Sam Rockwell

Actor, Producer, Director

Birthdate: November 5, 1968 (58 Years Old)

Sam Rockwell has built an intriguing career as a reliably creative actor capable of delivering many shades to characters who often exist on the fringes of socially accepted behavior. He is the definition, in many ways, of the classic working actor: With a resume slowly built in numerous American indie films, he has graduated to the Hollywood big leagues over the past two decades in a remarkable range of movies and performances, culminating in the rare coup of double Oscar nominations for Vice (2018)—as George W. Bush--and his winning turn in Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Over Ebbing, Missouri (2018).

Rockwell’s characters can also operate on the right side of the law, as in his turn as a British inspector in See How They Run (2022) with Saoirse Ronan and Adrien Brody. He’s added to this range as a voice actor for animated features, such as DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys (2022) and Augenblick Studios’ The Adventures of Drunky (release date not announced) with Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Coogan, and Nina Arianda. Shuttling between Left and Right Coast divorced parents as an only child, Rockwell followed in their footsteps as an actor. He experienced the typical syndrome of unsteady acting work until Tom DiCillo’s Box of Moonlight (1996), where his colorful performance earned strong reviews and industry notice.

He worked with other key indie directors like Julian Schnabel (Basquiat (1996), Richard Shepard (Mercy (1995)), John Duigan (Lawn Dogs (1997), and Alexandre Rockwell (Louis & Frank (1998)), culminating with Woody Allen’s Celebrity (1999) opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, Kenneth Branagh, and Judy Davis. With The Green Mile (1999), in which Rockwell played one of his baddest of bad guys, Rockwell launched a remarkable string of screen appearances in a savvy mix of studio and prestige projects, ranging from Galaxy Quest (1999) and Charlie’s Angels (2000) to David Mamet’s Heist (2001) with Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito; George Clooney’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) in a stunning portrayal of spy/gameshow host Chuck Barris; Ridley Scott’s Matchstick Men (2002) with Nicolas Cage; the film version of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), with Martin Freeman, Yasiin Bey, Zooey Deschanel, and John Malkovich; and Andrew Dominik’s magnificent Western with Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007).

Through this period, Sam Rockwell’s prolific roster of credits included supporting work in such major studio projects as Frost/Nixon (2008), Marvel’s Iron Man 2 (2010), Tony Goldwyn’s Conviction (2010) with Hilary Swank and Melissa Leo, and Cowboys & Aliens (2011), with Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. Before Three Billboards, Rockwell first collaborated with playwright-director Martin McDonagh on Seven Psychopaths (2012) with Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, Tom Waits, and Abbie Cornish. Rockwell has fluidly jumped between edgy comedies and dramas—often in the same film--including Mr. Right (2015) with Anna Kendrick and Tim Roth, and most notably in Three Billboards with Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson.

Less noticed is the array of performances of actual and living figures Rockwell has portrayed, from Chuck Barris, outlaw Charley Ford, and George W. Bush, to Bob Fosse (in the acclaimed mini-series, Fosse/Verdon (2019) with Michelle Williams) and Watson Bryant in Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell (2019), as well as his upcoming portrayal of Merle Haggard in writer-director Robin Bissell’s untitled biopic about the creator of the “Outlaw” sound in country music. Rockwell then performed in three consecutive voice roles in three animated features, two from DreamWorks Animation/Universal Pictures: the Walt Dohm-directed jukebox musical comedy, Trolls World Tour (2020), and as a lead in the Pierre Perifel-directed heist comedy, The Bad Guys (2022).

Rockwell’s third animated feature performance was another lead in Disney’s fantasy drama, The One and Only Ivan (2020), with cast members Angelina Jolie, Danny DeVito, Helen Mirren, and Bryan Cranston. Sam Rockwell starred in the British comic mystery, See How They Run (2022), co-starring Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, Harris Dickinson, and David Oyelowo, and released by Searchlight Pictures. Rockwell then joined the colorful ensemble of producer-director Matthew Vaughn’s spy action comedy, Argylle (2024), starring Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Catherine O’Hara, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, Cranston, John Cena, Richard E. Grant, and Samuel L. Jackson, and backed by Apple Original Films with Universal Pictures and Apple TV+ as distributors in theaters and on streaming.

Rockwell took on another voice role in director/writer/producer/co-star John Krasinski’s live-action/animated fantasy, IF (2024), (whose title refers to Imaginary Friend), with such fellow voice actors as Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Maya Rudolph, Jon Stewart, Christopher Meloni, Richard Jenkins, Awkwafina, and Vince Vaughn, and a live-action cast including Ryan Reynolds, Cailey Fleming, Fiona Shaw, and Bobby Moynihan, and released by Paramount Pictures. Sam Rockwell resumed his leading voice role as Mr. Wolf in the DreamWorks Animation Studios sequel, The Bad Guys 2 (2025), with Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Alex Borstein and Lilly Singh, with new voice actors Danielle Brooks, Maria Bakalova and Natasha Lyonne as an all-woman criminal squad, and released wide by Universal Pictures.

Rockwell led the cast of director/producer Gore Verbinski’s sci-fi action adventure, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (2025), co-starring Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena, Zazie Beetz, and Juno Temple, and co-produced by American and German backers including Constantin Film, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Blind Wink Productions.

Rockwell then starred in director/writer/producer Martin McDonagh’s drama partly set on Easter Island, Wild Horse Nine (2026), co-starring John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey and Tom Waits, produced by U.K. backers Blueprint Pictures and Film4. Rockwell voiced the lead title role of director/co-writer/producer Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn (2026), co-written by Matthew Robbins, co-starring Scarlett Johansson, Tom Waits, Matt Berry, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Rodriguez, Matt Jones, Aasif Mandvi, Alan Tudyk and Kathryn Hunter, produced (in part) by John Lasseter with Skydance Animation/Cinesite, and released in theaters and on streaming by Netflix after premiering at the London Film Festival.

Rockwell played himself in director/producer Damien Walters’ Stuntnuts: The Movie (date to be announced), the third movie in the Kick-Ass franchise and the first in a new spinoff trilogy, co-starring Chris Hemsworth and John Cena, and which was produced (in part) by Matthew Vaughn via his Marv Studios. Rockwell led the cast of the psychological thriller, Tumor (date to be announced), adapted from Joshua Hale Fialkov’s and Noel Tuazon’s 2010 graphic novel by screenwriter Cameron Alexander, co-starring Maisy Stella, Esai Morales, Chris Messina, Michael Pena and Gigi Zumbado under Will Bridges’s direction, and which was produced (in part) by Christopher Leggett’s Delirio Films.

Sam Rockwell led the voice cast in director/co-writer/producer Aaron Augenblick’s U.S. indie animated comedy, The Adventures of Drunky (date to be announced), with the voice cast of Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Coogan, Nina Arianda, Abby Elliott, John Leguizamo and Jay Pharoah, and co-written and co-produced by Aaron Bergeron. Rockwell co-starred with Woody Harrelson in director/producer Jason Bateman’s comedy crime thriller, The Cackling of the Dodos (date to be announced), with Fred Hechinger and Michael McKean, produced (in part) with Bateman’s partner Michael Costigan at Aggregate Films, and released by Netflix.

Rockwell starred in director/co-writer/producer Zach Golden’s zombie comedy-thriller, Hellhound (date to be announced), co-starring Marisa Tomei, Chris Messina and Ivan Martin (who co-wrote with Golden and produced with Joseph Restaino and Tony Stopperan). Rockwell was a lead producer and led the cast of director/co-writer David M. Rosenthal’s crime thriller, The Smack (date to be announced), based on Richard Lange’s novel, co-starring Kathy Bates, Marisa Tomei and Casey Affleck, and which was produced by Unified Pictures/Concourse Media/Play Hooky Productions/Sugar Rush Pictures.

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Personal Life
Movies
Facts

Sam Rockwell Photos and Videos

Poltergeist - TRAILER #1

Mr. Right Movie CLIP - Corny (2016) - Anna Kendrick, Sam Rockwell Comedy HD

Sam Rockwell Was Sent to the Woods for Getting Bad Grades in High School

Sam Rockwell Red Carpet Interview | EE BAFTA Film Awards 2018

Personal life

Born in the Bay Area and raised in his early years in San Mateo, Sam Rockwell’s acting parents, Pete and Penny Rockwell, moved the family to New York City when he was age two. He was an only child. His parents divorced when he was five, and he was then raised by his father in San Francisco and spent summers with his mother in New York City, where he joined his mother in improv comedy sketches in East Village comedy clubs. He has been in a relationship with actor Leslie Bibb since 2007. His height is 5’ 8”. Rockwell’s estimated net worth is $20 million.*

Known For

Moon

Sam Bell (2009)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Dixon (2017)

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Chuck Barris (2002)

Seven Psychopaths

Billy (2012)

Sam Rockwell Movies

Actor

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Previous (25)

2026 |
Mercy
Mercy
2026
Action, Crime, Drama
In the near future, a detective stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced A.I. Judge he once championed, before it determines his fate.
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asMatty
2026 |
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
2026
Action, Adventure, Comedy
A "Man From the Future" arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence.
More Info Watch Now
asThe Man from the Future
2026 |
Wild Horse Nine
Wild Horse Nine
2026
Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller
CIA agents Chris and Lee face a trust-testing mission from Santiago to Easter Island during 1973 in Chile.
More Info
asLee
2025 |
The Bad Guys 2
The Bad Guys 2
2025
Animation, Action, Adventure
The Bad Guys are struggling to find trust and acceptance in their newly minted lives as Good Guys, when they are pulled out of retirement and forced to do "one last job" by an all-female squad of criminals.
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asMr. Wolf
2024 |
Argylle
Argylle
2024
Action, Comedy, Thriller
A reclusive author who writes espionage novels about a secret agent and a global spy syndicate realizes the plot of the new book she's writing starts to mirror real-world events, in real time.
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asAidan Wilde
2022 |
The Bad Guys
The Bad Guys
2022
Animation, Adventure, Comedy
To avoid prison, a gang of notorious animal criminals pretends to seek being rehabilitated, only for their leader to realize that he genuinely wants to change his ways.
More Info Watch Now
asWolf
2022 |
See How They Run
See How They Run
2022
Comedy, Crime, Mystery
In the West End of 1950s London, plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal member of the crew is murdered.
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asInspector Stoppard
2020 |
Trolls World Tour
Trolls World Tour
2020
Animation, Adventure, Comedy
When the Queen of the Hard Rock Trolls tries to take over all the Troll kingdoms, Queen Poppy and her friends try different ways to save all the Trolls.
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asHickory
2019 |
Jojo Rabbit
Jojo Rabbit
2019
Comedy, Drama, War
A young German boy in the Hitler Youth, whose hero and imaginary friend is the country's dictator, is shocked to discover that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home.
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asCaptain Klenzendorf
2019 |
Richard Jewell
Richard Jewell
2019
Biography, Crime, Drama
Security guard Richard Jewell is an instant hero after foiling a bomb attack at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but his life becomes a nightmare when the FBI leaks to the media that he is a suspect in the case.
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asWatson Bryant
2019 |
The Best of Enemies
The Best of Enemies
2019
Biography, Drama, History
Civil rights activist Ann Atwater faces off against C.P. Ellis, Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan, in 1971 Durham, North Carolina over the issue of school integration.
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asC.P. Ellis
2019 |
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels
2019
Action, Adventure, Comedy
When a young systems engineer blows the whistle on a dangerous technology, Charlie's Angels are called into action, putting their lives on the line to protect us all.
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asEric Knox
2018 |
Vice
Vice
2018
Biography, Comedy, Drama
The story of Dick Cheney, an unassuming bureaucratic Washington insider, who quietly wielded immense power as Vice President to George W. Bush, reshaping the country and the globe in ways that are still felt today.
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asGeorge W. Bush
2018 |
Woman Walks Ahead
Woman Walks Ahead
2018
Biography, Drama, History
Catherine Weldon, a portrait painter from 1890s Brooklyn, travels to Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull and becomes embroiled in the Lakota peoples' struggle over the rights to their land.
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asSilas Groves
2018 |
Blaze
Blaze
2018
Biography, Drama, Music
A reimagining of the life and times of Blaze Foley, the unsung songwriting legend of the Texas Outlaw Music movement.
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asOilman
2017 |
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2017
Comedy, Crime, Drama
A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
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asDixon
2016 |
Mr. Right
Mr. Right
2016
Action, Comedy, Crime
A girl falls for the "perfect" guy, who happens to have a very fatal flaw: he's a hitman on the run from the crime cartels who employ him.
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asFrancis
2015 |
Poltergeist
Poltergeist
2015
Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
A family whose suburban home is haunted by evil forces must come together to rescue their youngest daughter after the apparitions take her captive.
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asEric Bowen
2011 |
The Sitter
The Sitter
2011
Comedy
A college student on suspension is coaxed into babysitting the kids next door, though he is fully unprepared for the wild night ahead of him.
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asKarl
2010 |
Iron Man 2
Iron Man 2
2010
Action, Sci-Fi
With the world now aware of his identity as Iron Man, Tony Stark must contend with both his declining health and a vengeful mad man with ties to his father's legacy.
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asJustin Hammer
2009 |
Moon
Moon
2009
Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth, parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our plane
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asSam Bell
2000 |
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels
2000
Action, Adventure, Comedy
Three private investigators are assigned to track down a kidnapped software engineer, but the case isn't as straightforward as it seems.
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asEric Knox
1999 |
The Green Mile
The Green Mile
1999
Crime, Drama, Fantasy
Paul Edgecomb, the head death row guard at a prison in 1930s Louisiana, meets an inmate, John Coffey, a black man who is accused of murdering two girls. His life changes drastically when he discovers that John has a special gift.
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as'Wild Bill' Wharton
1990 |
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
1990
Action, Adventure, Comedy
Four teenage mutant ninja turtles emerge from the shadows to protect New York City from a gang of criminal ninjas.
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asHead Thug
-- |
as Head Thug

Facts About Sam Rockwell

Confirmed Bachelor: Sam Rockwell has never been married and has publicly stated that he’s not interested in being a father.

Theatre Life: Rockwell has kept a robust life in the theater, performing in plays by Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, Martin McDonagh, Lanford Wilson, David Mamet, and Brad Fraser.

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