Billy Bob Thornton

Highest Rated: 100% Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2005)

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
27%	A Million Little Pieces	Leonard	—	2019
0%	London Fields	Samson Young	—	2018
No Score Yet	London Fields, The Director's Cut	Samson Young	—	2018
23%	Bad Santa 2	Willie Soke	$17.7M	2016
68%	Whiskey Tango Foxtrot	General Hollanek	$18.4M	2016
36%	Our Brand is Crisis	Pat Candy	$4.9M	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
48%	The Judge	Dwight Dickham	$35.7M	2014
50%	Parkland	Forrest Sorrels	$0.7M	2013
83%	Dislecksia: The Movie	Actor	$2.7K	2013
35%	Jayne Mansfield's Car	Screenwriter Skip Caldwell Director	$14.8K	2013
87%	Ain't In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm	Actor	$99.6K	2013
22%	The Baytown Outlaws	Carlos	—	2013
86%	Puss in Boots	Jack	$149.3M	2011
No Score Yet	The Smell of Success	Patrick Fitzpatrick	—	2011
No Score Yet	My Run	Narrator	—	2011
83%	Lemmy	Actor	—	2011
No Score Yet	Nashville Rises	Actor	—	2011
42%	Faster	Cop	$23.3M	2010
12%	The Informers	William Sloan	—	2009
27%	Eagle Eye	Morgan Agent Thomas Morgan	$101.2M	2008
13%	Mr. Woodcock	Mr. Woodcock	$25.8M	2007
58%	The Astronaut Farmer	Charles Farmer Producer	$11M	2006
26%	School for Scoundrels	Dr. P	$17.8M	2006
No Score Yet	NFL Brett Favre Forever	Actor	—	2006
47%	The Ice Harvest	Vic Cavanaugh	$8.9M	2005
48%	Bad News Bears	Morris Buttermaker	$32.8M	2005
100%	Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson	Actor	—	2005
81%	Friday Night Lights	Coach Gaines	$60.7M	2004
29%	The Alamo	Davy Crockett	$22.4M	2004
80%	Chrystal	Joe	—	2004
78%	Bad Santa	Willie T. Stokes	—	2003
64%	Love Actually	President of the United States of America	$59.4M	2003
75%	Intolerable Cruelty	Howard D. Doyle	$35.1M	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	$31.3M	2002
81%	The Man Who Wasn't There	Ed	$7.5M	2001
64%	Bandits	Terry Collins	$41.2M	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 Actor Producer	$14.8M	2000
57%	The Gift	Screenwriter	$11.2M	2000
14%	South of Heaven, West of Hell	Brigadier Smalls	—	2000
No Score Yet	Camouflage	Screenwriter	—	2000
93%	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
81%	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
71%	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
34%	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 2016-2019	Billy McBride	2019 2018 2016
No Score Yet	Late Night With Seth Meyers 2014	Guest	2019 2016
No Score Yet	Jimmy Kimmel Live 2003	Guest	2019 2018 2016 2014
No Score Yet	Close Up With the Hollywood Reporter 2015	Panelist	2017
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 2015-2019	Guest	2015
No Score Yet	The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson 2005-2014	Guest	2015 2014
96%	Fargo 2014-2017	Lorne Malvo	2014
81%	The Big Bang Theory 2007-2019	Dr. Oliver Lorvis	2014
100%	The Roosevelts: An Intimate History 2014	Voice	2014
No Score Yet	Lopez Tonight 2009-2011	Guest	2010
No Score Yet	Real Time with Bill Maher 2003	Guest	2009
No Score Yet	The Bonnie Hunt Show 2008-2010	Performer	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	Ellen 1994-1998	Grocer	1997
50%	Hearts Afire 1992-1995	Billy Bob Billy Bob Davis	1995 1994 1993 1992
20%	The Outsiders 1990	Buck Merrill	1990

QUOTES FROM Billy Bob Thornton CHARACTERS

Jiko [English Version] says: So you say you're under a curse? So what? So's the whole damn world.

Ed says: Life has dealt me some bum cards. Or maybe I just haven't played 'em right, I don't know.

Karl Childers says: "They say I'm well..."

A.J. Frost says: Uh, Harry wanted you to have this.

Dan Truman says: He did, huh.

A.J. Frost says: Uh, Harry wanted you to have this.

Dan Truman says: He did, huh ?

Dan Truman says: Welcome back, cowboy.

Terry Collins says: You know the hardest thing about being smart?

Joe Blake says: No.

Terry Collins says: I always pretty much know what's gonna happen next. There's no suspense.

Willie T. Stokes says: (to a kid) What do you want?

Willie T. Stokes says: What do you want?

Pokemon Child says: Pokemon!

Willie T. Stokes says: Done.

Homer Carlton says: You better watch it, sweetheart. Talk like that'll get you killed.

Homer Carlton says: You better watch it, sweetheart. Talking like that'll get you killed.

Karl Childers says: French fried pataters

Karl Childers says: French fried pataters.

Bobby Cooper says: Listen to me you stupid fuck...

Darrell says: No! You listen to me goddamnit! Ya sorry son of a bitch! You owe me money! And this car aint goin' no place 'till I get it!

Darrell says: You think bad, and bad's what you'll get.

Bobby Cooper says: That's an interesting philosophy there, Darrell.

Darrell says: Yeah. And no charge.

Bobby Cooper says: I'm here to get my car back.

Darrell says: You got the money?

Darrell says: Two hundred dollars in hundred dollar bills, this morning you was flat out broke.

Bobby Cooper says: That's none of your fucking business.

Darrell says: I don't want no dirty money. I run a clean business!

Willie T. Stokes says: "I beat the shit out of some kids today. But it was for a purpose. It made me feel good about myself. It was like I did something constructive with my life or something. I don't know. Like I accomplished something."

Willie T. Stokes says: I beat the shit out of some kids today. But it was for a purpose. It made me feel good about myself. It was like I did something constructive with my life or something. I don't know. Like I accomplished something.

Marcus says: "You need many years of therapy. Many, many, many, fuckin' years of therapy."

Marcus says: You need many years of therapy. Many, many, many, fuckin' years of therapy.

Willie T. Stokes says: Is grandma spry?

Vic Cavanaugh says: Only morons are nice at christmas.

Will Beacon says: How do we know that you're not constructing a WMD?

Charles Farmer says: Well, because if I was building a weapon of mass destruction, you wouldn't be able to find it.

Mr. Woodcock says: I don't do sorry.

John Farley says: What?

Mr. Woodcock says: Sorry is for criminals and screw-ups and i'm neither one.

Mr. Woodcock says: Sorry is for criminals and screw-ups and I'm neither one.

Karl Childers says: I like gravy on my fries. ummm..mmmm

Karl Childers says: I like gravy on my fries.

Karl Childers says: I don't reckon I got any reason to kill anybody. Um..Hmm..

Brigadier Smalls says: Unlike you and I, she retains her sense of smell.

Hank Grotowski says: I quit!

Karl Childers says: Some folks call it a Sling Blade I call it a Kaiser Blade

Karl Childers says: Some folks call it a sling blade, I call it a Kaiser blade.

Karl Childers says: Coffee make me nervous when I drank it

Karl Childers says: Coffee makes me nervous when I drink it.

Cop says: i created my own hell.

Cop says: I created my own hell.

Driver says: and im the demon that crawled up out of it.

Driver says: And I am the demon who crawled up out of it.

Willie T. Stokes says: I'm not your fuckin' da da

Willie T. Stokes says: I'm not your fuckin' da da.

Karl says: Sir I'm a retired Navy, I know a lot about classified. but one more thing, the person who finds her gets to name her right?

Dan Truman says: Yes, that's right.

Karl says: I want to name her Dottie after my wife, she's a vicious life sucking bitch from which there is no escape.

Davy Crockett says: We're going to need more men.

Johnny Tyler says: You run your mouth awful reckless for a man that don't go heeled.

Wyatt Earp says: No need to go heeled to get the bulge on a tub like you.

Davy Crockett says: If it was just me, simple old David from Tennessee. I might drop over that wall some night and take my chances. But that Davy Crockett feller...they're all watching him.

Terry Collins says: Ducks and Beavers

Terry Collins says: Ducks and beavers.

Willie T. Stokes says: Boy did someone drop you on your head?

Thurman Merman says: Did someone drop me on my own head?

Willie T. Stokes says: No not on your own head .....BOY ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME!!!!!

Willie T. Stokes says: No not on your own head .....BOY ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME!

Hank Grotowski says: "I think we're going to be alright."

Hank Grotowski says: I think we're going to be alright.

Jack says: "I wanna a baby Jill."

Jack says: I wanna a baby Jill.

Jill says: "A baby what Jack?"

Jill says: A baby what Jack?

Jack says: "A baby us Jill."

Jack says: A baby us Jill.

President of the United States of America says: Iâ??ll give you anything you ask for, as long as itâ??s not something I donâ??t wanna give.

President of the United States of America says: I'll give you anything you ask for, as long as it's not something I don't wanna give.

Karl Childers says: Not funny ha-ha, funny queer. Mmm-hmm.

Vaughan Cunningham says: Well that's a very offensive way to put it. You shouldn't say that, Karl.

Dan Truman says: Nothing will survive, not even bacteria.

Lighting says: I don't want his porkchop...I want his life.

Lighting says: I don't want his pork chop, I want his life!

Montana says: I don't want his pork chop, I want his life!

Karl Childers says: Do you have any of them french fried potaters?

Karl Childers says: I like them French fried potaters.

Coach Gary Gaines says: Clear eyes, full hearts cant lose

Coach Gary Gaines says: Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can't lose.

Sonny Grotowski says: You hate me. Answer me! You hate me don't you?!

Hank Grotowski says: Yes, I hate you. I always did.

Sonny Grotowski says: Well I always loved you. [shoots himself]

Ed Crane says: Me, I don't talk much... I just cut the hair

Ed Crane says: Me, I don't talk much... I just cut the hair.

Dan Truman says: We have much better rockets than the coyote.

Dan Truman says: Well, actually, we have a lot better rockets than the coyote.

William Sloan says: Were a family again.

Agent Thomas Morgan says: If you're staring at me, it better be because I'm the suspect. If not, get back to work or I swear you're all demoted to something that involves touching shit with your hands!