James Ransone
Birthdate: June 2, 1979
Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Died: December 19, 2025
An actor with a distinctively haunted look that has served him well in a range of roles, James Ransone (birthname: James Finley Ransone III) has been a busy, in-demand actor over the past two decades, jumping easily between movies and such prestige TV series and streaming series as David Simon’s masterful Baltimore crime series, The Wire (2003), Generation Kill (2008), How to Make It in America (2011), HBO’s Treme (2011-2012), Low Winter Sun (2013), the Michael Connelly LAPD series Bosch (2016), HBO’s Mosaic (2018), with Sharon Stone, Hulu’s The First (2018), with Sean Penn and Natascha McElhone, and CBS’ SEAL Team (2020). Ransone co-stars with Ethan Hawke in Scott Derrickson’s Blumhouse production, The Black Phone in 2022.
One of James Ransone’s first movie roles was in Larry Clark’s extraordinary film about young people, Ken Park (2002, followed by a role in the ensemble in Rafal Zielinski’s indie feature, Downtown: A Street Tale (2004). He continued working with the leading edge of American independent filmmakers with the starring role in Gerardo Naranjo’s adventurous indie film, Malachance (2004), and Tenney Fairchild’s The Good Humor Man (2005).
Ransone’s profile rose with filmmaker Spike Lee’s crime thriller, Inside Man (2006), with Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Ransone began to consistently work with signature and genre American filmmakers like Lee (Red Hook Summer in 2012, Oldboy in 2013), Sean Baker (Starlet in 2012, Tangerine in 2015), Dito Montiel (The Son of No One in 2011, Empire State in 2013, The Clapper in 2017); and Scott Derrickson (the original Sinister in 2012, and the sequel Sinister 2 in 2015).
James Ransone has also worked with an interesting range of other distinctive American filmmakers, including writer-director Joshua Leonard’s The Lie (2011), based on T. Coraghessan Boyle’s story; Michael Almereyda’s inventive Shakespeare adaptation, Cymbeline (2014); genre maestro Ti West and his In a Valley of Violence (2016); Michelle Morgan’s It Happened in L.A. (2017); writer-director-editor Aaron Katz’s Gemini (2017); writer-director Stacy Coachrane’s Write When You Get Work (2018); writer-director Rupert Wyatt’s sci-fi drama, Captive State (2019); and John Pollono’s critically acclaimed Small Engine Repair (2021). Ransone appeared crucial and sinister in the two-part Stephen King adaptation, It Chapter Two (2019).
Personal life
Known For
Generation Kill
Cpl. Josh Ray Person (2008)
Awards
Winner, Robert Altman Award, Independent Spirit Awards (2012).
James Ransone Movies
Actor
Previous (14)
- 2025 |
Black Phone 2
asMax
As Finn, now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, his sister begins receiving calls in her dreams from the black phone and seeing disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp known as Alpine Lake.
- 2022 |
The Black Phone
asMax
After being abducted and locked in a basement, a boy starts receiving calls on a disconnected phone from the killer's previous victims.
- 2020 |
What We Found
asSgt. Steven Mohler
A trio of friends are starting high school when their friend vanishes. With the police unable--or unwilling?--to find her, they take it upon themselves to find out what happened, undertaking a harrowing journey that will change them all.
- 2019 |
Captive State
asPatrick Ellison
Set in a Chicago neighborhood nearly a decade after an occupation by an extraterrestrial force, 'Captive State' explores the lives on both sides of the conflict - the collaborators and dissidents.
- 2019 |
It Chapter Two
asEddie Kaspbrak
Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.
- 2018 |
- 2016 |
In a Valley of Violence
asGilly
A mysterious stranger and a random act of violence drag a town of misfits and nitwits into the bloody crosshairs of revenge.
- 2016 |
- 2015 |
Sinister 2
asEx-Deputy So & So
A young mother and her twin sons move into a rural house that's marked for death.
- 2013 |
Broken City
asTodd Lancaster
In a city rife with injustice, ex-cop Billy Taggart seeks redemption and revenge after being double-crossed by its most powerful figure: Mayor Nicholas Hostetler.
- 2012 |
- 2006 |
Inside Man
asSteve-O
A police detective, a bank robber and a high-power broker enter high-stakes negotiations after the criminal's brilliant heist spirals into a hostage situation.
- 2005 |
- -- | as Bodysuit
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