Billy Bob Thornton
Highest Rated: 100% Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2004)
Lowest Rated: 0% London Fields (2018)
Birthday: Aug 4, 1955
Birthplace: Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA
One of Hollywood's few celebrators of the "Southern bad boy" image, country musician turned actor-screenwriter-director Billy Bob Thornton consistently engenders a reputation -- via chosen onscreen parts and fervent tabloid reports of his allegedly wild off-camera life -- as an iconoclastic American hellraiser with lightning in his veins. But appearances can deceive, for Thornton also reveals depth and complexity as one Hollywood's most articulate interviewees, graced with intelligent, sensitive observations, cultural allusions, and poignant reflections on his experiences as a thespian and film artist. Moreover, this acute insight evidences itself equally in Thornton's craftsmanship as a screenwriter and director. Though his behind-the-camera projects have become increasingly rare over time, his few directorial outings evince surprising control, refinement, insight, and taste. Born in Hot Springs, AR, on August 4, 1955, Thornton grew up dirt poor in the nearby backwoods community of Alpine. Despite his father's gainful employment as a history teacher, Thornton was forced to live with his parents and grandparents in a house without electricity or indoor plumbing. After high-school graduation, Thornton landed a steady job and got married; neither the job nor the marriage lasted, as Thornton divorced two years later and returned to college to study psychology; however, that didn't last, either -- he decided that his heart lay in rock & roll, and tried and failed to make it in New York. So Thornton returned to his job for awhile until he and Epperson renewed their dedication to a music career. Eventually, he would travel to California to write screenplays. It was a difficult time for Thornton who, in addition to living in poverty, also suffered a near-fatal heart attack. Thornton eventually turned to acting, making his screen debut in the straight-to-video Hunter's Blood in 1987. Subsequent roles in many forgettable movies followed (including Troma's Chopper Chicks in Zombietown), as did an appearance on the Burt Reynolds sitcom Evening Shade; the actor simultaneously weathered several marriages through the '80s and '90s, to Toni Lawrence, Cynda Williams, and Pietra Dawn Cherniak. Then, in 1990, Thornton caught the attention of critics when he wrote and appeared in Carl Franklin's critically acclaimed directorial debut, One False Move (1991). A dark crime drama set in a small Arkansas town, the film provided a suitable antecedent to Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade, a 1993 short that Thornton scripted. The George Hickenlooper-directed piece stars Thornton as Karl Childers, a mentally retarded, soft-spoken man, institutionalized for murder, who delivers a reflective monologue to a reporter (Molly Ringwald) just prior to his release from the psychiatric institution where he resides. (Thornton allegedly invented the Childers character years prior, while shaving and talking to himself in the mirror.) The effort won a number of positive notices and Thornton subsequently appeared in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man in 1995 and (with Epperson), co-authored the screenplay for A Family Thing (1996), a gentle Southern drama starring Robert Duvall as a Caucasian man who discovers that he is half black.After years of relative obscurity as an actor and screenwriter, Thornton made a great cultural impact with the low-budget, independent drama Sling Blade. A feature-length expansion of the Hickenlooper short, and a sequel of sorts to that work, the picture finds Karl Childers returning to the outside world for the first occasion in decades, and attempting to begin a new, quiet life in a small Southern town. In the story, Karl befriends a local woman, her little boy, and a gay storekeeper (John Ritter), and finds lodging and steady income, but runs headfirst into Doyle Hargraves (Dwight Yoakam), a psychotically abusive lout who turns life for the mother and son into a waking nightmare. Bit by bit, Karl's old demons awaken and he feels himself being drawn

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Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

MOVIES

CREDIT
0% London Fields Samson Young 2018
No Score Yet London Fields, The Director's Cut Samson Young 2018
33% A Million Little Pieces Leonard 2018
23% Bad Santa 2 Willie Soke 2016
66% Whiskey Tango Foxtrot General Hollanek 2016
35% Our Brand is Crisis Pat Candy 2015
36% Into The Grizzly Maze Douglas 2015
33% Entourage Larsen McCredle 2015
35% Cut Bank Big Stan Steeley 2015
No Score Yet Actor 2015
40% 21 Years: Richard Linklater Actor 2014
49% The Judge Dwight Dickham 2014
50% Parkland Forrest Sorrels 2013
83% Dislecksia: The Movie Actor 2013
36% Jayne Mansfield's Car Director Screenwriter Skip Caldwell 2013
87% Ain't In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm Actor 2013
22% The Baytown Outlaws Carlos 2013
85% Puss in Boots Jack 2011
No Score Yet The Smell of Success Patrick Fitzpatrick 2011
No Score Yet My Run Narrator 2011
82% Lemmy Actor 2011
No Score Yet Nashville Rises Actor 2011
41% Faster Cop 2010
12% The Informers William Sloan 2009
27% Eagle Eye Morgan 2008
13% Mr. Woodcock Mr. Woodcock 2007
58% The Astronaut Farmer Charles Farmer Producer 2006
25% School for Scoundrels Dr. P 2006
No Score Yet NFL Brett Favre Forever Actor 2006
46% The Ice Harvest Vic Cavanaugh 2005
48% Bad News Bears Morris Buttermaker 2005
No Score Yet Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson Actor 2005
81% Friday Night Lights Coach Gaines 2004
29% The Alamo Davy Crockett 2004
80% Chrystal Joe 2004
100% Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson Actor 2004
78% Bad Santa Willie T. Stokes 2003
63% Love Actually President of the United States of America 2003
75% Intolerable Cruelty Howard D. Doyle 2003
34% Levity Manual Jordan 2003
13% Waking Up in Reno Lonnie Earl Dodd 2002
33% The Badge Sheriff Darl Hardwick 2002
85% Monster's Ball Hank 2002
81% The Man Who Wasn't There Ed 2001
64% Bandits Terry Collins 2001
97% Down from the Mountain Actor 2001
86% Daddy and Them Director Claude Montgomery Screenwriter 2001
No Score Yet CatDog: The Great Parent Mystery Actor 2001
32% All the Pretty Horses Director Producer 2000
57% The Gift Screenwriter 2000
14% South of Heaven, West of Hell Brigadier Smalls 2000
No Score Yet Camouflage Screenwriter 2000
92% Princess Mononoke (Mononoke-hime) Jiko [English Version] 1999
48% Pushing Tin Russell Bell 1999
90% A Simple Plan Jacob Mitchell 1998
38% Armageddon Dan Truman 1998
80% Primary Colors Richard Jemmons 1998
8% An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn Himself 1998
90% The Apostle Troublemaker 1998
44% Homegrown Jack 1998
85% Wag the Dog Actor 1997
60% U-Turn Darrell 1997
17% The Winner Jack 1997
No Score Yet A Gun, a Car, a Blonde Syd/Monk 1997
96% Sling Blade Director Screenwriter 1996
No Score Yet Don't Look Back Screenwriter Marshall 1996
73% A Family Thing Screenwriter 1996
70% Dead Man Big George 1995
No Score Yet Out There Biker 1995
10% On Deadly Ground Homer Carlton 1994
No Score Yet Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade Screenwriter Karl Childers 1994
67% Floundering Gun Clerk 1994
73% Tombstone Johnny Tyler 1993
55% Blood In, Blood Out (Bound by Honor) Lighting 1993
35% Indecent Proposal Day Tripper 1993
No Score Yet The Lost Brigade Actor 1993
No Score Yet The Killing Box Langston 1993
96% One False Move Ray Screenwriter 1992
No Score Yet Trouble Bound Coldface 1992
43% For the Boys Marine Sergeant 1991
No Score Yet Chopper Chicks in Zombietown Bobby 1989
No Score Yet Going Overboard Actor 1989
No Score Yet South of Reno Counterman 1988
No Score Yet Hunter's Blood Billy Bob 1987

TV

CREDIT
82% Goliath
2016-2018
Billy McBride
  • 2018
  • 2016
No Score Yet Jimmy Kimmel Live
2003
Guest
  • 2018
  • 2016
  • 2014
No Score Yet Late Night With Seth Meyers
2014
Guest
  • 2016
No Score Yet Sunday Morning
2011-2018
Appearing
  • 2016
No Score Yet The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014
Guest
  • 2016
No Score Yet The View
1997
Guest
  • 2016
No Score Yet The Ellen DeGeneres Show
2003
Guest
  • 2015
No Score Yet The Late Late Show With James Corden
2015-2018
Guest
  • 2015
No Score Yet The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson
2005-2014
Guest
  • 2015
  • 2014
97% Fargo
2014-2017
Lorne Malvo
  • 2014
81% The Big Bang Theory
2007
Dr. Oliver Lorvis
  • 2014
100% The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
2014
Voice
  • 2014
No Score Yet Real Time With Bill Maher
2003
Guest
  • 2009
No Score Yet The Henry Rollins Show
2006-2007
Guest
  • 2006
No Score Yet The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
1999-2015
Guest
  • 2005
  • 2004
  • 2003
No Score Yet The Tonight Show With Jay Leno
1992-2014
Guest Performer
  • 2004
  • 2002
  • 2001
No Score Yet Saturday Night Live
1975
Host Guest
  • 2001
No Score Yet CatDog
1998-2005
Voice
  • 2000
No Score Yet King of the Hill
1997-2010
Voice
  • 1998
No Score Yet The Outsiders
1990
Buck Merrill
  • 1990

QUOTES FROM Billy Bob Thornton CHARACTERS