Billy Bob Thornton

m10 I used to start out a show I did in a theater by saying, ‘OK, y’all know my name’s Billy Bob, so you probably think I married my cousin and [I] screw goats.’

— Billy Bob Thornton

MOST actors play one or two genuinely memorable characters, some actors are genuinely memorable characters, and the occasional true original qualifies in both categories: such a one is Arkansas native Billy Bob Thornton. The colorful writer-director-star of the unlikely 1996 indie smash Sling Blade grew up in poverty in the Deep South, and won his bread in a wide variety of professional capacities before taking an active interest in acting at age 28. Though he first developed Karl Childers, Sling Blade’s hulking, slow-witted protagonist, while on the set of the 1987 HBO movie The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains, it took Thornton the better part of a decade to turn his intriguing character sketch into a full-blown feature film. Along the way, he progressed from doing supporting work in such lowbrow fare as Chopper Chicks in Zombietown to co-writing and co-starring in the critically respected noir-de-force One False Move. On the heels of his Sling Blade breakthrough, the genial Southern gent became the toast of the town and capitalized on his newfound celebrity by scoring a trio of high-profile roles in the 1998 releases Primary Colors, Armageddon, and A Simple Plan.

Long before Hollywood had any notion of his gifts, Thornton’s mother copped to the fact that he was bound for greatness — a homemaker and a locally reputed psychic, she foretold that her son was destined to cross professional paths with fellow Southerner and matinee idol Burt Reynolds. (Her prediction bore fruit many years later, when Thornton appeared in several episodes of Reynolds’ late-’80s sitcom Evening Shade.) Born in the tiny backwoods burg of Alpine, Ark., and raised in nearby Malvern, wee baby Billy Bob was an exceptional individual from the very beginning — at age 7 months he tipped the scales at 30 pounds, thereby earning notice as the biggest infant in county history. Though dad taught history and coached basketball at the local high school, his income was decidedly modest, and throughout much of Billy Bob’s childhood, the family lived with his grandparents in a house with no indoor-plumbing and no electricity. His grandfather, whom the actor once described as a “gut-eating Choctaw,” frequently supplemented the family’s diet by hunting possum and deer in the nearby woods. Among the formative events of Thornton’s childhood was the forging of a friendship with Tom Epperson — with whom he would later collaborate on several movie scripts — and though his most immediate interests traveled other avenues, he did dabble in acting during his high school years.

Straight out of high school, Thornton did the blue-collar thing, working variously as a farmhand and on a screen-door assembly line. He got hitched for the first time in 1975; as he later told one interviewer, “I went bowling one night and ended up married. It was one of those deals.” The marriage lasted two years and produced a daughter. In 1977, he enrolled at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Ark., where he briefly pursued a degree in psychology, dropping out after two semesters. Convinced that he had a future in rock music, Thornton hooked up with pal Epperson, who’d become an aspiring novelist, and the two of them went seeking fame and fortune in the Big Apple, where they managed to stick around almost long enough to unpack before fleeing back to Arkansas in terror. While recovering from his ill-starred New York odyssey, Thornton worked in a nursing home and as a collections agent, and drummed and sang in both Southern rock and R&B bands, including one outfit, Tres Hombres, that landed a gig opening for Hank Williams Jr.

By 1981, Thornton and Epperson had nerved themselves up for a second shot at the big time, and, mindful of their lately discovered aversion to East Coast living, headed for Los Angeles. (Thornton scraped together $200 to make the trip by driving a truck to Slidell, La., after his supernaturally insightful mother helpfully prophesied that he would “have some business” in a town of the same name.) The pair worked odd jobs and wrote scripts, and, two years after their arrival, Thornton turned a serious eye to performing for the first time since high school and began taking acting classes. A long dry spell ensued, and by 1984, the aspiring actor was living so lean he suffered a near-fatal malnutrition-induced heart failure brought on by weeks of eating nothing but potatoes. Following a brief convalescence back home in Arkansas, he returned to Los Angeles, determined to make his way as an actor. Things began looking up in 1986, when he landed his debut feature-film role in the low-rent thriller Hunter’s Blood, which ended up on the shelf for two years before making a brief layover in theaters on the way to the video rack.

A second marriage, to actress Toni Lawrence, proved even more disastrously short-lived than his first, and Thornton spent the next four years logging tiny roles in mostly forgettable movies. One notable exception proved to be The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains — though Thornton’s part consisted of the barest handful of lines, his experience making the movie would have a profound effect on his future in cinema. During a break from shooting following a particularly rough day, he retired to his trailer, and in a fit of self-loathing began making faces and ranting at himself in the mirror — by the end of the day, Karl Childers had come into being. As years went by and roles came and went, the aspiring thespian honed his Karl Childers persona relentlessly, eventually spinning it out into a series of dramatic monologues, stage gigs, and, finally, a 1994 short film directed by George Hickenlooper. Over the same period, Thornton and Epperson began to gain a reputation as a talented screenwriting team, winning kudos for scripting 1991’s One False Move (in which Thornton appeared alongside his third wife, actress Cynda Williams) and 1996’s A Family Thing.

Everything came together in 1996, when producers talked Thornton into directing a feature-length version of his 1994 short, a project he was initially quite reluctant to undertake. As he later revealed in an interview with Esquire, he eventually agreed to direct Sling Blade primarily as an act of self-defense, “to protect the picture from some unknown megalomaniac.” When the finished product debuted to consistent raves on the festival circuit, Miramax forked over $10 million for distribution rights, and, following the film’s triumphant theatrical release, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Thornton a screenwriting Oscar. Taking immediate advantage of his newly bestowed celebrity, Thornton snapped up a plum role in Oliver Stone’s U-Turn (1997), and then pulled off a remarkable big-studio breakthrough the following year with his roles in Primary Colors, Armageddon, and A Simple Plan, the latter of which brought him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He kicked off 1999 with a headlining role alongside John Cusack and Cate Blanchett in director Mike Newell’s Pushing Tin.

The oft-married Thornton’s fourth foray into the realm of wedded bliss ended shortly following his widely publicized appearance at the 1997 Academy Awards ceremony with then-wife Pietra Cherniak on his arm; not long after their breakup, he began stepping out with actress Laura Dern; they were briefly engaged to be married. Mere weeks after their breakup in April 2000, Thornton wed his 20-something Pushing Tin co-star, Angelina Jolie, in a no-frills Las Vegas ceremony.

Thornton will be hard at work both in front of and behind the camera in the near future: Universal is developing a comedy tentatively titled Starkers, Texas for him and Matt Dillon. Directorial projects in the pipeline include a high-profile adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, to star Matt Damon; and the black comedy Daddy and Them, in which Dern and Thornton co-star.Occupation: Actor, Director, Writer
Date of Birth: August 4, 1955
Place of Birth: Hot Springs, Ark., U.S.A.
Sign: Sun in Leo, Moon in Aquarius
Relations: Father: Billy Ray (educator, coach; deceased); mother: Virginia (psychic); brothers: Jimmy Don (musician; deceased), John David (physician); wife: Angelina Jolie (actress); ex-wives: Melissa Lee Gatlin, Toni Lawrence (actress), Cynda Williams (actress), Pietra Dawn Cherniak; ex-fiancée: Laura Dern (actress); daughter: Amanda (with Gatlin); sons: William, Harry (both with Cherniak)
Education: Dropped out of Henderson State University
Fan Mail: C/O William Morris Agency
151 El Camino Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Billy Bob Thornton: Credits

MOVIES

Actor
Princess Mononoke — 1999
Armageddon — 1998
Primary Colors — 1998
A Simple Plan — 1998
Burn Hollywood Burn: An Alan Smithee Film — 1998
U-Turn — 1997
The Apostle — 1997
The Winner — 1997
Sling Blade — 1996
Dead Man — 1996
The Stars Fell on Henrietta — 1995
On Deadly Ground — 1994
Tombstone — 1993
Indecent Proposal — 1993

Director
Sling Blade — 1996

Screenwriter
Sling Blade — 1996
A Family Thing — 1996

TV
Ellen — 1997 (Series; episodes)
A Salute to Martin Scorsese — 1997 (Special; as himself)
Don’t Look Back — 1996 (Movie; performer and writer)
Out There — 1995 (Movie)
Hearts Afire — 1992 (Series)
The Outsiders — 1990 (Series )
The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains — 1988 (Movie)
Matlock — 1987 (Series; episode)

Thornton, Billy Bob Web sites

Pushing Tin
Official site for the movie depicting the rivalry between two air traffic controllers. Includes film, cast and crew information.
http://www.foxmovies.com/pushingtin/
Last reviewed by DottieHinkle

Simple Plan, A
Movie plot, reviews, trailer and video clips.
http://www.asimpleplan.com/
Last reviewed by DottieHinkle

ABCNEWS.com: Singer’s Stalker Snared
A homeless man claiming to be infatuated with Linda Ronstadt was arrested for allegedly stalking the singer. 5/7/00
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/entertainment/Daily…
Last reviewed by DottieHinkle

Apostle, The
Synopsis, production notes, and info on Robert Duvall, Farrah Fawcett, and Billy Bob Thornton.
http://www.octoberfilms.com/apostle/film01.html
Last reviewed by DottieHinkle

ABCNEWS.com: Oscar Winners Wed
Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie tied the knot over the weekend at a quickie marriage ceremony on the Las Vegas strip. 5/7/00
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/entertainment/Daily…
Last reviewed by DottieHinkle

All The Pretty Horses
Based on the book by Cormac McCarthy, the film stars Matt Damon, Lucas Black & Henry Thomas.
http://www.spe.sony.com/movies/jump/prettyhorses.h…
Last reviewed by DottieHinkle

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