Matt Dillon has always had more than a bit of the devil in him-even when he's playing an angel. The 27-year-old actor began his career portraying aimless punks. Then he shifted to more sympathetic roles, playing angst-ridden teens with problems. In his new movie, A Kiss Before Dying, he's back in the bad-guy mold, as a slick psycho killer. Here's a look at the actor's two sides in eight of his best-known roles.
The Bad Guy
Over the Edge (1979)
In this powerful feature-film debut,
Dillon plays Richie, the leader of a pack of restless kids who use
violence to turn their sterile suburban neighborhood into a teenage
wasteland. A
My Bodyguard (1980)
As Moody, the high school bully, Dillon
meets his match when the class nerd hires an even tougher kid to
protect him. B
Little Darlings (1980)
Summer campers Kristy McNichol and Tatum
O'Neal make a bet: Who will lose her virginity first? Enter Dillon as
Randy, the insensitive adolescent from a nearby camp who is the
target of McNichol's affections. C
The Good Guy
Tex (1982)
Dillon plays an Oklahoma teen struggling to make
good without the help of his parents in the first of his three films
based on S.E. Hinton novels (The Outsiders and Rumble Fish are the
others). B+
The Flamingo Kid (1984)
Dillon essays the role of Jeffrey
Willis, a wide- eyed 18-year-old from Brooklyn who — against his
working-class father's wishes — takes a job as a cabana boy at a swanky
swim club. B
Target (1985)
In Arthur Penn's thriller, he's Chris Lloyd, the
son of a former spy (Gene Hackman) who joins his father in a search
for his kidnapped mother. C+
The Big Town (1987)
As small-town dice-thrower J.C. Cullen,
Dillon tangles with criminals when he tries his luck in Chicago. B-
Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
In the film that marked his entry into
adult roles, Dillon is the resourceful, charismatic, drug-addicted
head of a band of pharmacy-robbing junkies in the Pacific Northwest.
A
