Billy Bob Thornton

• 1. Introduction

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  Billy Bob Thornton was working as a waiter at an industry event in Los Angeles when he found himself serving the film director Billy Wilder. Thornton struck up a conversation with him. Wilder's advice was simple: think about becoming a screenwriter. At the time, Thornton was paying the bills with telemarketing, offshore wind farming and fast food management, and fitting auditions around those shifts. That exchange raises a puzzle. How does a man juggling jobs like those become someone whose name sits on major film credits? And why would a working actor say he dislikes celebrity culture and prefers to avoid the public eye? The answers run through Arkansas, a drum kit, a director's suggestion and some very particular fears.

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• 2. Arkansas Boyhood

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  Billy Bob Thornton was born on the 4th of August 1955 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. His father, William Raymond Thornton, known as Billy Ray, taught high school history and coached basketball. His mother, Virginia Roberta, described herself as a psychic. Billy Ray died in 1974, and Virginia lived until 2017.

  Alpine, Malvern and Mount Holly were among the Arkansas towns where Thornton lived as a child. He attended Malvern High School. School was a struggle because of dyslexia, which was not conclusively diagnosed until much later in his life.

  The Kansas City Royals once gave Thornton a tryout. He was a good high school baseball player, but an injury led the team to release him.

  After graduating from Malvern in 1973, Thornton spent a short time laying asphalt for the Arkansas State Transportation Department. He then enrolled at Henderson State University to study psychology and left after two semesters. Over those years he also worked as a roadie, a drill press operator, a bulldozer operator and a sawmill worker.

  Thornton has two other siblings. His brother Jimmy Don, born in April 1958, wrote songs and died in October 1988. Two of those songs, "Island Avenue" and "Emily", later appeared on Thornton's own solo albums.

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• 3. Music Before Movies

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  Tres Hombres was the name of the blues rock band in which Thornton played drums during the 1970s. Billy Gibbons, whose band ZZ Top released an album called Tres Hombres in 1973, called them "the best little cover band in Texas." Thornton still has the band's name tattooed on his body. The group made one studio album, Gunslinger, released in 1983 on Trigger Records.

  In 1985 Thornton joined Piet Botha in Jack Hammer, a South African rock band, while Botha was working in Los Angeles. Thornton played drums and sang. The one studio album he made with the band, Death of a Gypsy, came out in September 1986. In the mid-1980s he also settled in Los Angeles with Tom Epperson, who would become his writing partner.

  Private Radio, released in 2001 on Lost Highway Records, began his run of solo albums. The Edge of the World followed in 2003, Hobo in 2005 and Beautiful Door in 2007. In 2001 he also recorded the Johnny Cash classic "Ring of Fire" with Earl Scruggs for a Southern Music CD from Oxford American magazine. The track appeared too on Scruggs's 2001 album Earl Scruggs and Friends. Thornton also performed Warren Zevon's song "The Wind" on the tribute album Enjoy Every Sandwich: Songs of Warren Zevon.

  In 2007 Thornton formed The Boxmasters with J.D. Andrew, and he sings for the group. The band was active from 2007 to 2010 and again from 2015 onward.

  On the 8th of April 2009, Thornton and The Boxmasters appeared on the CBC Radio One program Q, hosted by Jian Ghomeshi. Thornton was persistently unintelligible and discourteous, and the appearance drew wide criticism and international attention. He later explained that he had told the producers not to ask about his movie career. Ghomeshi, however, had mentioned his acting in the introduction. Thornton also complained that Canadian audiences were like "mashed potatoes without the gravy."

  The following night, at Toronto's Massey Hall, the band opened for Willie Nelson. Midway through the set Thornton said he liked Canadians but not Ghomeshi, and the crowd answered with boos and catcalls. The Boxmasters did not continue the Canadian tour. Thornton's explanation was that some of the crew and band had the flu.

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• 4. Extra to Auteur

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  In September 1987, Thornton appeared in a one-act play called Beethoven Symphonies with the West Coast Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles. His first on-screen job came with Hunter's Blood, an exploitation film in which he played a hillbilly named Billy Bob. He had been a stand-in for the entire production before appearing in two scenes.

  Small parts followed, including the film South of Reno and a 1987 episode of Matlock titled "The Photographer". In 1989 he played an angry heckler in Going Overboard, Adam Sandler's debut film. He also joined the cast of the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire, which ran from 1992 to 1995.

  One False Move, released in 1992, gave Thornton the role of the villain, and he co-wrote it as well. In the 1990s he also appeared in Indecent Proposal, On Deadly Ground, Bound by Honor and Tombstone.

  Sling Blade arrived in 1996, with Thornton writing, directing and starring. It grew out of a short film called Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade. The story centers on a mentally disabled man imprisoned for a gruesome and seemingly inexplicable murder.

  The film earned international acclaim. Thornton's screenplay won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Writers Guild of America Award and an Edgar Award. His performance brought Oscar and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Actor. He also wrote A Family Thing in 1996. Work kept coming afterward, including a part in U Turn in 1997.

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• 5. Hollywood Run

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  The year 1998 brought Thornton three major films. He played Richard Jemmons, a character resembling James Carville, in Primary Colors. He appeared in the disaster film Armageddon. The neo-noir thriller A Simple Plan earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The press has described his screen persona as that of a "tattooed, hirsute man's man".

  In 2000 Thornton adapted the book All the Pretty Horses into a film of the same name. He was forced to cut more than an hour of footage. The negative experience made him decide never to direct another film. Daddy and Them, which he had filmed earlier, was released in 2001. Also in 2000, an early script by Thornton and Tom Epperson became the film The Gift. Years later he expressed interest in directing again, possibly a period piece about the cave explorer Floyd Collins, based on the book Trapped!: The Story of Floyd Collins.

  Three Hollywood starring roles came in 2001: the romantic drama Monster's Ball, the crime comedy-drama Bandits and the neo-noir The Man Who Wasn't There. In 2002 he appeared in Travis Tritt's music video for the song "Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde".

  Bad Santa, in 2003, cast him as a malicious mall Santa, and he has admitted to getting drunk on its set. That year he also played an oil millionaire in Intolerable Cruelty. He played a womanizing President of the United States in the British romantic comedy Love Actually. Thornton has said that after Bad Santa, audiences like watching him play that kind of guy, and casting directors call him when they need a jerk. He added, "you know how narrow the imagination in this business can be."

  The year 2004 had Thornton as David Crockett in The Alamo and as Coach Gary Gaines in the football drama Friday Night Lights. On the 7th of October 2004 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

  In 2005 he played a baseball coach in Bad News Bears, a remake of the 1976 film of the same name. School for Scoundrels followed in 2006, with Thornton as a self-help doctor in a part written specifically for him. In 2007 he appeared in The Astronaut Farmer and in Mr. Woodcock, where he played a sadistic gym teacher. The action film Eagle Eye arrived in September 2008. In 2011 he voiced Jack in the animated comedy Puss in Boots. Three years later, a television hitman would win him a Golden Globe.

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• 6. Television Turn

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  In 2014 Thornton starred as the sociopathic hitman Lorne Malvo in the first season of Fargo on FX, an anthology series inspired by the 1996 film of the same name. The role brought a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. He won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film.

  That same year he guest-starred on The Big Bang Theory as a middle-aged urologist who gets excited about every woman who touches him. He also played a prosecutor in the legal drama The Judge in 2014. In 2015 he appeared in Entourage, the film adaptation of the television series.

  Goliath premiered on Amazon Prime Video on the 13th of October 2016. Thornton played Billy McBride, a once brilliant and personable lawyer who is now washed up and alcoholic. The series was renewed for two more seasons, and the final one was released on the 24th of September 2021. The role earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama.

  Also in 2016, he reprised his role as a bad mall Santa in Bad Santa 2. In 2017 he starred in "Stand Down", a music video by Kario Salem, who performs as K.O. It won the Best Music Video award at the Toronto Shorts International Film Festival.

  Across his career Thornton has received the President's Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films and a Special Achievement Award from the National Board of Review. He has also been nominated for an Emmy Award, four Golden Globes and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

  Since 2024 Thornton has played the lead role of Tommy Norris in the Paramount+ series Landman. Norris is a landman at an oil company.

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• 7. Quirks and Convictions

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  During his early years in Los Angeles, Thornton was admitted to a hospital and diagnosed with myocarditis, a heart condition thought to be brought on by his diet. He now follows a vegan diet and says he is "extremely healthy". He eats no junk food, since he is allergic to wheat and dairy.

  Thornton lives with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and one of his best documented quirks is a phobia of antique furniture. He gave the same fear to Doyle Hargraves, played by Dwight Yoakam in Sling Blade, which Thornton wrote. His own character in Bandits shares it. He also fears certain types of silverware, and in Monster's Ball his character insists on a plastic spoon for his daily bowl of ice cream.

  In a 2004 interview with The Independent, Thornton said of old things, "I'm creeped out by it, and I have no explanation why." His dislike is mostly aimed at French antiques, such as the ornate Louis XIV type of chair. He added that imitation antiques feel different, with not as much dust.

  The St. Louis Cardinals are Thornton's baseball team. One condition in his movie contracts is a television in his trailer with a satellite dish, so he can watch their games. He narrated The 2006 World Series Film, a year-end DVD chronicling the Cardinals' championship season. He also calls himself a fan of the Indianapolis Colts football team.

  Every Sunday, Thornton has recalled, meant a suit with a clip-on tie and a trip to the Methodist church. He told an interviewer, "I'm not what you'd call a traditional religious person." Hardcore Christians and atheists, he said, both claim to know exactly what the deal is. His own view: "Anybody who says, 'I know what happens,' I don't believe them. That's kind of my religion."

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• 8. Marriages and Family

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  Thornton has been married six times and has four children by three women. His first marriage, from 1978 to 1980, was to Melissa Lee Gatlin. Their daughter Amanda, who later went by Brumfield, was sentenced in 2008 to 20 years in prison for the death of a friend's one-year-old daughter. The Innocence Project of Florida began representing her in 2015 and claims the child's death was entirely accidental. She was freed in 2020 after a deal with prosecutors, reached before an evidentiary hearing that was to present medical and scientific evidence of her innocence.

  In 1986 Thornton married the actress Toni Lawrence. They separated the following year and divorced in 1988. From 1990 to 1992 he was married to the actress Cynda Williams, who was cast in One False Move, his writing debut. In 1993 he married the Playboy model Pietra Dawn Cherniak, and they had two sons. The marriage ended in 1997, with Cherniak accusing Thornton of spousal abuse, sometimes in front of his children.

  Between 1997 and 1999 Thornton dated Laura Dern. In 2000 he married Angelina Jolie, with whom he had starred in Pushing Tin in 1999. Jolie was nearly 20 years his junior. The couple became known for eccentric displays of affection, reportedly including wearing vials of each other's blood around their necks. Thornton later clarified that these were two small lockets, each holding only a single drop of blood. In March 2002 they announced the adoption of a child from Cambodia, but it later emerged that Jolie had adopted the child as a single parent. They separated in June 2002 and divorced the following year.

  In 2003 Thornton began a relationship with Connie Angland, a makeup effects crew member, and they have a daughter. He once said he likely would not marry again because marriage "doesn't work" for him. Even so, his representatives confirmed that he and Angland were married on the 22nd of October 2014 in Los Angeles.

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