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<\/p>\nOn June 26, 1970, Chris O\u2019Donnell was born in Winnetka, Illinois, roughly 30 kilometers of Chicago. He grew up in a large, Catholic family, the youngest of seven siblings.<\/p>\n
Having a large family has helped O\u2019Donnell a lot, according to the man himself. He certainly learned his \u201caltar-boy\u201d values, and his religious upbringing seems to have helped him later in life.<\/p>\n
At 13, Chis surprised his family when he told them about his plans. He wanted to become a model, since he figured it was easy money.<\/p>\n
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JB Lacroix\/WireImage<\/p>\n
\u201cSo one day, I literally took the Yellow Pages and started calling talent agencies,\u201d he told Rolling Stone.<\/p>\n
Now, the calls didn\u2019t work, but when O\u2019Donnell\u2019s sister met an agent at a wedding, he got a shot. O\u2019Donnell went into the agent\u2019s office in downtown Chicago \u2013 and she loved him!<\/p>\n
Not long after, Chris was working as a model, wearing pajamas for Sears and Montgomery Ward\u2019s. Before long, he moved on to commercials. In 1987, he starred in a McDonald\u2019s ad as a cashier who waits on the one and only Michael Jordan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in the McDonald\u2019s polyester outfit and served him his breakfast,\u201d Chris O\u2019Donnell recalled in an interview with NBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a crazy day because it rained 10 inches that day, so Jordan was six hours late for the shoot. So I was waiting around for six hours in a McDonald\u2019s for Jordan to arrive, and then he came, and it was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even then it was apparent that Chris could act; he served Michael Jordan\u2019s burgers with such enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
Before he went to Hollywood to try his luck, O\u2019Donnell went to school. He graduated from the Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois, in 1988, and later majored in marketing at Boston College.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell was a traditionalist, largely sticking to his studying plan. By that time, he had already gotten his first gigs before college. When he finished at Boston College, he realized that acting was what he wanted to do.<\/p>\n
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Shutterstock\/Jaguar PS<\/p>\n
He starred in his first feature films in the early 1990s, including Men Don\u2019t Leave and Fried Green Tomatoes. It was clear to see that he was a raw talent.<\/p>\n
When he studied in Boston, no one knew that O\u2019Donnell was a star in the making. That\u2019s not so strange when it\u2019s considered he didn\u2019t study drama, but marketing.<\/p>\n
However, his roommate others in his circle soon understood just how big of a talent he was.<\/p>\n
In 1991, O\u2019Donnell was set to appear in the film Prince of Tides, as the son of Barbara Streisand. In the end, she decided not to give him the role \u2013 he learned only after she left a message with his roommate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was sophomore year, and I was living with some random people I didn\u2019t know very well, and I hadn\u2019t told anyone I had been making films because I wanted to know everybody without being the guy who made the films,\u201d O\u2019Donnell recalled on Watch What Happens Live.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019m at the library, and I come home, and my roommate goes, \u2018Oh hey, D, uh, Barbra Streisand called you,’\u201d O\u2019Donnell added. \u201cI go, \u2018Okay man, thanks.\u2019 He goes, \u2018What\u2019s up with that?\u2019 And I go, \u2018What\u2019d they say?\u2019 \u2018She\u2019s calling back tomorrow at 1 o\u2019clock.\u2019 And so the entire hall was waiting to answer the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Barbara never called him back. At the time, Chris might have seen this as a huge setback.<\/p>\n
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Shutterstock<\/p>\n
In 1992, however he starred alongside Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman, which became his huge breakthrough. O\u2019Donnell went on to win a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. Pacino, meanwhile, won an Oscar.<\/p>\n
Not only was it a great pleasure for him to work with the great Al Pacino, but O\u2019Donnell also learned plenty of things about acting. According to himself, the experience made him a better actor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t get much better than Al. He\u2019s one of the greats of his generation, maybe of all time. To have spent five or six months one on one for the majority of those scenes was incredible,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I would, I would just listen. He\u2019s just a creative genius. He could do 15 takes of one scene. Every take was completely different. And at the end of those 15 takes, he knew which ones he liked, specifically.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On June 26, 1970, Chris O\u2019Donnell was born in Winnetka, Illinois, roughly 30 kilometers of Chicago. He grew up in a large, Catholic family, the youngest of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n