Woody Harrelson grew up in a Presbyterian household in Midland, Texas with his parents and two brothers, one of whom became an actor just like him.
Sounds like the kind of idyllic situation that most of us dream of, an intact family unit, not separated or broken by divorce.
That’s just shallow living. When you do a little more searching, with a PI detector, you won’t find gold, what you’ll find is a dark family secret.
In 1979, Woody’s father Charles was given a life sentence for the killing of a federal judge — John H Wood. Charles was a for-hire hitman.
This was the first killing of a federal judge in the 20th Century.
It’s really astounding to think that the former Natural Born Killa could play a serial killer when, in his earliest days, he played a lovable bartender. The juxtaposition of the two roles just shows you the teriffic range the man has as an actor.
And then, when you add in the fact that his dad was an actual killer, then you start to think to yourself that the Mickey Knox character was inspired from a raw and real place.
Woody visited his dad regularly in prison before Charles passed away in 2009 at age 67.