Tim Blake Nelson
Highest Rated: 97% Down from the Mountain (2001)
Lowest Rated: 0% The Institute (2017)
Birthday: May 11, 1964
Birthplace: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
An accomplished playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor, former classics major Tim Blake Nelson is perhaps most familiar to the movie audience as the hilariously dim Delmar in Joel and Ethan Coen's goofy Oscar-nominated comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).Born in Oklahoma, Nelson attended college at Brown University where he became a Latinist in the classics department. Opting for the arts over academia, Nelson headed to New York after college, studying acting at Juilliard and embarking on an Obie Award-winning career as a stage writer. After making his film debut in Nora Ephron's freshman directorial effort This Is My Life (1992), Nelson occasionally appeared in films throughout the 1990s, playing small roles in Hal Hartley's Amateur (1994), the Al Pacino/Johnny Depp mob drama Donnie Brasco (1997), and Terrence Malick's radiant anti-war anti-epic The Thin Red Line (1998). Along with film acting, Nelson turned to filmmaking with the screen adaptation of his play Eye of God (1997), a somber rural drama about a woman's marriage to a pious ex-con with a violent past, which earned positive notice at the Sundance Film Festival. Because of his ability to handle difficult questions of violence and create an ominous mood out of the everyday, Nelson was asked to helm the modernized, teen version of Shakespeare's Othello, retitled O (2001). Shot in 1999, O languished on the shelf in the wake of a series of high school shootings, deemed an inappropriate release because of its violent denouement. In the meantime, Nelson's friend Joel Coen offered him one of the starring roles in O Brother, Where Art Thou?. As comfortable playing rural comedy as directing rural drama, Nelson shined as the dimmest of a trio of hare-brained fugitives in the Coen brothers' shaggy-dog 1930s Southern Odyssey. After his successful stint with the Coens' light-hearted movie, Nelson returned squarely to downbeat material, directing the screen adaptation of his play The Grey Zone (2001). A drama about the only armed revolt at Auschwitz, The Grey Zone was already hitting the film-festival circuit when Lionsgate removed O from its Miramax purgatory, releasing it in August 2001. Impressing some critics with its central performances and evocative Southern Gothic atmosphere (if not always with all aspects of the adaptation), O confirmed Nelson's ability to translate his concern with the complex motivations for (and fall out from) violence to the film medium. Back to being an actor for hire, Nelson scored a summer 2002 hat trick with roles in one glossy big studio blockbuster and two well-regarded independent releases. In Steven Spielberg's Minority Report (2002), Nelson stood out (albeit a bit too much for some critical tastes) as the oddball, organ-playing guardian of the imprisoned "pre"-killers captured by Precrime hotshot Tom Cruise. Refraining from such theatrical eccentricity, Nelson garnered more positive reviews for his turn as a shy technician charged with servicing house arrestee Robin Tunney's ankle bracelet in the singular indie romance Cherish (2002), and as John C. Reilly's doltish, stoner best friend and co-worker in Miguel Arteta's dark comedy The Good Girl (2002). Nelson's roles proliferated through the first years of the new millennium -- he averaged around six to eight A-list features per year, the number doubtless heightened by Nelson's status as a character actor and his resultant tendency to gravitate to bit parts in lieu of leading roles. For the first several years after The Good Girl, Nelson's roles included, among others: Dr. Jonathan Jacobo, the "pterodactyl ghost" in Raja Gosnell's Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004); Danny Dalton, a representative of the oil company Killen, in Stephen Gaghan's muckraking drama Syriana (2005); and Tom Loyless, the supervisor of a polio treatment center revitalized by F.D.R., in Joseph Sargent's superior telemovie Warm Springs (2005). Nelson then appeared as Curly Branitt, an entrepreneur determi
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
Movies
| Credit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 83% | Just Mercy | Ralph Myers | — | 2020 |
| 57% | All Rise | Leroy Sawicki | — | 2020 |
| No Score Yet | Sequestrada | Actor | — | 2019 |
| 81% | The Report | Actor | — | 2019 |
| 39% | Angel Has Fallen | Vice President Kirby | — | 2019 |
| No Score Yet | All Rise | Leroy Sawicki | — | 2019 |
| 91% | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs | Actor | — | 2018 |
| No Score Yet | The Torture Report | Actor | — | 2018 |
| 81% | Colossal | Actor | $3.1M | 2017 |
| 0% | The Institute | Dr. Lemelle | — | 2017 |
| 92% | Deidra & Laney Rob a Train | Truman | — | 2017 |
| 44% | Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk | Wayne | $1.8M | 2016 |
| 91% | The Confirmation | Vaughn | — | 2016 |
| 26% | Anesthesia | Director Adam Zarrow Producer Screenwriter | $22.9K | 2016 |
| 9% | Fantastic Four | Harvey Elder | $49.2M | 2015 |
| 81% | The Homesman | The Freighter | — | 2014 |
| 77% | Kill the Messenger | Alan Fenster | $2.5M | 2014 |
| 22% | The Sound And The Fury | Actor | — | 2014 |
| 42% | Child Of God | Sheriff Fate | — | 2014 |
| No Score Yet | Rickover: The Birth of Nuclear Power | Admiral Hyman G. Rickover | — | 2014 |
| No Score Yet | Adventures in the Sin Bin | Officer Totsch | — | 2013 |
| 38% | As I Lay Dying | Anse Bundren | $15.5K | 2013 |
| 83% | Blue Caprice | Ray | $91.6K | 2013 |
| 80% | Snake & Mongoo$e | Mike McAllister | — | 2013 |
| No Score Yet | Black Dog, Red Dog | Actor | — | 2013 |
| 36% | Yelling to the Sky | Coleman | — | 2012 |
| 89% | Lincoln | Richard Schell | $129.5M | 2012 |
| 57% | Detachment | Mr. Wiatt | $49.4K | 2012 |
| 75% | Big Miracle | Pat Lafayette | $20.2M | 2012 |
| 41% | The Big Year | Fuchs | $7.2M | 2011 |
| 17% | Flypaper | Peanut Butter | $1.6K | 2011 |
| 61% | Leaves of Grass | Director Producer Bolger Screenwriter | $68.5K | 2010 |
| 23% | Saint John of Las Vegas | Militant Ned | $72.7K | 2010 |
| 75% | American Violet | David Cohen | $0.5M | 2009 |
| 67% | The Incredible Hulk | Samuel Sterns | $134.6M | 2008 |
| 50% | Bee Movie | Actor | $126.6M | 2007 |
| 73% | Fido | Mr. Theopolis | — | 2007 |
| 84% | Come Early Morning | Uncle Tim | $50.7K | 2006 |
| 58% | The Astronaut Farmer | Kevin Munchak | $11M | 2006 |
| 25% | The Darwin Awards | Perp | — | 2006 |
| 26% | Hoot | "Curly" Brannit | $8.1M | 2006 |
| No Score Yet | Elvis on Elvis | Director | — | 2006 |
| 30% | The Big White | Gary | — | 2005 |
| 73% | Syriana | Danny Dalton | $50.9M | 2005 |
| No Score Yet | Bereft | Denis | — | 2005 |
| No Score Yet | Warm Springs | Tom Loyless | — | 2005 |
| No Score Yet | My Suicidal Sweetheart (Crazy for Love) | Doctor | — | 2005 |
| 19% | The Amateurs (The Moguls) (Dirty Movie) | Barney Macklehatton | — | 2005 |
| 39% | Meet the Fockers | Officer Le Flore | $279.2M | 2004 |
| 62% | The Last Shot | Marshal Paris | $0.4M | 2004 |
| 22% | Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed | Jacobo | $84.1M | 2004 |
| No Score Yet | A Foreign Affair | Actor | — | 2004 |
| 34% | Wonderland | Bill Deverell | — | 2003 |
| 78% | Holes | Dr. Pendanski | $67.4M | 2003 |
| 46% | 2 Brothers & a Bride | Jake Adams Executive Producer | — | 2003 |
| 69% | The Grey Zone | Screenwriter Producer Director | — | 2002 |
| 82% | The Good Girl | Bubba | $13.8M | 2002 |
| 90% | Minority Report | Gideon | $132.1M | 2002 |
| 51% | Cherish | Daly | $0.2M | 2002 |
| 64% | O | Director | $15.6M | 2001 |
| 97% | Down from the Mountain | Actor | — | 2001 |
| 77% | O Brother, Where Art Thou? | Delmar O'Donnell | $45.2M | 2000 |
| 58% | Hamlet | Flight Captain | — | 2000 |
| 80% | The Thin Red Line | Pvt. Tills | — | 1998 |
| 75% | Eye of God | Screenwriter Director | — | 1997 |
| 88% | Donnie Brasco | FBI Technician | — | 1997 |
| 78% | Amateur | Young Detective | — | 1995 |
| 29% | Heavyweights | Camp Hope Salesman | — | 1995 |
| 38% | This Is My Life | Dennis | — | 1992 |
TV
| Credit | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 95% |
Watchmen 2019 |
Det. Looking Glass |
2019 |
| No Score Yet |
Dallas & Robo 2018 |
Voice |
2018 |
| 90% |
Wormwood 2017 |
Dr. Robert Lashbrook |
2017 |
| 69% |
Z: The Beginning of Everything 2015-2017 |
Director |
2017 2015 |
| 80% |
Klondike 2014 |
Meekor |
2014 |
| 47% |
CHAOS 2011 |
Casey Malick |
2011 |
| 86% |
Modern Family 2009 |
Hank |
2011 |
| No Score Yet |
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation 2000-2015 |
Paulie Krill |
2009 |
QUOTES FROM Tim Blake Nelson CHARACTERS
Delmar says: They... left... his... heart!
Delmar says: Gopher, Everett?
Marshal Paris says: You can't fool Hollywood. They can smell a fake a mile away.
Delmar says: Got a name, do you?
Delmar says: You work for the railroad, Grandpa?
Dr. Pendanski says: You wanna know why they call him Zero? Because there's nothin' inside his stupid little head!
Zero says: I like digging holes.
Dr. Pendanski says: Then you're in the right place.
Jelly says: I swear if you are a woman I'll marry you
Jelly says: I swear if you are a woman I'll marry you.
Peanut Butter says: Well, I ain't
Peanut Butter says: Well, I ain't.
The Doctor/The Minister/Indian Medicine Man/Roger Bob says: Happiness is actually just a matter of looking at life a little differently.
Gideon says: Careful, Chief. Dig up the past, all you get is dirty.
Ned says: You were a dude this whole time?
Dr. Jonathan Jacobo says: Of course, Dumbkoff!
Ned says: (Disgusted) But we cuddled!
Ned says: [disgusted] But we cuddled!
Fuchs says: I think I broke my arm
Fuchs says: I think I broke my arm.
Kenny Bostick says: Shhhhh... Shut up
Kenny Bostick says: Shhhhh... Shut up.
Delmar says: I'm with you fellas
Delmar says: I'm with you fellas.
Delmar says: (At Pete) We thought you were a toad!
Delmar says: [at Pete] We thought you were a toad!
Gideon says: In the outside they look peaceful, but in the outside, busy, busy, busy.
Gideon says: On the outside they look peaceful, but in the inside... Busy, busy, busy.
Pete says: ...eighty-four years old.
Pete says: Eighty-four years old.
Delmar says: I'll only be eighty-two!
Peanut Butter says: It's like extra sad when a hot chick dies.
Peanut Butter says: When an ugly chick dies, they like, probably sucked anyways. So it's no big deal.
Tripp says: Oh my god you like me.
Kaitlin says: I do not like you. Oh my god I do not like you.
Peanut Butter says: I really didn't think I had a shot.
Gideon says: In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.