Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Active - 1961 - 2023  |   Born - May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, United States  |   Genres - Music, Drama, Historical Film

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Biography by AllMovie

Singer/songwriter Bob Dylan fortunately does not have to rely on his movie career to uphold his reputation as the single most influential rock musician of the 1960s. His best-known movie appearances include the concert film The Last Waltz and documentaries like Don't Look Back; but Dylan also appeared in other films, making his dramatic debut as a cowpoke named Alias in Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), in which he sings "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." Dylan went back to singing and composing until 1977's Renaldo and Clara, a four-hour-long largely improvised -- and universally panned -- production which Dylan himself wrote, directed, and starred in. It would be ten years before Dylan would once more flex his acting muscles in the long-on-the-shelf Hearts of Fire (1987), playing the tailor-made role of a retired rock legend. And though his roles leading into the new millennium consisted mainly of appearances in which he was billed as "Himself," Dylan's song "Things Have Changed" for the film The Wonder Boys (2000) brought the popular singer/songwriter his first Oscar for Best Music (Song).

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Factsheet

  • Changed his name after dropping out of college, as he started his career as a working musician.
  • Released his first album, the self-titled Bob Dylan, in 1962.
  • Penned a book of poetry, Tarantula, released in 1971.
  • His 1974 album Planet Waves was his first to hit number 1.
  • Embarked on a world tour in 1988 that still continues (often referred to as the Never Ending Tour).
  • Recipient of a Lifetime Grammy Award at the 1991 ceremony and a Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
  • Won three Grammy Awards for his Time Out of Mind CD at the 1998 ceremony, while his son Jakob won a songwriting Grammy for the Wallflowers' hit "One Headlight."
  • In 2008, he received a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his impact on music, and culture in general.
  • Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
  • Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."
  • Has never had a single hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list.