Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon has dozens of film and TV roles under his belt. He's hardly slowed down since he made his television debut in 1992 and his movie debut in 1993. 30 years later, the actor is once again getting praise for his magnificent portrayal of Superman villain General Zod in 2023's The Flash.
In the movie, Zod impresses by having both incredible lines of dialogue and breathtaking fight scenes. Thankfully, fans looking for other great performances from the actor who plays him have no shortage of projects to explore. Shannon has taken on a wide range of characters across his career -- many of whom are incredibly unique.
10 Fred (Groundhog Day)
A 19-year-old Michael Shannon plays a young man looking forward to his wedding in one of the greatest ever time loop movies: Groundhog Day. The fantasy drama addresses love, religion and philosophy, all emerging from a plot in which Bill Murray's beleaguered weatherman Phil Connors relives February 2 over and over again after heading to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
Through Shannon’s character Fred, the film provides a lesson about changing one’s life for the better and never taking things for granted. Initially, the young man handles his relationship casually -- but after learning from Phil that his fiancé is destined to be a runaway bride, he starts treating her differently. Though it’s only his first movie, Shannon brings out his character’s desperation, franticness and commitment to the woman he loves, making a supporting role memorable.
9 Avery Shaw (Law & Order: SVU)
Pain, guilt and depression are feelings that are challenging for actors to pull off well, but Michael Shannon does that easily in Law & Order: SVU Season 6, Episode 13, "Quarry." He plays Avery Shaw, a man that was sexually abused as a child. As hard as Avery tries to manage his trauma, he spiraling out of control, making him argumentative, reclusive -- and eventually he starts plotting to kill his abuser, Deacon Brinn.
Shaw's pain becomes evident through many of his other actions. He vows to not have children, fearing that what happened to him might also happen to his child, despite the fact that this puts a strain on his marriage. Additionally, he adopts a second unconventional approach to getting justice by stalking Detective Olivia Benson after learning that she is passionate about helping sexual abuse victims. Shannon portrays some very heavy emotions in the episode, and makes it worth watching.
8 Floyd Poteet (Bad Boys II)
As perfectly as he plays a menacing villain like General Zod, Shannon can portray a cowardly one too -- something he easily demonstrates in the second of four Bad Boys films. His character Floyd Poteet is a member of Miami’s Ku Klux Klan, who also happens to be involved in the drug trade.
Poteet’s purpose in the movie is to provide comic relief and Shannon achieves this by using the funniest facial expressions and making his character overreact to Mike Burnett and Marcus Lowery's interrogation attempts. He gets multiple hilarious scenes -- most notably when Floyd's ear gets shot off, leaving him cursing and screaming. Through these moments, Shannon makes his secondary antagonist a very memorable character, despite only appearing briefly.
7 Donnie (Machine Gun Preacher)
In Machine Gun Preacher, Michael Shannon teams up with one of the most underrated action stars, Gerard Butler. The film centers on two friends caught up in a wave of alcoholism, heroin abuse and crime. Both characters highlight the mental challenges faced by people struggling with addiction. Yet Butler's character Sam is the type who's determined to change, while Donnie is the one who doesn't.
Sam reforms so much that he dedicates his life to Jesus and heads to Africa for missionary work, but Donnie relapses after initially being helped to get rid of his vices. Audiences thus get to see Shannon sink further and further into chaos. It becomes clear that tragedy is inevitable, but before that happens, Shannon keeps audiences interested while Donnie does everything to antagonize everyone, from fighting drug distributors to arguing with his family members.
6 Gary Noesner (Waco)
Waco has multiple dilemmas for Gary Noesner to face, but he remains calm and comes off as very interesting in his own right because of Shannon's dedication to the dialogue-heavy role. The head of the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit is tasked with negotiating the peaceful surrender of David Koresh and his followers, but that proves to be difficult because his colleagues in the Tactical Division Team favor a more aggressive approach.
Reasoning with a delusional religious extremist while also overcoming bureaucratic obstacles turns out to be quite the challenge, but Noesner pulls it off by doing things such as telling Koresh his own personal stories to buy time and researching past FBI-civilian standoffs to convince his bosses that a direct invasion would fail. Shannon is so convincing in the part that he reprised it in the sequel, Waco: The Aftermath.
5 Col. Richard Strickland (The Shape of Water)
From getting his fingers bitten off to trying to ruin the blossoming love between a janitor and a humanoid amphibious creature, Col. Richard Strickland is The Shape of Water’s most memorable character. The audience can't help but enjoy hating him. Despite being the villain of one of the movies with the least amount of dialogue, the head of the Occam Aerospace Research Center still gets numerous incredible one-liners.
“God doesn’t look like that!” he retorts when one person argues that the creature, dubbed the “Amphibious Man,” is made in Jehovah’s image and likeness. As evil as he may be, the character is memorable thanks to the energy Shannon brings to his performance and his many major scenes, ranging from stopping the Soviets from using the creature to preventing the janitor from helping it escape.
4 Walt Thrombey (Knives Out)
All the members of Knives Out's ensemble cast deserve equal credit for making it one of the best movies of the 2010s, but Shannon gets to play one of the more memorable characters. The youngest child of best-selling mystery novel author Harlan Thrombey, Walt comes with all the stereotypes of the ill-mannered son of a tycoon. He is whiny, immature and filled with delusions of grandeur.
Even so, he exhibits some business acumen through his role as the CEO of Thrombey Publishing Company. Walt keeps advising his father to sell adaptation rights to Netflix, which is funnier in retrospect since the Knives Out franchise moved to Netflix. He's nowhere near as evil as the rest of the characters, so he actually doesn't seem half-bad by the end of the movie.
3 The White Death (Bullet Train)
Bullet Train is an underwhelming film, but Michael Shannon's antagonist, The White Death, is one of its best parts. The Yakuza boss has a great scheme, as the movie reveals that he contracted several assassins to retrieve a briefcase from a Japanese bullet train, knowing they'd kill each other. His real plan is a revenge plot, because he considers them all to be responsible for his wife's death. The character thus propels the whole movie.
White Death also happens to be an elderly character, which leaves Shannon with the task of slightly tweaking his voice and maintaining a slow and tired demeanor. The actor pulls the change off convincingly -- and his character still ends up engaging in a couple of remarkable fight scenes, both on the train and off it. The film thus becomes a showcase for Shannon's versatility.
2 Nelson Van Alden (Boardwalk Empire)
Of all Michael Shannon’s roles, Nelson Van Alden from Boardwalk Empire has the best character development. The Bureau of Prohibition agent starts out as a religious fundamentalist, but eventually becomes corrupt and finds himself on the run. The character completely changes over the course of the HBO series, giving Shannon plenty to work with.
During his quest to bring down Nucky Thompson, Nelson keeps justifying his actions by painting the gangster as the devil. He quotes numerous Bible verses and commits plenty of shocking acts. “Thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked!" he declares with much glee after drowning a fellow agent, upon learning he was secretly working for Nucky.
1 General Zod (DCEU)
General Zod is Shannon’s best-ever role, despite Shannon admitting he didn't enjoy returning to the part. A major reason the character succeeds -- both on and off-screen -- is because he is highly competent. He holds his own against many of DC’s greatest heroes and is able to complete his goal of destroying Earth-789 in The Flash.
But as powerful as Zod is, he wouldn’t be as interesting as he is if he wasn’t portrayed by a great actor. Every scene where he intimidates the heroes or remains unfazed is believable, thanks to Shannon’s great facial expressions and body language. He creates a villain who is truly larger than life, and feels like he could actually dominate the universe. Shannon's ability to make a supervillain feel super is what makes Zod his best work.