Billy Bob Thornton Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter,
director and musician.
Thornton made his first break with co-writing and starring in 1992 film One False Move and
came to international attention after writing, directing, and starring in the highly acclaimed
independent film Sling Blade (1996), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.
He appeared in several major film roles following Sling Blade's success which brought him a
bigger international recognition and critical acclaim including U Turn (1997), Primary Colors
(1998), Armageddon (1998), A Simple Plan (1998) which earned him his third Oscar nomination,
Monster's Ball (2001), Bandits (2001), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), Bad Santa (2003),
Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Love Actually (2003), Friday Night Lights (2004), The Alamo
(2004), Eagle Eye (2008) and Faster (2010).
Thornton is cited as an anti-film star who approaches his roles like a character actor
and rarely accept roles in blockbusters.
He has been vocal about his disrespect for celebrity culture, choosing to keep his life
out of the public eye.
However, the attention of the media has proven unavoidable in certain cases, his marriage
to Angelina Jolie being a notable example.
As an influential actor, Thornton is known for his diversity, wide range and prolificacy,
appearing in at least one film per year nearly every year since 1991.
As a writer, Thornton has scripted variety of films, mainly with Tom Epperson which are
usually set in Southern United States including A Family Thing (1996) and The Gift (2000).
After Sling Blade, he has directed several other movies including Daddy and Them (2001),
All the Pretty Horses (2001) and Jayne Mansfield's Car (2012).
He has received President's Award from Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films,
Special Achievement Award from National Board of Review and a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame.
He was also nominated for an Emmy Award, four Golden Globes and three Screen Actors Guild
Awards.
In addition to film work, Thornton began a career as a singer-songwriter.
He has released four solo albums and is the vocalist of a blues rock band The Boxmasters.
Early life Thornton was born on August 4, 1955 in Hot
Springs, Arkansas, the son of Virginia Roberta (née Faulkner), a psychic, and William Raymond
"Billy Ray" Thornton (November 1929–August 1974), a high school history teacher and basketball
coach who died when Thornton was 18.
Thornton was one of three brothers with Jimmy Don (April 1958–October 1988) who died of
a heart attack at 30, and John David (born 1969), who resides in California.
Jimmy Don Thornton wrote a number of songs, two of which—"Island Avenue" and "Emily"—Thornton
has recorded on his solo albums.
During his childhood, Thornton lived in both Alpine, Arkansas, and Malvern, Arkansas.
He was raised a Methodist, in an extended family in a shack that had neither electricity
nor plumbing.
Thornton graduated from high school in 1973.
A good high school baseball player, he tried out for the Kansas City Royals, but was let
go after an injury.
After a short period laying asphalt for the Arkansas State Transportation Department,
he attended Henderson State University to pursue studies in psychology, but he dropped
out after two semesters.
In the mid-1980s, Thornton settled in Los Angeles, to pursue his career as an actor,
with future writing partner Tom Epperson.
Thornton initially had a difficult time succeeding as an actor, and worked in telemarketing,
offshore wind farming, and fast food management between auditioning for acting jobs.
He also played drums and sang with South African rock band Jack Hammer.
While Thornton worked as a waiter for an industry event, he served film director and screenwriter
Billy Wilder, who is famous for films such as Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard.
Thornton struck up a conversation with Wilder, who advised Thornton to consider a career
as a screenwriter.
Career Film
Thornton's first screen role was in 1980s South of Reno, where he played a small role
as a counter man in a restaurant.
Thornton also made an appearance in a 1987 episode of Andy Griffith's popular show Matlock
titled "The Photographer" as a pawn store clerk.
Another one of Thornton's early screen roles was as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts
Afire with John Ritter and Markie Post.
His role as the villain in 1992's One False Move, which he also co-wrote, brought him
to the attention of critics.
He also had small roles in the early 1990s films Indecent Proposal, On Deadly Ground,
Bound by Honor, Grey Knight, and Tombstone.
Thornton put Wilder's advice to good use, and went on to write, direct and star in the
independent film Sling Blade, which was released in 1996.
The film, an expansion of a short film titled Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade, introduced
the story of Karl Childers, a mentally handicapped man imprisoned for a gruesome and seemingly
inexplicable murder.
Sling Blade garnered international acclaim.
Thornton's screenplay earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Writers
Guild of America Award, and an Edgar Award, while his performance received Oscar and Screen
Actors Guild nominations for Best Actor.
In 1998, he portrayed the James-Carville-like Richard Jemmons in Primary Colors.
Thornton adapted the book All the Pretty Horses into a 2000 film with the same name, starring
Matt Damon and Penélope Cruz.
The negative experience (he was forced to cut more than an hour) led to his decision
to never direct another film (a subsequent release, Daddy and Them, had been filmed earlier).
Also in 2000, an early script which he and Tom Epperson wrote together was made into
The Gift which starred Cate Blanchett, Hilary Swank, Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear,
and Giovanni Ribisi.
In 2000, he also appeared in Travis Tritt's music video for the song "Modern Day Bonnie
and Clyde".
Thornton's screen persona has been described by the press as that of a "tattooed, hirsute
man's man".
He appeared in several major film roles following Sling Blade 's success, including 1998's Armageddon
with Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis, and A Simple Plan.
In 2001, he directed Daddy and Them, while also securing starring roles in three Hollywood
pictures, Monster's Ball, Bandits and The Man Who Wasn't There, for which he received
many awards.
He played a malicious mall Santa Claus in 2003's Bad Santa, a black comedy that performed
well at the box office and established Thornton as a leading comic actor, and in the same
year, portrayed a womanizing President of the United States in the British romantic
comedy Love Actually.
Thornton has stated that, following Bad Santa's success, audiences "like to watch play that
kind of guy," and "they call up when they need an asshole.
It's kinda that simple... you know how narrow the imagination in this business can be."
In 2004 he played David Crockett in The Alamo.
He appeared in the comic film School for Scoundrels, which was released on September 29, 2006.
In the film, he plays a self-help doctor; the role was written specifically for Thornton.
More recent films include The Astronaut Farmer, a drama released on February 23, 2007, and
the comedy, Mr. Woodcock, in which Thornton plays a sadistic gym teacher.
In September 2008, Thornton starred in the big brother action movie Eagle Eye alongside
Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan.
Thornton has also expressed an interest in directing another film, possibly a period
piece about cave explorer Floyd Collins, based on the book Trapped!
The Story of Floyd Collins by Robert K. Murray and Roger Brucker.
Thornton received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 7, 2004.
Music During the late 1990s, Thornton, who has had
a lifelong love for music, began a hobby as a singer-songwriter.
He released a roots rock album titled Private Radio in 2001, and three more albums, The
Edge of the World (2003), Hobo (2005) and Beautiful Door (2007).
Thornton's manager, David Spero, helped his Edge of the World album get off the ground
with a summer tour.
Thornton was the singer of a blues rock band named Tres Hombres.
Guitarist Billy Gibbons referred to the band as "The best little cover band in Texas",
and Thornton bears a tattoo with the band's name on it.
He performed the Warren Zevon song The Wind on the tribute album Enjoy Every Sandwich:
Songs of Warren Zevon.
Thornton recorded a cover of the Johnny Cash classic "Ring of Fire" for the Oxford American
magazine's Southern Music CD in 2001.
On April 8, 2009, Thornton stopped cooperating with an interview while promoting a Canadian
tour of his musical group The Boxmasters on CBC Radio One program Q. Thornton evaded questions
and walked off the set early, after explaining he had insisted the interview was not to refer
to his movie career.
Personal life Relationships and children
Thornton has been married five times, with each marriage ending in divorce, and he has
four children by three women.
From 1978 to 1980, he was married to Melissa Lee Gatlin, with whom he had a daughter, Amanda.
Thornton married actress Toni Lawrence in 1986; they separated the following year and
divorced in 1988.
From 1990 to 1992, he was married to actress Cynda Williams, whom he cast in his writing
debut, One False Move (1992).
In 1993, Thornton married Playboy model Pietra Dawn Cherniak, with whom he had two sons,
Harry James and William; the marriage ended in 1997, with Cherniak accusing Thornton of
spousal abuse.
Thornton was engaged to be married to actress Laura Dern, whom he dated from 1997 to 1999,
but in 2000, he married actress Angelina Jolie, with whom he starred in Pushing Tin (1999)
and who is 20 years his junior.
The marriage became known for the couple's eccentric displays of affection, which reportedly
included wearing vials of each other's blood around their necks; Thornton later clarified
that the "vials" were, instead, two small lockets, each containing only a single drop
of blood.
Thornton and Jolie announced the adoption of a child from Cambodia in March 2002, but
it was later revealed that Jolie had adopted the child as a single parent.
They separated in June 2002 and divorced the following year.
Since 2003, Thornton has been in a relationship with makeup effects crew member Connie Angland,
with whom he has a daughter, Bella.
The family resides in Los Angeles, California.
Thornton has stated that he likely will not marry again, specifying that he believes marriage
"doesn't work" for him.
Health issues During his early years in Los Angeles, Thornton
was admitted to a hospital and diagnosed with myocarditis, a heart condition brought on
by malnutrition.
Thornton has obsessive–compulsive disorder.
Various idiosyncratic behaviors have been well documented in interviews with Thornton;
among these is a phobia of antique furniture—a disorder shared by Dwight Yoakam's character
Doyle Hargraves in the Thornton-penned Sling Blade, and by Thornton's own character in
the 2001 film Bandits.
Additionally, he has stated that he has a fear of certain types of silverware, a trait
assumed by his character Hank Grotowski in 2001's Monster's Ball, in which Grotowski
insists on a plastic spoon for his daily bowl of chocolate ice cream.
In a 2004 interview with The Independent, Thornton explained: "It's just that I won't
use real silver.
You know, like the big, old, heavy-ass forks and knives, I can't do that.
It's the same thing as the antique furniture.
I just don't like old stuff.
I'm creeped out by it, and I have no explanation why...I don't have a phobia about American
antiques, it's mostly French—you know, like the big, old, gold-carved chairs with the
velvet cushions.
The Louis XIV type.
That's what creeps me out.
I can spot the imitation antiques a mile off.
They have a different vibe.
Not as much dust."
Other A baseball fan, Thornton's favorite team is
the St. Louis Cardinals.
He has said that his childhood dream was to play for the Cardinals.
He narrated The 2006 World Series Film, the year-end retrospective DVD chronicling the
Cardinals' championship season.
Thornton is also a professed fan of the Indianapolis Colts football team.
Thornton is the cousin of professional wrestling legends Terry Funk and Dory Funk, Jr.
Discography Solo
Private Radio (2001) The Edge of the World (2003)
Hobo (2005) Beautiful Door (2007)
The Boxmasters The Boxmasters (Vanguard, 2008)
Christmas Cheer (Vanguard, 2008) Modbilly (Vanguard, 2009)