly worked on their own projects since, with Owen starring in Disney's Haunted Mansion and season 2 of Loki, and Luke in Apple TV's Fingernails in 2023. Andrew has taken a break from acting since 2017.

From their personal lives to their careers, here's everything to know about the Wilson brothers.

Owen, Luke and Andrew were troublemakers when they were young

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Robert and Laura Wilson welcomed their first son, Andrew, on Aug. 22, 1964. Their second son, Owen, followed a few years later, arriving on Nov. 18, 1968, while the family was rounded out with their baby brother, Luke, on Sept. 21, 1971.

Owen, Luke and Andrew may now be successful actors with numerous accolades between them, but they weren't always so good when they were kids. In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Owen revealed that the brothers were all "challenges" for their parents, and not any one of them was specifically the "bad" one, as Jimmy suggested.

"You don't end up in military school because you're acing every test," Owen joked, referring to his own enrollment when he was a teenager. "One minute I'm in Dallas, the next minute I'm in New Mexico."

Owen added that their father did his best to deal with the situation with humor while he attempted to set the kids straight.

"The great thing about my parents, and my dad in particular, is that he kind of used humor to sort of deal with us and he had to, he had a lot to deal with, especially in the teenage years," the Loki actor said. "My dad said he was the charter member of the 3-7-9-0 club, which stood for three sons, seven high schools, nine colleges and zero degrees."

Owen has had a prolific career as an actor

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While attending the University of Texas at Austin, Owen met and was roommates with someone whom he would go on to collaborate with throughout his career, director Wes Anderson.

Owen made his feature film debut in 1996's Bottle Rocket (also Anderson's feature film directorial debut), which had originally been a short film made two years earlier. He went on to co-write Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums with the director. For The Royal Tenenbaums, the pair were nominated for best original screenplay at the 2001 Academy Awards.

Owen also frequently collaborates with Ben Stiller, which started in 1996 with The Cable Guy, directed by Stiller. They have since starred together in over ten films, including Zoolander, the Night at the Museum franchise and the Meet The Parents series.

In 2021, Owen joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Morbius in the Disney+ show Loki, the second season of which premiered in October 2023.

Luke has worked on films with major stars

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Like Owen, Luke's acting career began in 1996 with a leading role in Bottle Rocket.

In 1997 and 1998, he starred opposite Drew Barrymore in two romantic comedies, Best Men and Home Fries. During an episode of her daytime talk show, Barrymore reminisced with Kate Hudson, who previously dated Owen, about being in an "open relationship" with her former costar.

"I was dating him, but I think he was also dating other people," the host shared. "It was an open relationship; we were young."

He reunited with Barrymore while playing Cameron Diaz's love interest in 2000's Charlie Angels and 2003's Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Luke also played Reese Witherspoon's love interest in 2001's Legally Blonde and 2003's Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, among other roles.

Though his return for Legally Blonde 3 has not been confirmed, Luke made it clear he's interested in working with Witherspoon in the future.

"Yeah. I'm always up to work with Reese again," he told PEOPLE in June 2021. "We'll just have to see what happens."

Andrew got his first big break in the '90s

Andrew's first major role was in Bottle Rocket in 1996, along with both of his younger brothers.

He has had other supporting and minor roles in movies starring his siblings, including Charlie's Angels, Rushmore, Zoolander, How Do You Know and Hall Pass. Andrew collaborated with Luke and Owen in a larger way with The Wendell Baker Story, which he co-directed with the former.

However, Andrew seems to have stopped working in Hollywood after 2017.

Owen has said that the three brothers are very competitive

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During his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in November 2017, Owen shared that he hopes his own two sons aren't as competitive as he is with his brothers, or if they are, then in a better way.

"I hope that my boys are more competitive about useful things like getting good grades or who can be nicer to me but it's probably going to be more like me and my brothers who are still to this day super competitive," Owen said.

He added that over the summer, the Wilson brothers went go-karting and didn't even get competitive over the races, but just about the names of their vehicles.

"We needed to have names on the scoreboard...and I was caught off guard when they asked for a name and sometimes you come up with a racing name so I was like I guess Lightning McQueen," he said, referencing the name of his character in Cars.

He went on, "I thought that was pretty good until I saw the scoreboard and Luke's name was Smuggler and that was such a cool name that just instantly made me have that feeling as a kid where you want to change the rules of the game like 'Ok now we need to come up with new names.' "

Owen has lived with both Luke and Andrew at different points in his adult life

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Owen attempted suicide in August 2007 and sought treatment, subsequently withdrawing from his role in Tropic Thunder and being replaced by Matthew McConaughey. Fourteen years later, Owen opened up in a 2021 Esquire cover story about how Andrew temporarily moved in to assist with his recovery.

Owen shared that Andrew would wake up with him every morning and write him schedules for the day to help make his life more manageable and, eventually, good.

More recently, he also lived with Luke while they were both filming projects in Atlanta. "It was fun. It all comes rushing back to you, what you love about the guy and then what can also drive you crazy," Owen joked during a 2022 Today interview.

"It was nice that we were both there working on things and you have someone to go to dinner with and watch games with, and argue with. There was a lot of arguing," he added.

When asked who of the two was neater, he said, "I think it depends on who you ask and since you're asking me I'll say I'm the neat freak and Luke was the slob."

Andrew enjoyed working with his brothers on projects

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Before he stepped away from the limelight, Andrew reminisced on his experience shooting The Wendell Baker Story with Collider during promotion for the film in 2007. Of working with Luke and Owen, Andrew said, "I think we do have a similar sensibility. I think we think the same things are funny. I mean Owen, obviously is a really funny, funny guy and he has been since we were little."

He added that when they were young, his father would ask Owen if he thought he was the funniest person in the world, but in a negative way.

"And it turns out he may be one of the funniest people in the world," Andrew admitted. "But yeah, we think kind of the same things are funny and when Luke showed me the script I thought it was funny and really well written. So, we tend to read the same things and be drawn to the same kind of interests."

Owen and Andrew are both dads

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Owen is a father to three children. He welcomed his son, Robert Ford, on Jan. 14, 2011, with then-girlfriend Jade Duell. Three years later, on Jan. 30, 2014, he became a father to a second son, Finn, with Caroline Lindqvist. Varunie Vongsvirates gave birth to his daughter, Lyla Aranya, on Oct. 9, 2018.

His eldest son "seems like he might even be a little stunt man in training," Owen told Ellen DeGeneres during a 2017 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. In addition to expressing interest in acting, Ford also has a sense of humor that impresses his younger brother.

"Anything Ford says is just the funniest thing ever," Owen said of Finn's view of his big brother. "And I can make a joke and it's, like, crickets. It's like nothing from those guys."

Luke, on the other hand, doesn't have children of his own. The Blonde Ambition star, who previously told PEOPLE in 2007 that he wanted kids, shared in 2021 that he was feeling a bit "panicky" about approaching his 50th birthday.

"Thirty didn't matter to me. Forty didn't matter to me," he told PEOPLE. "I just steamrolled right through it, but 50. I don't know if it's getting to me because I am sore when I wake up in the middle of the night, and I am forgetting the names of people I know."

"So I don't know. It's definitely one of those things has had me thinking, 'Oh, okay. So this is where the phrase midlife crisis comes from.' I'm definitely starting to feel panicky about some stuff," Luke added.

Andrew, meanwhile, does not share much about his personal life but is known to have at least one child, a son named Joey.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.

The Wilson Brothers: All About Owen, Luke and Andrew (2024)
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