During one of his many award speeches in 2018 for his supporting role in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri,” Sam Rockwell proclaimed himself a character actor as opposed to your traditional leading man. The line between those two types of actors is often blurry and Rockwell himself has vacillated from supporting roles to lead roles throughout his career.
Rockwell’s success has been a long time coming. He moved to New York at a very young age after attending a school for the arts in San Francisco. He worked steadily on the stage and television building up a resume of small roles. He would eventually gain name recognition during the 1990s heyday of independent film, in particular with the films “Lawn Dogs” and “Box of Moonlight” starting to get the actor noticed. One of his biggest marks early in his career was “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” for director George Clooney.
He began to work frequently with playwright turned film director Martin McDonaugh, eventually leading to the point where McDonaugh described him as his muse. The two teamed with Christopher Walken for the Broadway play “A Behanding in Spokane” and later for the film “Seven Psychopaths.” It would be the film “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri” that would ultimately bring Rockwell a slew of awards, including an Oscar. He would receive a second Academy Award nomination the very next year for his performance as George W. Bush in “Vice.”
Take a photo gallery tour as Gold Derby ranks his 20 greatest movie performances from worst to best.
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20. CHARLIE’S ANGELS (2000)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: McG. Writers: Ryan Rowe, Ed Solomon, John August. Starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu.
The popular TV series from the seventies that launched Farrah Fawcett into becoming a TV icon was first resurrected in this film produced by Drew Barrymore. The film was not the best experience for Rockwell who has spoken about how the rewrites were coming so fast and frequently that he ended up having to wear an earpiece and have the new lines fed to him since he had no time to memorize them.
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19. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (1999)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures Director and writer: Michael Hoffman. Starring Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Calista Flockhart.
This lavish all star production of one of Shakespeare’s classic plays features Rockwell in a small role as one of the traveling band of actors led by Kevin Kline. The cast featured Christian Bale, Calista Flockhart and Dominic West as part of the play’s group of young lovers with Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett and Stanley Tucci among the cast of otherworldly fairies that populate the play.
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18. BOX OF MOON LIGHT (1996)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director and writer: Tom DiCillo. Starring John Turturro, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney.
One of Rockwell’s early breakthrough roles came in this film starring John Turturro as a methodical engineer who meets an eccentric men played by Rockwell. As button down and meticulous as Turturro’s character is, Rockwell’s character is the exact opposite. The odd free spirit brings a new perspective to Turturro.
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17. CONVICTION (2010)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Director: Tony Goldwyn. Writer: Pamela Gray. Starring Hilary Swank, Melissa Leo, Minnie Driver.
Rockwell and co-star Hilary Swank got some early Oscar buzz and each received a few nominations or recognition from film festivals or critic’s circles but ultimately the film came up empty handed at the Oscars. Swank stars as a woman who goes to law school in order to help her brother who has been wrongly imprisoned for murder. Rockwell and Swank each have their moments in the film but ultimately are both sunk by the film’s somewhat manipulative plot.
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16. LAWN DOGS (1997)
Image Credit: ITV/REX/Shutterstock Director: John Duigan. Writer: Naomi Wallace. Starring Kathleen Quinlan, Mischa Barton, Eric Mabius.
“Lawn Dogs” is an interesting independent film that details the friendship that forms between an aimless young man and a young girl. Rockwell’s character is a trailer park resident who works mowing lawns in an affluent suburb. While gardening at the house of a new family that has moved to the area he meets a 10 year old played by Mischa Barton. Wise beyond her years and as lonely and out of place as Rockwell’s character is leads the two to form an innocent friendship that is misinterpreted by Barton’s parents. The film is a complex and heartfelt story.
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15. ARGYLLE (2024)
Image Credit: Apple Director: Matthew Vaughn. Writer: Jason Fuchs. Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa, John Cena, Ariana DeBose, Samuel L. Jackson.
Set in the world of fictional spies with squared chins and impeccable wardrobes, Rockwell’s Aiden Wilde, a real-life grubby spy who must protect Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), the writer behind those dashing spies, from being killed herself by enemy agents. Though the film was met with mixed reviews, the role allows Rockwell to show his stuff as a romantic lead, an action powerhouse and an utter goofball. -
14. THE BEST OF ENEMIES (2019)
Image Credit: STX Writer/Director: Robin Bissell. Starring Taraji P. Henson, Sam Rockwell, Wes Bentley, Babou Ceesay, Anne Heche, Bruce McGill, John Gallagher Jr.
After Rockwell won the Oscar for playing a small town deputy in “Three Billboards,” once worried that he would corner the market on redneck roles. Playing a KKK leader in “The Best of Enemies” did little to assuage that fear, but Rockwell adds enough shading to what could have been a one-dimensional role that when his character has to make the pivot to respect a Black community organizer (Taraji P. Henson), it’s thoroughly believable. -
13. FROST/NIXON (2008)
Image Credit: Imagine Ent/Working Title/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Ron Howard. Writer: Peter Morgan. Starring Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon.
Frank Langella reprised his Tony winning role and received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of disgraced President Richard Nixon. The story details an interview Nixon gave after his resignation to British journalist David Frost in which he hoped to restore his reputation with the American people. Rockwell plays an investigator who helps Frost prepare for the interview.
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12. GALAXY QUEST (1999)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Dean Parisot. Writers: David Howard, Robert Gordon. Starring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman.
The popular comedy tells the story of how the cast of a cancelled science fiction show who have been reduced to signing autographs at conventions. They are contacted by real aliens and end up actually going into space. Rockwell’s character joins the stars of the show even though he was only what Trekkies would call a “red shirt” character, meaning someone who wears a red shirt and usually dies early in the episode.
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11. THE GREEN MILE (1999)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director and writer: Frank Darabont. Starring Tom Hanks, David Morse, Michael Clarke Duncan.
Four Oscar nominations including one for Best Picture (but as sometimes happens with Spielberg films no Best Director nomination) went to this adaptation of a Stephen King story set in a prison death row where supernatural events are occurring. Rockwell has a scenery chewing role as a viscous killer who is among the prisoners kept waiting on death row.
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10. SEE HOW THEY RUN (2022)
Image Credit: Searchlight Director: Tom George. Writer: Mark Chappell. Starring Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Ruth Carter, David Oyelowo, Reece Shearsmith, Harris Dickinson.
Rockwell was cast wildly against type as London police Inspector Stoppard in this comic murder mystery, but with his knack for accents and superb comic timing, he pulls off the role with style. Paired with his eager-to-please aide, Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan), he investigates the murder of the director of a “Mousetrap”-like murder-mystery play. If the plot’s ingenious twists create the film’s surprises, the chemistry between Rockwell and Ronan provides its heart. -
9. THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2007)
Image Credit: Kimberley French/Warner Bros/Plan B/Scott Free/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director and writer: Andrew Dominik. Starring Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard.
Jesse James was an outlaw who robbed trains and caused other havoc in the 1800s. He was ultimately murdered by a member of his own gang Robert Ford. The film was considered a bit too long but Casey Affleck’s performance as Ford earned him a great deal of acclaim and an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor. Rockwell plays Ford’s brother who was also a part of the James gang.
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8. THE WAY WAY BACK (2013)
Image Credit: Sycamore/Walsh Company/Oddlot/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directors and writers: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash. Starring Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney.
Rockwell stars in this cult hit about a young teen whose family spends the summer in a small town where the main source of activity and employment is a some what second rate amusement park. The young man at the center of the film finds a substitute father figure in Rockwell and a respite from the bullying boyfriend of his mother.
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7. VICE (2018)
Image Credit: Annapurna Writer/Director: Adam McKay. Starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Tyler Perry, Alison Pill, Lily Rabe, Jesse Plemons, Cailee Spaeny.
Rockwell earned his second Academy Award nomination for his supporting work in Adam McKay’s biopic of Dick Cheney (Oscar nominee Christian Bale) who was Vice President to George W. Bush (Rockwell). While Rockwell’s take on Bush is comedic, he makes sure never to let it descend into caricature. For his performance, Rockwell also earned his second nomination for the BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards. -
6. JOJO RABBIT (2019)
Image Credit: Searchlight Writer/Director: Taika Waititi. Starring Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Alfie Allen, Stephen Marchant.
To play a Nazi in a comedic manner is one of the most potentially dangerous high-wire acts any actor can take. In “Jojo Rabbit,” however, Rockwell got the tone just right as Captain Klenzendorf, the conflicted commandant of a Hitler Youth camp where Jojo Rabbit (Ronan Griffin Davis) is learning how to serve the fatherland. Though he gets the laughs, Rockwell also adds a touch of pathos in his performance, and as a member of the film’s ensemble, he earned his fifth nomination from the Screen Actors Guild.
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5. SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS (2012)
Image Credit: Blueprint Pictures/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director and writer: Martin McDonagh. Starring Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Michael Stuhlbarg.
After working with Martin McDonagh on the play “A Behanding in Spokane” on Broadway, Rockwell struck up a friendship with the writer and was given a key role in this film. The title basically is self-explanatory. Seven psychopaths go through the usual crime and violence sprees that frequent McDonagh’s work.
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4. MATCHSTICK MEN (2003)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Ridley Scottt. Writers: Nicolas Griffin,Ted Griffin. Starring Nicholas Cage, Allison Lohman, Bruce Altman.
Rockwell had an interesting role in this intricate thriller from director Ridley Scott. The story centers on a pair of con man who swindle unsuspecting customers by selling them overpriced water filtration systems. Cage also suffers from a variety of mental disorders which ultimately lead to his being tricked by Rockwell’s character.
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3. MOON (2009)
Image Credit: Liberty Uk/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Duncan Jones. Writer: Nathan Parker. Starring Kevin Spacey.
Rockwell had a tour de force role as a man stationed for three years in outer space who slowly begins to lose his sanity. The film is reminiscent of such earlier seventies films like “Alien” and “Blade Runner” and interestingly is directed by the son of Ziggy Stardust himself, David Bowie. For classic TV fans the use of reruns of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” are a nice touch.
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2. CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND (2002)
Image Credit: Takashi Seida - ©2002 - Miramax Films/REX/Shutterstock Director: George Clooney. Writer: Charlie Kaufman. Starring Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Julia Roberts.
Just how true this supposedly true story is remains a mystery. Rockwell plays Chuck Barris a TV game show producer from the seventies who later found fame himself as the host of “The Gong Show.” If this story is true we are led to believe that somewhere during the course of his game show duties Rockwell also became an operative for the CIA involved in various espionage activities. Rockwell’s impersonation of Barris is spot on and the scenes that recreate “The Gong Show” an infamous seventies “talent” show are fun to watch.
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1. THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI (2017)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director and writer: Martin McDonagh. Staring Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Lucas Hedges.
Rockwell ran the whole derby last year winning Oscar, SAG, Golden Globe, BAFTA as well as various critics awards for Best Supporting Actor for this dark drama from Martin McDonagh. The film tells the story of a woman (Oscar winning Best Actress Frances McDormand) who places three billboards in her town asking why the murderer of her daughter hasn’t been found yet. Rockwell plays a police officer consumed with rage and alcoholism who at first clashes with McDormand but ultimately joins her cause.
