William Robert "Billy Bob" Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, musician and Southern-Fried Genius born in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
His big break came in 1992 with One False Move, which he co-wrote and starred in. But he became an international name after directing, writing and starring in the dark and critically acclaimed Sling Blade, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for Best Actor. Since then his career has been both varied and successful, with Thornton picking up awards left and right as if he found them in his bathroom. Critics considers him an "anti-film star" who approaches his roles like a character actor, and they're not wrong. Thornton is regularly willing to change his appearance for a project.
Influential and highly respected, Thornton is known by both critical circles and casual audiences for his diversity, wide range, and prolificacy, appearing in at least one film per year nearly every year since 1991. Thornton has written a variety of films, usually set in the Southern United States and mainly co-written with Tom Epperson.
He's also released solo albums in the Alternative Country genre and is the singer and one of two drummers for the Rock & Roll band the Boxmasters. Initially, the Boxmasters played a Genre Mashup of Rockabilly and Merseybeat, as Thornton wanted to see what would happen if a band played British Invasion style Rock in a Hillbilly style (in fact, two of their albums were split between a disc of original songs and a Cover Album packaged with the main album). However, following a controversial Canadian radio appearance,note which led to the band getting a mixed response at one of their Canadian performances, the Boxmasters went on hiatus and returned in what was more of a Country Rock style.
He's been married six times, most famously to fellow actor Angelina Jolie from 2000–03.
As Director and/or Writer
- 1996 Sling Blade (also starring)
- 2000 All the Pretty Horses
- 2000 The Gift
Film Roles
- 1993 Tombstone as Johnny Tyler
- 1993 Indecent Proposal as Day Tripper
- 1994 On Deadly Ground as Homer Carlton
- 1995 Dead Man as George 'Big George' Drakoulious
- 1996 Sling Blade as Karl Childers
- 1997 Princess Mononoke as Jigo (voice; English dub)
- 1998 A Simple Plan as Jacob Mitchell
- 1998 Armageddon as NASA Administrator Dan Truman
- 1998 Primary Colors as Richard Jemmons
- 2001 Monster's Ball as Hank Grotowski
- 2001 Bandits as Terry Lee Collins
- 2001 The Man Who Wasn't There as Ed Crane
- 2003 Bad Santa as Willie T. Stokes
- 2003 Love Actually as President of the United States
- 2003 Intolerable Cruelty as Howard D. Doyle
- 2004 Friday Night Lights as Gary Gaines
- 2004 The Alamo as Davy Crockett
- 2005 The Ice Harvest as Vic Cavanaugh
- 2006 The Astronaut Farmer as Charles Farmer
- 2007 Mr. Woodcock as Jasper Woodcock
- 2008 Eagle Eye as Thomas Morgan
- 2010 Faster as Cop
- 2011 Puss in Boots as Jack (voice)
- 2013 Parkland as Forrest Sorrels
- 2014 The Judge as Dwight Dickman
- 2015 Entourage as Larsen McCredle
- 2015 Into the Grizzly Maze as Douglass
- 2016 Bad Santa 2 as Willie T. Stokes
- 2022 The Gray Man as Donald Fitzroy
Television Roles
- 1987 Matlock as Pawnshop Clerk
- 1992–1995 Hearts Afire as Billy Bob Davis
- 1998 King of the Hill as Boyce Hubert
- 2000 CatDog as CatDog's father (voice)
- 2014 Fargo as Lorne Malvo
- 2014 The Big Bang Theory as Dr. Oliver Lorvis
- 2016 Goliath as Billy McBride
- 2022 Harley Quinn As Himself (voice)
