| Billy Bob Thornton  Born: 4-Aug-1955
Birthplace: Hot Springs, AR
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor, Screenwriter, Film Director Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Sling Blade Billy Bob Thornton wrote his way to fame by co-scripting One False Move, a critically-acclaimed indie hit in 1992, starring himself and Bill Paxton. He also spent several years writing Sling Blade, which he then directed and starred in. That screenplay won him a 1996 Oscar, but since then, the few films Thornton has written or directed have drawn little notice. He is now better known as an actor in films like Armageddon, A Simple Plan, Monster's Ball, Bad Santa, and Friday Night Lights.
Thornton is one quarter Choctaw Indian, one quarter Italian, the rest of Irish extraction. And as Thornton describes it, his childhood was thoroughbred Arkansas hillbilly. The Thorntons lived in a small cabin in the woods near Alpine, a town of about 100. The home had no electricity or running water, and the family often ate whatever game they shot in the nearby forests. It says Billy Bob on his birth certificate, not William Robert. He is so authentic a Billy Bob he was actually cast as a character named Billy Bob in his first film, Hunter's Blood, in 1987.
Thornton's early credits include Adam Sandler's pre-SNL debut Going Overboard and Troma Films' Chopper Chicks in Zombietown. He was a regular on two TV series, The Outsiders (based on S. E. Hinton's novel and Francis Ford Coppola's film) and John Ritter's 1990s sit-com Hearts Afire. Ritter and Thornton were fast friends until Ritter's death.
Thornton has divorced four of his five wives within two years of their wedding. His second wife, Toni Lawrence, is the daughter of pock-faced movie tough guy Marc Lawrence (Key Largo, among many other films). His fourth wife, ex-Playboy model Pietra Dawn Cherniak, claimed "spousal abuse" in divorce papers.
Thornton's mother, a psychic, predicted that he would work with Burt Reynolds -- and Thornton later appeared on Reynolds' Evening Shade TV series. She also says she envisioned an Eskimo somehow related to his fifth wife, Angelina Jolie, for about 14 years, long before ever meeting or even hearing of Jolie. Thornton sports at least 13 tattoos, and has a fear of antiques, which he believes may harbor the spirits of past owners. Says Thornton: "To sit in an old hand-carved chair with velvet, y'know, I get creeped out."
As a kid, one of his favorite snacks was a cube of butter. He has said he was hospitalized in the early 1980s due to complications from eating nothing but potatoes. He dreams of retiring to Missouri where he would raise llamas. It has also been suggested that Thornton might be making up some or most or all this stuff, to fine-tune his wacko public persona and chuckle at the coverage on Entertainment Tonight.
Father: Billy Ray Thornton (teacher, b. 14-Nov-1929, d. 8-Aug-1974 lung cancer)
Mother: Virginia Roberta Faulkner Thornton (psychic)
Brother: Jimmy Don Thornton (musician, b. 12-Apr-1958, d. 3-Oct-1988)
Brother: John David Thornton (doctor, b. 1969)
Wife: Melissa Lee Gatlin (m. 1978, div. 1980, one daughter)
Daughter: Amanda Thornton Brumfield (b. circa 1979, convicted of manslaughter 2011)
Wife: Toni Lawrence (actress, m. 1986, div. 1988)
Wife: Cynda Williams (actress, m. 1990, div. 1992)
Wife: Pietra Dawn Cherniak (Playboy model, m. 18-Feb-1993, div. Apr-1997, two sons)
Son: William
Son: Henry James ("Harry")
Girlfriend: Laura Dern (actress, broken engagement 2000)
Wife: Angelina Jolie (actress, m. 5-May-2000, div. 27-May-2003, one son adopted)
Son: Maddox (adopted)
Girlfriend: Danielle Dotzenrod (model, dated 2003)
Girlfriend: Connie Angland (seamstress, one daughter)
Daughter: Bella (b. 22-Sep-2004)
High School: Malvern High School, Malvern, AR (1973)
University: Henderson State University (psychology, dropped out after two semesters)
Edgar Allan Poe Award Best Motion Picture, for Sling Blade (1997)
Choctaw Ancestry
Risk Factors: Smoking, Aviophobia
TELEVISION
Fargo Lorne Malvo (2014-)
Hearts Afire Billy Bob Davis (1992-95)
The Outsiders Buck Merrill (1990)
FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
Jayne Mansfield's Car (13-Feb-2012)
Daddy and Them (6-Jun-2001)
All the Pretty Horses (11-Dec-2000)
Sling Blade (30-Aug-1996)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Bad Santa 2 (23-Nov-2016)
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (4-Mar-2016)
Our Brand Is Crisis (11-Sep-2015)
Entourage (27-May-2015)
21 Years: Richard Linklater (7-Nov-2014)
The Judge (4-Sep-2014)
Cut Bank (16-Jun-2014)
Parkland (1-Sep-2013)
The Baytown Outlaws (29-Aug-2012)
Jayne Mansfield's Car (13-Feb-2012)
Puss in Boots (27-Oct-2011) · Jack [VOICE]
Dislecksia: The Movie (4-Oct-2011)
Faster (4-Nov-2010) · Cop
Lemmy (15-Mar-2010) · Himself
Ain't in It for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm (Mar-2010) · Himself
The Informers (22-Jan-2009) · William Sloan
The Smell of Success (20-Jan-2009)
Eagle Eye (16-Sep-2008)
Mr. Woodcock (14-Sep-2007)
The Astronaut Farmer (23-Feb-2007)
School for Scoundrels (29-Sep-2006)
The Ice Harvest (3-Sep-2005) · Vic
Bad News Bears (22-Jul-2005) · Morris Buttermaker
Friday Night Lights (6-Oct-2004) · Coach Gaines
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (4-Sep-2004) [VOICE]
The Alamo (27-Mar-2004)
Chrystal (16-Jan-2004) · Joe
Bad Santa (26-Nov-2003) · Willie
Love Actually (7-Sep-2003) · The US President
Intolerable Cruelty (2-Sep-2003) · Howard D. Doyle
Levity (16-Jan-2003) · Manuel Jordan
Waking Up in Reno (25-Oct-2002)
The Badge (7-Sep-2002) · Darl
Monster's Ball (11-Nov-2001) · Hank Grotowski
Bandits (12-Oct-2001) · Terry Collins
Daddy and Them (6-Jun-2001)
The Man Who Wasn't There (13-May-2001) · Ed
Down from the Mountain (Dec-2000)
South of Heaven, West of Hell (28-Jan-2000) · Brig. Smalls
Pushing Tin (23-Apr-1999) · Russell Bell
A Simple Plan (12-Sep-1998) · Jacob
Armageddon (1-Jul-1998)
Homegrown (17-Apr-1998)
Primary Colors (20-Mar-1998) · Richard Jemmons
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (29-Sep-1997) · Himself
The Apostle (6-Sep-1997) · Troublemaker
U Turn (27-Aug-1997) · Darrell
A Gun, a Car, a Blonde (Jun-1997)
The Winner (13-Sep-1996)
Sling Blade (30-Aug-1996) · Karl Childers
Don't Look Back (13-Jul-1996)
Out There (19-Nov-1995)
The Stars Fell on Henrietta (15-Sep-1995)
Dead Man (26-May-1995) · Big George Drakoulious
On Deadly Ground (18-Feb-1994) · Homer Carlton
Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade (24-Jan-1994) · Karl Childers
Floundering (Jan-1994)
Tombstone (25-Dec-1993) · Johnny Tyler
Blood In, Blood Out: Bound by Honor (16-Apr-1993)
Indecent Proposal (7-Apr-1993) · Day Tripper
Trouble Bound (9-Jan-1993)
The Killing Box (1993)
One False Move (8-May-1992) · Ray Malcolm
For the Boys (16-Jan-1991) · Marine Sergeant
Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (Oct-1989)
Going Overboard (1989) · Dave
Hunter's Blood (26-Sep-1986)
Official Website:
http://www.billybobthornton.net/
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