Tobin Bell

Tobin Bell (birthname: Joseph Henry Tobin Jr.) is a workhorse of an actor with many feature film credits, but who’s known for a single role—John Kramer/Jigsaw—in the highly successful Saw torture-horror franchise, which began in 2004.

Prior to this career breakthrough, Bell was primarily a background and minor supporting (and sometimes uncredited) actor in over three dozen movies, including several major features such as Woody Allen’s Manhattan (1979), Marco Ferreri’s Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981), Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982), Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict (1982), Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie (1982), Alan Parker’s Mississippi Burning (1988), Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990), Pollack’s The Firm (1993), Wolfgang Petersen’s In the Line of Fire (1993), and Sam Raimi’s The Quick and the Dead (1995).

Tobin Bell, once he was cast as Jigsaw in the $104-million-grossing Saw (2004), with Danny Glover and Ken Leung, and directed by James Wan (whose story, co-written by screenwriter/actor Leigh Whannell, formed the basis for the long-running series), transformed into a go-to actor for horror movies.

Bell’s subsequent Saw movies included: Saw II (2005), with Donnie Wahlberg, Shawnee Smith, Franky G, and Glenn Plummer, and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (147.7); Saw III (2006), with Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh, and Dina Meyer, again directed by Bousman (165); the Bousman-directed Saw IV (2007), with Scott Patterson and Costas Mandylor (139.4); the David Hackl-directed Saw V (2008), with Meaghan Good and Betsy Russell (114); the Kevin Greutert-directed Saw 3D (2010), with Sean Patrick Flanery and Cary Elwes (136); Jigsaw (2017), with Matt Passmore and Callum Keith Rennie, and directed by The Spierig Brothers (103); and the Greutert-directed Saw X (2023), with Smith, Synnøve Macody Lund, and Steven Brand. Through Jigsaw, the extremely profitable series grossed a global total for Lionsgate of $909 million.

Tobin Bell’s non-Saw movies—with Bell often in a starring role–during this second phase of his career included (beyond many direct-to-video horror movies) Dark House (2014), for which he was star and co-producer; writer-director Antonia (daughter of Peter Bogdanovich) Bogdanovich’s crime thriller, Phantom Halo (2014), with Rebecca Romijn, and which Bell continued in his role as Smashmouth under Bogdanovich’s direction in the sequel, Sleep No More (2022); writer-director J. Davis’ black comedy, Manson Family Vacation (2015), with Jay Duplass, and premiering at SXSW film festival; writer-director-star’s Linas Philips’ comedy-drama, Rainbow Time (2016), with Melanie Lynsky, Timm Sharp, and Duplass, and premiering at SXSW film festival; writer-director Emilio Portes’ well-reviewed Mexican horror film, Belzebuth (2017), premiering at the Sitges film festival; Bell co-starring and producing the Rick Hays-directed rom-com, The Way We Weren’t (2019); the Timothy Woodward Jr.-directed horror movie, The Call (2020), with Lin Shaye, and released by Cinedigm, which also released director/writer/producer/co-star Jason Mac’s well-reviewed father-son drama, A Father’s Legacy (2021); director/co-writer/producer Craig Moss’ sci-fi-horror movie, Let Us In (2021), released by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Tobin Bell, following Saw X, co-starred with Jeremy Irons and Souad Abdullah under Darren Lynn Bousman’s direction in the drama, The Cello (2023). Bell co-starred with Chelsea Edmundson and Tony Todd in co-writer/director Brian Hanson’s sci-fi thriller, The Bunker (date to be announced), and then Bell co-starred with Randy Couture and Juliana Destefano under Asif Akbar and Lance Kawas co-direction in the horror movie, Clown Motel (date to be announced).

With director Don E. Fauntleroy, Bell co-starred with Lance Henriksen and the late Edward Asner in the drama, Altered Reality (2023), followed by Bell starring opposite Bruce Davison and John Posey in the Rebeca Duran-directed drama, Game of Power (2023). Bell starred in writer-director Yasmin Naficy’s Afghanistan war drama, The Rogue (date to be announced), with Scott Patterson and Costas Mandylor, and then Bell collaborated again with filmmaker Naficy on the supernatural military thriller, Liberty (date to be announced), with Patterson and Michael Ironside.