Billy Bob Thornton has always blended his career with film and television roles. His most recent starring role was on the Amazon legal drama “Goliath,” for which he Thornton won the Golden Globe as Best TV Drama Actor.
Although Thornton’s television work has been limited, he is no stranger to TV awards, having won another Golden Globe for his work in FX’s limited series “Fargo,” as well as an Emmy nom and a nomination from the Screen Actors Guild.
Still, his great fame has been his work in films, having won an Academy Award for his screenplay for 1996’s “Sling Blade,” as well as Oscar nominations for his performances in both “Sling Blade” and 1998’s “A Simple Plan.” In addition to his two Golden Globes for television, he has been nominated for four additional Golden Globes, as well as four Screen Actors Guild Awards, including his win for “Fargo.”
Take a tour of his 12 greatest performances in the movies, including the films above plus “Friday Night Lights,” “Monster’s Ball” and “Bad Santa.”
-
12. THE ALAMO (2004)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: John Lee Hancock. Writers: John Lee Hancock, Leslie Bohem, Stephen Gaghan. Starring Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton, Patrick Wilson, Jason Patric, Emilio Echevarría.
John Lee Hancock’s “The Alamo” was an attempt to tell the story of the famous battle from both the Mexican and American sides. Mexican General Santa Anna (Emilio Echevarría) also plays a much larger part in Hancock’s version than in the 1960 John Wayne epic. While the 2004 film received mixed reviews, Thornton’s performance as Davy Crockett received the lion’s share of the notices, as he portrayed Crockett as a bit of a scamp, a far cry from the earnest portrayal by Fess Parker in the Disney series.
-
11. BAD NEWS BEARS (2005)
Image Credit: Deana Newcomb/Paramount/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Richard Linklater. Writers: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa. Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Greg Kinnear, Marcia Gay Harden.
In Richard Linklater’s reboot of the 1976 original, Thornton plays Morris Buttermaker, an over-the-hill drunk who was thrown out of the major leagues for attacking an umpire. He finds himself reduced to coaching a children’s baseball team that has zero skills. However, when a couple of troublemakers join the team, which all of a sudden begins winning games, Buttermaker decides that life is worth living after all.
-
10. BANDITS (2001)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Barry Levinson. Writer: Harley Peyton. Starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett.
Thornton and Bruce Willis play escaped convicts in Barry Levinson’s film who begin a series of bank robberies together. Their success at robbing banks soon lands them on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, and they achieve a kind of folklore notoriety. However, Kate (Cate Blanchett), a housewife who stumbles into their plans, threatens to tear the team apart. “Bandits” is strictly a genre film, but Willis and Thornton have a nice chemistry together, and Blanchett, as always, classes up the joint. For his performance, Thornton was nominated for his third Golden Globe Award.
-
9. PRIMARY COLORS (1998)
Image Credit: Universal/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Mike Nichols. Writer: Elaine May, based on the book by Joe Klein.
Starring John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Adrian Lester. Based on Joe Klein’s barely-disguised novel about the 1992 Bill Clinton campaign, Mike Nichols’ film provide an A-list cast of actors some extremely plummy roles. Here the Bill figure is southern governor Jack Stanton (John Travolta), who is running hard for President alongside his wife Susan (Emma Thompson) and his political strategist Richard Jemmons (Thornton, channeling his best James Carville). The bimbo eruptions come fast and furious, but all told, “Primary Colors” captures a much simpler time, politically speaking.
-
8. LOVE ACTUALLY (2003)
Image Credit: Universal/Dna/Working Title/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Writer/Director: Richard Curtis. Starring Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, Billy Bob Thornton.
Love it or hate it (personally speaking, I’m in the love camp), Richard Curtis’ all-star Christmas romance echoes the multi-story films of Robert Altman, as the film sets up a roundelay of romantic subplots. Thornton is not involved in the romance stuff but plays instead the President of the United States who must deal with Hugh Grant’s UK Prime Minister. Watch Thornton’s face at a press conference at which Grant’s PM stands up for the UK. Great stuff.
-
7. THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE (2001)
Image Credit: Working Title/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Joel Cohen. Writers: Joel Cohen, Ethan Cohen. Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, James Gandolfini, Jon Polito.
In one of the Coen Brothers’ lesser-known films (although Joel Coen shared the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival), Thornton stars as Ed Crane, a barber in Santa Rosa, CA in 1949. When given the chance to invest in a new process called dry cleaning, Ed tries to raise the buy-in fee by blackmailing the boss (James Gandolfini) of his wife (Frances McDormand) with whom he is having an affair. For his performance as Ed, Thornton was nominated for his second Golden Globe Award.
-
6. BAD SANTA (2003)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Terry Zwigoff. Writers: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa. Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Bernie Mac, Lauren Graham.
One of the great anti-Christmas Christmas movies, “Bad Santa” provided Thornton with a great platform for his take on a larcenous alcoholic Santa Claus. Along with this dwarf partner Marcus (Tony Cox), Thornton’s Willie T. Soke is a thief who masquerades as Santa every year (with Marcus as his elf) to rob shopping malls at night. Things don’t go as planned. For his performance as Willie, Thornton was nominated for his fourth Golden Globe Award.
-
5. A SIMPLE PLAN (1998)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Sam Raimi. Writer: Scott B. Smith, based on his novel. Starring Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda.
Thornton portrayed the socially challenged Jacob Mitchell, who joins with his brother Hank (Bill Paxton) in discovering a crashed airplane that contains $4.4 million in cash. For his performance as Jacob, Thornton was nominated for his third Academy Award, his third Screen Actors Guild Award and his first Golden Globe Award.
-
4. ONE FALSE MOVE (1992)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Carl Franklin. Writers: Billy Bob Thornton, Carl Epperson. Starring Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Cynda Williams, Michael Beach.
This was the one that made Thornton a star, as Carl Franklin’s indie crime thriller about a killing-gone-wrong was intended to go straight-to-video. Given great word-of-mouth and critical raves, it got a wider audience and introduced audiences to Thornton’s unique take of Southern-fried charm. And the fact that he co-wrote this career-making script is yet another feather in his cap.
-
3. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (2004)
Image Credit: Ralph Nelson/Universal/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Peter Berg. Writers: David Aaron Cohen, Peter Berg. Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke, Garrett Hedlund, Lucas Black, Tim McGraw.
Peter Berg’s acclaimed 2004 sports drama gave Thornton a juicy role as Gary Gaines, the real-life coach of an Odessa, TX high school football team, the Permian High School Panthers. The drama of Coach Gaines’ personal life (thanks to Thornton’s perceptive performance), plus the struggles of his team, made for a gripping drama (based on the book by H.G. Bissinger) that was turned into an Emmy-winning NBC TV series.
-
2. MONSTER’S BALL (2001)
Image Credit: Jeanne Louise Bulliard/Lions Gate/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Marc Forster. Writers: Milo Addica, Will Rokos. Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Heath Ledger, Peter Boyle.
Because of the history-making nature of co-star Halle Berry’s Oscar-winning performance, many people forget just how good that Thornton was in Marc Forster’s movie as Hank, a widowed corrections officer, who has to deal with his ailing father Buck (Peter Boyle) and whom he calls his “weak” son, fellow corrections officer Sonny (Heath Ledger), who commits suicide after dealing with an especially barbaric execution. Tough stuff, extremely well done.
-
1. SLING BLADE (1996)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Writer/Director: Billy Bob Thornton. Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh, John Ritter, Robert Duvall.
Thornton cemented his film reputation with the writing/directing/starring achievement that is 1996’s “Sling Blade.” He plays Karl Childers, an intellectually disabled man who, placed in a mental hospital for killing his adulterous mother and her lover, finds himself released to the outside world, a challenging environment of which he knows little. For his performance as Karl, Thornton earned his first Best Actor Oscar nomination, and his second nomination from the Screen Actors Guild, and for his screenplay he won his first Academy Award.
