Billy Bob Thornton

Billy Bob Thornton
Born	Billy Bob Thornton
Spouse(s)	Melissa Lee Gatlin (1978-1980) Toni Lawrence (1986-1988) Cynda Williams (1990-1992) Pietra Dawn Cherniak (1993-1997) Angelina Jolie (2000-2003)
Website	www.billybobthornton.net

Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4 1955) is an Academy Award-winning American screenwriter, actor, as well as occasional director, playwright and singer. He came to fame in the mid 1990s, after writing, directing, and starring in the film Sling Blade, and has since established a career as a Hollywood leading actor, having appeared in several successful films, including 2003's Bad Santa. Thornton has been described in media reports as "Hollywood's go-to alpha male".

Biography

Early life

Thornton was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas to Billy Ray Thornton, a high school history teacher and basketball coach, and Virginia Roberta (née Faulkner), a psychic. Thornton has three younger brothers, Jimmy Don, born in 1958 and now deceased, Jim Bean, and John David, born in 1969. Thornton lived in both Alpine, Arkansas and Malvern, Arkansas during his childhood, and also spent time with his grandfather, Otis Thornton, a forest ranger, in a small shack in the woods. Thornton is the cousin of noted professional wrestlers Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk.

A good school baseball player, he tried out for the Kansas City Royals, but was let go after an injury. After a short period laying asphalt for the Arkansas State Transportation Dept., he attended Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, where he studied psychology but dropped out after two semesters.

In the late 1980s, Thornton settled in Los Angeles to pursue his career as an actor alongside future writing partner Tom Epperson. Thornton initially had a difficult time succeeding as an actor, and worked in telemarketing, off-shore wind farming and fast food management while auditioning for acting jobs. He also played drums and sang with South African rock legend Piet Botha's band Jack Hammer. While Thornton worked as a waiter for an industry event, he served film director Billy Wilder and struck up a conversation with Wilder, who advised Thornton to consider a career as a screenwriter.

Career

Thornton first came to semi-prominence as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire with John Ritter and Markie Post. His role as the villain in 1992's One False Move brought him to the attention of critics. He also had small roles in the early 1990s films Indecent Proposal, On Deadly Ground, Bound By Honor, Grey Knight, and Tombstone.

Thornton put Wilder's advice to good use, and went on to write, direct and star in the independent film Sling Blade, which was released in 1996. The film, an expansion of a short film titled Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade, told the story of Karl Childers, a mentally handicapped man. Sling Blade garnered international acclaim. Thornton's screenplay earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Writers Guild of America Award, and an Edgar Award, while his performance received Oscar and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Actor. Thornton adapted the book All the Pretty Horses into a 2000 film with the same name, starring Matt Damon and Penélope Cruz. The negative experience (he was forced to cut more than an hour) led to his decision to never direct another film (a subsequent release, Daddy and Them, was filmed earlier). Also in 2000, an early script which he and Tom Epperson wrote together was made into The Gift which starred Cate Blanchett, Hilary Swank, Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes and Giovanni Ribisi.

During the late 1990s, Thornton, who has had a life-long love for music, began a career as a singer-songwriter. He released a roots rock album entitled Private Radio in 2001, and two more albums, The Edge of the World (2003) and Hobo (2005). Thornton was the singer of a blues rock band named Tres Hombres. Guitarist Billy Gibbons referred to the band as "The best little cover band in Texas", and Thornton bears a tattoo with the band's name on it. He also performed the Warren Zevon song The Wind on the tribute album Enjoy Every Sandwich: Songs of Warren Zevon. Thornton also recorded a cover of the Johnny Cash classic "Ring of Fire" for the Oxford American magazine's Southern Music CD in 2001. As of September 2006, Thornton is working on another album.

Thornton's screen persona has been described by the press as that of a "tattooed, hirsute man's man". He appeared in several major film roles following Sling Blade 's success, including 1998's Armageddon and A Simple Plan, 2001's Monster's Ball and 2004's The Alamo, in which he played Davy Crockett. He played a malicious mall Santa Claus in 2003's Bad Santa, a black comedy that performed well at the box office and established Thornton as a leading comic actor. Thornton has stated that following Bad Santa's success, audiences "like to watch [him] play that kind of guy" and "they [casting directors] call me up when they need an asshole. It's kinda that simple... you know how narrow the imagination in this business can be". He appeared in the comic film School for Scoundrels, which was released on September 29, 2006. In the film, he plays a self-help doctor; the role was written specifically for Thornton. His most recent film roles were The Astronaut Farmer, a drama released on February 23, 2007, and the comedy, Mr. Woodcock, in which Thornton plays a sadistic gym teacher. He will next star in the drama Peace Like a River. Thornton has also expressed an interest in directing another film, possibly a period piece about cave explorer Floyd Collins, based on the book Trapped! The Story of Floyd Collins by Robert K. Murray and Roger Brucker.

Thornton received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 7, 2004.

Personal life

Thornton has stated on several occasions that he has obsessive-compulsive disorder; he and rock singer Warren Zevon became close friends after sharing their common experiences with the disorder. He is known for various idiosyncratic behaviors, well-documented in interviews with the actor. Among these is a phobia of antique furniture, something shared by the Dwight Yoakam character in the Thornton-penned Sling Blade. That trait was also added to Thornton's character in the 2001 film Bandits. Additionally, he has stated that he has a fear of certain types of silverware, a trait which was included for his character in 2001's Monster's Ball, in which his character requests a plastic spoon each time he consumes his daily bowl of chocolate ice cream.

Thornton lives in Los Angeles. He has been married five times, most notably to actress Angelina Jolie. The pair were known for their eccentric behavior, including reports that they wore vials of each others' blood around their necks; he later clarified this to be that the two of them wore small lockets that contained a drop of blood from each of them inside. Thornton and Jolie adopted a child from Cambodia renamed Maddox. Jolie's divorce petition named the child as being both hers and Thornton's offspring and requested the Court grant her custody and Thornton reasonable parenting time. He is the father of four other children: Amanda Spence with his first wife, Melissa Gatlin; William Langston and Harry James with his fourth wife, Pietra Cherniak; and Bella, with Connie Angland, who is Thornton's current girlfriend. Thornton has also stated that he will likely not marry again; he has specified that he believes that marriage "doesn't work" for him.

On September 11, 2003, Thornton had received word that his ex-Hearts Afire and Slingblade star, John Ritter, had died, while filming the last movie Bad Santa, which was dedicated to him. He, along with Markie Post, attended Ritter's funeral four days after his co-star's death.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role
1989	South of Reno	Counterman
	Going Overboard	Dave
	Chopper Chicks in Zombietown	Tommy
1992	One False Move	Ray Malcolm
1993	Tombstone	Johnny Tyler
	Bound by Honor	Lightning
	Indecent Proposal	Day Tripper
1994	On Deadly Ground	Homer Carlton
1996	Sling Blade	Karl Childers
	Don't Look Back	Marshall
1997	The Apostle	Troublemaker
	U-Turn	Darrell
	Princess Mononoke	Jigo
1998	A Simple Plan	Jacob Mitchell
	Armageddon	Dan Truman, NASA Administrator
	Homegrown	Jack Marsden
	Thin Red Line	Narrator(Edited)
	Primary Colors	Richard Jemmons
1999	Pushing Tin	Russell Bell
2001	Monster's Ball	Hank Grotowski
	Bandits	Terry Lee Collins
	The Man Who Wasn't There	Ed Crane
2002	Waking Up in Reno	Lonnie Earl Dodd
2003	Bad Santa	Willie
	Love Actually	The US President
	Intolerable Cruelty	Howard D. Doyle
	Levity	Manuel Jordan
2004	Friday Night Lights	Coach Gary Gaines
	The Alamo	Davy Crockett
	Chrystal	Joe
2005	The Ice Harvest	Vic Cavanaugh
	Bad News Bears	Morris Buttermaker
2006	School for Scoundrels	Dr. P/Dennis Sherman
2007	The Astronaut Farmer	Charles Farmer
	Mr. Woodcock	Mr. Woodcock

Discography

• Private Radio (CD) - Universal Records - 2001
• The Edge of the World (CD) - Sanctuary Records - 2003
• Hobo (CD) - Big Deal Records - 2005
• Beautiful Door (CD) - New Door Records - 2007

Further reading

• Pringle, G (2007-09-23). "On the move: Billy Bob Thorton". Driving. The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2007-09-25. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

• Billy Bob Thornton at IMDb
• Billy Bob Thornton official site
• Billy Bob Music
• Billy Bob Thornton interview
• Billy Bob Thornton Radio Interview - September 27, 2005 with Chris Comer & Rob Ervin
• "Set For Launch: A Video Interview with the Makers of 'The Astronaut Farmer'" — eFilmCritic.com video interviews with Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen and the Polish Brothers
• Stumped? Interview