Sam Worthington

Sam Worthington (birthname: Samuel Henry John Worthington) is best known as Jake Sully in James Cameron’s Avatar saga, first in Avatar (2009), and continuing in the sequels Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), Avatar 3 (2024), Avatar 4 (2026), and Avatar 5 (2028). He is a classic example of the contemporary movie actor dividing his career between wide-audience tentpole projects, such as Terminator Salvation (2009) and Clash of the Titans (2010), and dramas such as Cate Shortland’s highly regarded Aussie drama, Somersault (2004), and Mel Gibson’s Oscar-nominated Hacksaw Ridge (2016).

Sam Worthington’s film debut was the Aussie rom-com Bootmen (2000), with Adam Garcia, followed by a small supporting role in director Gregory Hoblit’s and co-writers Billy Ray’s and Terry George’s Hart’s War (2002), with Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell. After Australian crime movies such as Dirty Deeds (2002) and Getting’ Square (2003), Worthington landed a lead role in writer-director Cate Shortland’s acclaimed drama, Somersault (2004), with Abbie Cornish, launching Worthington’s name on the international cinema stage.

After joining the large ensemble of John Dahl’s war drama, The Great Raid (2005), with Benjamin Bratt and James Franco, Worthington had his name above the title in Geoffrey Wright’s modern-day staging of Macbeth (2006) and then landed his first big role in a Hollywood franchise movie: the McG-directed Terminator Salvation (2009), opposite Christian Bale, Anton Yelchin, Bryce Dallas Howard, Common, and Helena Bonham Carter, grossing over $371 million globally.

In his biggest career move, Sam Worthington landed the co-lead role of Jake in Cameron’s mega-blockbuster, Avatar (2009), with Zoe Saldana, earning a record-setting $3 billion-plus worldwide (and growing, with the movie’s fall 2022 re-release in a retooled, upgraded version care of Cameron). The impact of the role for Worthington is hard to overstate since it led to a steady co-starring role in a succession of four additional Avatar movies until 2028.

Worthington followed this with another blockbuster, as Perseus in Warner Bros.’ Clash of the Titans (2010), with Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelson, Ralph Fiennes, and Liam Neeson, which was followed by the 2012 sequel, Wrath of the Titans, in which Worthington continued his role as Perseus. Worthington switched gears for a starring role in the romantic drama, Last Night (2010), with Keira Knightley, Eva Mendes, and Guillaume Canet, followed by a co-starring role opposite Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain in the John Madden-directed The Debt (2010).

Worthington continued his string of starring roles in action movies with Lionsgate’s Man on a Ledge (2012), directed by Asger Leth, and co-starring Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Anthony Mackie, and Ed Harris. Worthington joined forces with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Olivia Williams, Harold Perrineau, Mireille Enos, and Terrence Howard in writer-director David Ayers’ DEA drama, Sabotage (2014). American indie drama was next for Worthington in the Jennifer Aniston-starring Cake (2014), with Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, and Anna Kendrick.

Sam Worthington continued his work in indie cinema with the well-received Western, The Keeping Room (2014), released via the Alamo Drafthouse’s Drafthouse Films and Lionsgate and co-starring Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, and Muna Otaru. For the adventure thriller, Everest (2015), Worthington joined the brawny ensemble of Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Thomas Wright, Emily Watson, Keira Knightley, and Jake Gyllenhaal, grossing $203 million globally.

Acting in his second Best Picture Oscar-nominated film, Worthington collaborated with director Mel Gibson on the WWII drama, Hacksaw Ridge (2016), starring Andrew Garfield, Hugo Weaving, Rachel Griffiths, and Vince Vaughn. Worthington starred in the Christian drama, The Shack (2017), with Octavia Spencer, Radha Mitchell, Graham Greene, and Tim McGraw; after a few poorly reviewed features, Sam Worthington starred in director Brad Anderson’s better-reviewed hospital drama for Netflix, Fractured (2019), with Lily Rabe and Stephen Tobolowsky.

Worthington co-starred with Harvey Keitel as gangster Meyer Lansky in writer-director Eytan Rockaway’s Lansky (2021), with Minka Kelly and John Magaro, once again followed by several poorly received features including The Last Son (2021) and 9 Bullets (2022) (while scoring great acclaim on streaming television for his stunning role in Under The Banner of Heaven (2022)).

Worthington is part of the ensemble of Miramax’s horror movie, The Georgetown Project (2022), with Russell Crowe, David Hyde Pierce, and Samantha Mathis. Along with the string of Avatar movies set for 2022, 2024, 2026, and 2028, another major production for Worthington was director-writer-producer-star Kevin Costner’s epic Western for Warners/New Line Cinema, Horizon (date to be announced), co-starring Sienna Miller, Michael Rooker, Luke Wilson, and Thomas Haden Church. It’s slated to mark Worthington’s second multi-film project, with three additional Horizon-themed features planned by Costner, capturing the history of American Westward expansion before and after the Civil War.

Sam Worthington’s continually busy career continued in 2023 with the A.I.-themed thriller, Hello Stranger, directed by April Mullen and co-starring Robbie Amell, Jordana Brewster, and Simu Liu. Worthington returned to Australia for the crime thriller, Transfusion (date to be announced), with co-star and writer-director Matt Nable, followed by the futurist survival thriller, Breathe (date to be announced), starring Milla Jovovich and Quvenzhane Wallis. In 2022, Worthington was set to star in writer-director Pedring Lopez’s crime drama, CounterPlay (date to be announced).

Sam Worthington had a major role in the large ensemble of Kevin Costner’s two-part Western saga, Horizon: An American Saga—Chapters 1 and 2 (2024), which co-starred Costner, Sienna Miller, Giovanni Ribisi, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, and Thomas Haden Church, and which was released by Warner Bros. in the U.S. and K5 International outside the U.S.

Worthington co-starred with Russell Crowe, Ryan Simpkins, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg, Adrian Pasdar, and David Hyde Pierce in The Exorcism (2024), co-written and directed by Joshua John Miller, and released by Vertical. Worthington resumed his leading role as Jake Sully in James Cameron’s epic fantasy saga for 20^th Century Studios, Avatar 3 (2025), Avatar 4 (2029), and Avatar 5 (2031), with Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Ribisi, and Sigourney Weaver.

Worthington starred opposite Nathalie Emmanuel and Omar Sy in director John Woo’s English-language remake of his 1989 crime classic, The Killers (date to be announced), which had been originally written by Walter Hill and David Giler in 1992, but was later re-written by credited screenwriters Josh Campbell, Eran Creevy, and Matt Stuecken. Worthington co-starred with Lily James, Willa Fitzgerald, and Riz Ahmed in co-writer/director David Mackenzie’s thriller, Relay (date to be announced).