Walton Goggins

Walton Sanders Goggins Jr. (born November 10, 1971) is an American actor. He has starred in various television series, including The Shield (2002–2008), Justified (2010–2015), Vice Principals (2016–2017), The Righteous Gemstones (2019–2025), Invincible (2021–present), Fallout (2024–present), and The White Lotus (2025). He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Justified and The White Lotus, and for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Fallout.

Goggins starred in and co-produced the Academy Award–winning short film The Accountant (2001). He has also featured in feature films, such as Predators (2010), Lincoln, Django Unchained (both 2012), The Hateful Eight (2015), Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Tomb Raider, and Ant-Man and the Wasp (all 2018).

Early life

Goggins was born on November 10, 1971, in Birmingham, Alabama. He is the son of Janet Long and Walton Sanders Goggins Sr. He was raised in Lithia Springs, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, graduated from Lithia Springs High School and attended Georgia Southern University for a year.

Career

Goggins moved to Los Angeles at nineteen, working at LA Fitness and a valet parking business while taking acting classes and auditioning. After starring in a few roles in Georgia, he met Ray McKinnon while filming Murder in Mississippi.

Goggins played Shane Vendrell in the FX drama series The Shield. He formed the production company Ginny Mule Pictures, which produced four films: The Accountant (a short film which won an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film), Chrystal (Sundance Dramatic Competition), Randy and the Mob, and That Evening Sun (which won the South by Southwest Special Jury Prize). They later created the drama series Rectify. Goggins was set to play the lead and AMC had bought the pilot script, written by McKinnon, a role which went to Aden Young, when the series later went to Sundance TV.

Goggins had a major supporting role as a deadly death row inmate being hunted by the titular antagonists in the film Predators. He played Boyd Crowder in the pilot episode for the FX drama series Justified. Before Goggins was cast, Boyd was intended to die in the pilot episode, but Graham Yost kept the character when the character scored highly with test audiences. Goggins joined the main cast for the second season in May 2010. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role on Justified. In 2011, he appeared in "Code of the West", a commercial for Ram Truck's "Guts & Glory" campaign. He appeared in Cowboys & Aliens as Hunt, a bandit formerly in the employ of the protagonist. He played a sadistic overseer and slave fighting trainer in the western film Django Unchained.

Goggins played a transgender sex worker in the FX drama series Sons of Anarchy. He previously worked with the show's creator, Kurt Sutter, when the latter was a writer and executive producer on The Shield. The name "Venus Van Dam" is a play on the undercover name "Cletus Van Damme" used by The Shield character Shane Vendrell. He played Chris Mannix in The Hateful Eight and Lee Russell in the HBO dark comedy series Vice Principals. The New York Times critic Mike Hale wrote, "Walton Goggins makes a habit of being the best thing about the television shows he's in."

In 2018, Goggins played Lawrence in Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Mathias Vogel in Tomb Raider, and Sonny Burch in Ant-Man and the Wasp. That same year, he made a guest appearance in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory as a jealous husband. In 2019, he played the lead character in the CBS sitcom The Unicorn and starred in the comedy series The Righteous Gemstones, alongside Vice Principals costar Danny McBride. In 2020, Goggins voiced part of the true crime podcast Deep Cover: The Drug Wars.

Goggins was cast as Jay Whittle / The Hero in the Amazon Prime Video comedy miniseries I'm a Virgo. In 2024, he played Cooper Howard / The Ghoul in the Amazon Prime Video drama series Fallout, and Peter Tomarken in The Luckiest Man in America, based on an actual incident involving a contestant on the Tomarken-hosted game show Press Your Luck.

The actor designed a series of active eyewear which he promoted in a co-branded commercial with GoDaddy that aired during Super Bowl LIX in 2025. This was his first appearance in a Super Bowl commercial.

Goggins joined the ensemble cast for the third season of the anthology series The White Lotus.

Personal life

Goggins lost his two front teeth in a childhood baseball accident when he was struck by a ball after he arrived late for practice. Made to run a lap as punishment for his tardiness, Goggins was running toward centerfield.

"The only thing I heard before my life changed was, 'Walton!' I turned around and the baseball hit me right in the mouth. He later lost the same two teeth a year and a half later- when diving into the shallow end of a pool. After this, he had to wear a bridge replacement for many years,"

In 2001, Goggins married Leanne Knight. Although estranged, they remained married until she died from suicide on November 12, 2004. Goggins married filmmaker Nadia Conners in August 2011 and they have a son together.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Awards and nominations

Footnotes

References

External links

• Walton Goggins on Instagram
• Walton Goggins at IMDb