Sam Rockwell Biography

Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor known for his leading roles in Lawn Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Moon and Seven Psychopaths, as well as for his supporting roles in The Green Mile, Iron Man 2, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Conviction, Cowboys & Aliens and The Way, Way Back.

Early life

Rockwell was born at Seton Medical Center in Daly City, California, the son of actors who divorced when he was five years old. He was raised by his father, Pete Rockwell, in San Francisco, while his mother, Penny Hess, stayed behind in New York (he spent his summer vacations with her). Rockwell had what The New York Times described in 1998 as a "footloose upbringing" and, at age 10, made his brief stage debut playing Humphrey Bogart in an East Village improv comedy sketch starring his mother.

He attended San Francisco School of the Arts with Margaret Cho and dropped out before graduation. He later received his high school diploma after his parents enrolled him in an Outward Bound-style alternative high school called Urban Pioneers because, as Rockwell explained, "I just wanted to get stoned, flirt with girls, go to parties." The school, the actor said, "had a reputation as a place stoners went because it was easy to graduate," but the program ended up helping him regain an interest in performing. After appearing in an independent film during his senior year, he graduated and moved to New York to pursue an acting career.

Acting career

Early films

After his first film role in the 1989 horror film Clownhouse (produced by Francis Ford Coppola's production company), which he filmed when based in San Francisco, he moved to New York and trained at the William Esper Studios. His career slowly gathered momentum in the early 1990s, when he alternated between small-screen guest spots in TV shows 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. During this time Rockwell worked in restaurants as a busboy and delivered burritos by bicycle. At one point, Rockwell even 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 1996 film Box of Moonlight, 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 new-found 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."

He also won strong reviews for the 1997 film Lawn Dogs, 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 Catalonian International Film Festival. In 1999, Rockwell played 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 unlikeable 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 1999's science fiction satire Galaxy Quest, in the 1999 Shakespeare adaptation A Midsummer Night's Dream as Flute, and as gregarious villain Eric Knox in Charlie's Angels (2000), Rockwell won the biggest leading role of his career as The Gong Show host Chuck Barris in George Clooney's 2002 directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Rockwell's performance was well received, and the film received generally positive reviews.

Rockwell has 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." He received somewhat more mixed reviews as Zaphod Beeblebrox in the 2005 film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He then had a notable supporting role as Charley Ford, brother of Casey Affleck's character Robert Ford, in the well-received 2007 drama The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, in which Brad Pitt played the lead role of Jesse James. 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 appeared in the Iron Man sequel, released in 2010, as Tony Stark's rival weapons' developer, Justin Hammer. He is said to have accepted the role without reading the script. He had never heard of the character before he was contacted about the part, and was unaware that Hammer is an old man in the comic books.

In addition to big-budget feature films, Rockwell also keeps his feet firmly planted in the indie film world with projects such as The F Word and he recently played a very randy, Halloween-costume-clad Batman in a short, Robin's Big Date, opposite Justin Long as Robin. He also starred in the 2008 film Snow Angels opposite Kate Beckinsale and directed by David Gordon Green. He had 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, 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."

In 2007, Rockwell guest-starred in a comedy mini-series via the web called "Casted: The Continuing Chronicles of Derek Riffchyn, Greatest Casting Director in the World. Ever." He appears opposite Jonathan Togo (of CSI: Miami fame) as Derek and Justin Long (Dodgeball, Accepted) as Scott. Rockwell plays an aspiring young actor named Pete Sampras, no relation to the tennis player. The video can be viewed on YouTube, episode number two of a four-part series.

In 2009, he starred in the critically acclaimed science fiction film Moon, directed by Duncan Jones, for which his performance was widely praised, with some critics calling for an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination.

On May 3, 2010, it was announced that Rockwell would team up again with Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau, for Favreau's adaptation of the graphic novel Cowboys & Aliens. He played a bar owner named Doc who joins in the pursuit of the aliens.

Rockwell also appeared in Martin McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths alongside Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, Tom Waits, and Colin Farrell.

Theatre

Since 1992, Rockwell has been a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company, where Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz are Co-Artistic Directors. In 2005, Hoffman directed him in Stephen Adly Guirgis' hit play, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. This past August, Rockwell work-shopped an upcoming LAByrinth production, North of Mason-Dixon, scheduled to debut in London in 2007 and then premiere in New York City later the same year. Other plays in which Rockwell performed are: Dumb Waiter (2001), Zoo Story (2001), Hot L Baltimore (2000), Goosepimples (1998), Love and Human Remains, Face Divided, Orphans, Den of Thieves, Dessert at Waffle House, The Largest Elizabeth, and A Behanding in Spokane.

Personal life

Rockwell has never been married, and stated in a 2007 interview, "I definitely don't want to become a parent. It's not my bag."

Sam has been in a relationship with actress Leslie Bibb since 2007, when they reportedly met in LA as he was filming Frost/Nixon. They both appeared in Iron Man 2.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Clownhouse	Randy
1989	Last Exit to Brooklyn	Al
1990	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Head Thug
1991	Strictly Business	Gary
1992	Jack and His Friends	Louie
1992	In the Soup	Pauli
1992	Light Sleeper	Jealous
1992	Happy Hell Night	Young Henry Collins
1993	Law & Order	Officer Weddeker	Episode 3.21 "Manhood"
1994	Somebody to Love	Polish Guy
1994	'	One-eye Jimmy
1995	Drunks	Tony
1995	Glory Daze	Rob
1995	Mercy	Matty
1996	Bad Liver and a Broken Heart	Broken Heart
1996	Basquiat	Thug
1996	Box of Moon Light	The Kid, aka Bucky
1997	Prince Street	Donny Hanson	Series regular
1997	Arresting Gina	Sonny
1997	SUBWAYStories: Tales from the Underground	Man Eating	Television film Segment: Sax Cantor Riff
1997	Lawn Dogs	Trent	Best Actor Award at the Sitges Film Festival Best Actor Award at the Montreal World Film Festival
1998	'	Alan/Christopher Walken
1998	Jerry and Tom	Jerry
1998	Louis & Frank	Sam
1998	Safe Men	Sam
1998	Celebrity	Darrow Entourage
1999	'	Francis Flute
1999	'	'Wild Bill' Wharton	Nominated "? Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1999	Galaxy Quest	Guy Fleegman
2000	Charlie's Angels	Eric Knox
2001	D.C. Smalls	Karaoke Singer
2001	Pretzel	Sam
2001	BigLove	Nate	Short film
2001	Made	Hotel clerk	Uncredited
2001	Heist	Jimmy Silk
2002	13 Moons	Rick
2002	Running Time	The Hunted	Short film
2002	Welcome to Collinwood	Pero
2002	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind	Chuck Barris	Berlin International Film Festival " Silver Bear for Best Actor Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor Nominated "? Satellite Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2002	Stella Shorts 1998"2002	Pizza Guy	Direct-to-video Short: Bored
2003	Matchstick Men	Frank Mercer	Nominated "? Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture
2004	Piccadilly Jim	Piccdilly Jim/Jim Crocker
2005	'	Zaphod Beeblebrox
2005	'	Jeremy
2005	Robin's Big Date	The Bat-man	Short film
2007	Joshua	Brad Cairn	Best Actor Award at the Sitges Film Festival
2007	Snow Angels	Glenn Marchand
2007	'	Charley Ford
2008	Woman in Burka	Sam
2008	Choke	Victor Mancini	Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated "? Satellite Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2008	Frost/Nixon	James Reston Jr.	Nominated "? Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2009	The Winning Season	Bill	Also producer
2009	Moon	Sam Bell	Best Actor Award at the Sitges Film Festival Golden Space Needle Award for Best Actor Nominated "? British Independent Film Award for Best Actor Nominated "? Chlotrudis Award for Best Actor Nominated "? Irish Film and Television Award for Best International Actor Nominated "? Saturn Award for Best Actor Nominated "? Scream Award for Best Sci-Fi Actor
2009	G-Force (film)	Darwin	Voice only
2009	G-Force (video game)	Darwin	Video game
2009	Gentlemen Broncos	Bronco/Brutus
2009	Everybody's Fine	Robert
2010	Iron Man 2	Justin Hammer
2010	F"?K		Short film
2010	Conviction	Kenneth Waters	Boston Film Festival Award for Best Actor Hollywood Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? Iowa Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? Utah Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
2011	Gettysburg	Narrator
2011	Cowboys & Aliens	Doc
2011	'	Karl
2012	Seven Psychopaths	Billy Bickle	Nominated "? Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
2013	The Way, Way Back	Owen
2013	A Single Shot	John Moon	Post-production
2013	Trust Me	Aldo
2013	A Case of You	N/A
2013	Better Living Through Chemistry	Douglas Varney
2014	Poltergeist		Filming
2014	Laggies	Craig	Filming
TBA	Why Now?!		Post-production

Awards and nominations

Year	Group	Award	Film/Show	Result	Win/Nom
1997	Montreal World Film Festival	Best Actor	Lawn Dogs		1"0
1997	Catalonian International Film Festival (CIFF)	Best Actor	Lawn Dogs		2"0
2000	Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance By A Cast In A Theatrical Motion Picture	The Green Mile (w/ Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse, James Cromwell, Patricia Clarkson, Jeffrey DeMunn, Graham Greene, Bonnie Hunt, Michael Jeter, Doug Hutchison, Barry Pepper, Harry Dean Stanton)		2"1
2003	Berlin International Film Festival	Best Actor	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind		3"1
2003	Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards	Best Actor In A Leading Role	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind		4"1
2003	Satellite Awards	Best Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role, Musical Or Comedy	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind		4"2
2004	Satellite Awards	Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role, Musical Or Comedy	Matchstick Men		4"3
2007	CIFF	Best Actor	Joshua		5"3
2008	Satellite Awards	Best Actor In A Motion Picture, Musical Or Comedy	Choke		5"4
2008	Sundance Film Festival	Special Jury Prize	Choke (w/ Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald, Brad William Henke)		6"4
2009	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance By A Cast In A Motion Picture	Frost/Nixon (w/ Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Toby Jones, Matthew Macfadyen, Rebecca Hall)		6"5
2009	Seattle International Film Festival	Best Actor	Moon		7"5
2009	CIFF	Best Actor	Moon		8"5
2009	Scream Awards	Best Sci-Fi Actor	Moon		8"6
2009	British Independent Film Awards	Best Actor	Moon		8"7
2009	Detroit Film Critics Society Award	Best Actor	Moon		8"8
2009	The Golden Schmoes Movie Awards	Best Actor	Moon		9"8
2009	Saturn Award	Best Actor	Moon		9"9