Sam Rockwell

Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor known for his quirky and charismatic character roles in independent films. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a troubled police officer in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). He was nominated in the same category for playing George W. Bush in the political satire Vice (2018). His portrayal of Bob Fosse in the miniseries Fosse/Verdon (2019) earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, while his performance in the Broadway revival of American Buffalo (2022) garnered him a Tony nomination.

Rockwell's other films include The Green Mile (1999), Galaxy Quest (1999), Charlie's Angels (2000), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Matchstick Men (2003), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Moon (2009), Gentlemen Broncos (2009), The Winning Season (2009), Iron Man 2 (2010), Seven Psychopaths (2012), Jojo Rabbit (2019), The Bad Guys (2022), See How They Run (2022), and The Bad Guys 2 (2025). In 2025, he had a role in the third season of the HBO anthology series The White Lotus, for which he earned a second nomination for Primetime Emmy Award.

Early life and education

Rockwell was born November 5, 1968, in Daly City, California. He is the only child of actors Pete Rockwell and Penny Hess. After their divorce when he was five, he was raised by his father in San Francisco and spent his summers with his mother in New York City. At age 10, he made a brief stage appearance as Humphrey Bogart in an East Village improv comedy sketch with his mother.

He started high school at the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts with Margaret Cho and Aisha Tyler, but received his high school diploma from Urban Pioneers, an Outward Bound-style alternative school. Rockwell explained, "I just wanted to get stoned, flirt with girls, go to parties." The school "had a reputation as a place stoners went because it was easy to graduate." The school helped him regain an interest in performing. After appearing in an independent film during his senior year, he moved to New York to pursue an acting career. He later enrolled in the Professional Actor Training Program at the William Esper Studio in New York.

Career

Early films

After his debut role in the controversial horror film Clownhouse in 1989, which he filmed while living in San Francisco, he moved to New York and trained at the William Esper Studios with teacher William Esper. Rockwell went on to say: "It was great. We shot at Coppola's house. I didn't know anything about acting ... It was fun." His career slowly gained momentum in the early 1990s, when he alternated between small-screen guest spots in TV series like The Equalizer, NYPD Blue and Law & Order and small roles in films such as Last Exit to Brooklyn and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He also appeared as the title character in The Search for One-eye Jimmy (1994). During this time, Rockwell worked in restaurants as a busboy and delivered burritos by bicycle. At one point, Rockwell worked as a private detective's assistant. "I tailed a chick who was having an affair and took pictures of her at this motel", he told Rolling Stone in 2002. "It was pretty sleazy." A well-paying Miller commercial in 1994 finally allowed him to pursue acting full-time.

The turning point in Rockwell's career was Tom DiCillo's film Box of Moonlight (1996), in which he played an eccentric man-child who dresses like Davy Crockett and lives in an isolated mobile home. The ensuing acclaim put him front and center with casting agents and newfound fans alike, with Rockwell himself acknowledging that "That film was definitely a turning point ... I was sort of put on some independent film map after 10 years in New York." Rockwell later elaborated: "People saw it at Sundance and it got me a lot of attention ... It led to Lawn Dogs, and Safe Men, and Jerry and Tom."

He then received strong reviews for the film Lawn Dogs (1997), where he played a working-class lawn mower who befriends a wealthy 10-year-old girl (Mischa Barton) in an upper-class gated community in Kentucky; Rockwell's performance won him Best Actor honors at both the Montreal World Film Festival and the Catalan International Film Festival. In 1999, Rockwell played the deranged prisoner William "Wild Bill" Wharton in the Stephen King prison drama The Green Mile. At the time of the film's shooting, Rockwell explained why he was attracted to playing such unlikable characters. He said, "I like that dark stuff. I think heroes should be flawed. There's a bit of self-loathing in there, and a bit of anger ... But after this, I've really got to play some lawyers, or a British aristocrat, or they'll put a label on me."

Hollywood recognition

After appearances as a bumbling actor in the science fiction parody Galaxy Quest (1999). Rockwell went on to say: "Who doesn't love that fucking movie, right?" He also played Francis Flute in the Shakespeare adaptation A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), and gregarious villain Eric Knox in Charlie's Angels (2000), Rockwell won the then-biggest leading role of his career as The Gong Show host Chuck Barris in George Clooney's directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002). Rockwell's performance was well-received, and the film earned generally positive reviews. "That is a great movie. George (Clooney) really taught me to be simple and not like put too much in there."

Rockwell also received positive notices for his role opposite Nicolas Cage in Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men (2003), with Entertainment Weekly calling him "destined by a kind of excessive interestingness to forever be a colorful sidekick." Rockwell went on to say: "Matchstick Men was really fun. Had a lot of fun with Nic (Cage). Alison Lohman, incredible. Bruce McGill. Ridley Scott ... He's really cool ... He let us really go ... he let us fuck around with that. (Producers) would never make that movie for that amount of money now (in 2026). We had nice trailers and we got paid." He received somewhat more mixed reviews as Zaphod Beeblebrox in the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). About the film, Rockwell said: "Not fun really... it's all the kind of stuff Jim Carrey and Eddie Murphy did very well... Those puppets were phenomenal and the sets were incredible." He then had a notable supporting role as Charley Ford, brother of Casey Affleck's character Robert Ford, in the well-received drama The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), in which Brad Pitt played the lead role of Jesse James. About taking on the role, Rockwell revealed: "I didn't want to do that movie initially but then I was glad I did it because it was such a great movie." According to an interview on The Howard Stern Show, director Jon Favreau considered casting him as the titular character in Iron Man as the studio was initially hesitant to work with Robert Downey Jr., who had been considered for his role in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Rockwell eventually appeared in Iron Man 2, released in 2010, as Tony Stark's rival weapons developer, Justin Hammer.

In addition to big-budget feature films, Rockwell has also appeared in indie films such as The F Word and played a randy, Halloween-costume-clad Batman in a short, Robin's Big Date, opposite Justin Long as Robin. He also starred in the film Snow Angels (2008) opposite Kate Beckinsale. Rockwell said about the movie: "That's a good one ... I think David allowed me to do what I wanted to do ... David Gordon Green and I created this character together based on this book. It was a dark story and there was this documentary that Brad Pitt gave me about these born again Christians who blow up abortion clinics ... that was very helpful, watching that. It was a really cool movie to do." He has worked on several occasions with the comedy troupe Stella (Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain), making cameo appearances in their short films and eponymous TV series.

Rockwell played Victor Mancini in the film Choke (2008), based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. Critic Roger Ebert said of his performance that he "seems to have become the latter-day version of Christopher Walken – not all the time, but when you need him, he's your go-to guy for weirdness."