Will Patton

Will Patton (birthname: William Rankin Patton) has enjoyed a wide, distinguished 40-year career as an actor, often in striking supporting roles. His feature debut was in the Kathy Acker-written indie film, Variety (1983), directed by Bette Gordon. Patton’s Hollywood debut was in Mike Nichols’ fine comeback film, Silkwood (1983), opposite Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, and Cher.

Patton had a terrific 1985 in such hits as Desperately Seeking Susan, with Rosanna Arquette, Aidan Quinn, and Madonna, and Martin Scorsese’s dark comedy, After Hours, with Arquette, Griffin Dunne, Linda Fiorentino, and Teri Garr. Patton delivered one of his few starring roles under Chris Petit’s direction in Chinese Boxes (1986), with Robbie Coltrane.

Patton’s first film to arrive at the Cannes Film Festival was writer-director Glen Pitre’s 19th-century drama, Belizaire the Cajun (1986), with Armand Assante and Robert Duvall, followed by a major supporting role in the hit thriller, No Way Out (1987), starring Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, and Sean Young. Patton joined the colorful cast of director Pat O’Connor’s film William Boyd’s Stars & Bars (1988), with Daniel Day-Lewis, Harry Dean Stanton, Joan Cusack, Keith David, Spalding Gray, Glenne Headly, Laurie Metcalf, Deirdre O’Connell, Martha Plimpton, Steven Wright, and David Strathairn.

Joining the film written by playwright Arthur Miller and directed by Czech master Karel Reisz, Patton was cast in Everybody Wins (1990), opposite Nick Nolte, Debra Winger, Judith Ivey, and Jack Warden. Patton appeared with Michael Caine, Swoosie Kurtz, Elizabeth McGovern, and Peter Riegert in the fine corporate black comedy, A Shock to the System (1990), followed by a striking supporting role in writer-director Michael Tolkin’s disturbing drama, The Rapture (1991), with Mimi Rogers, David Duchovny, and Patrick Bachau.

Will Patton joined director Nicolas Roeg for the supernatural drama, Cold Heaven (1991), with Theresa Russell, James Russo, Mark Harmon, and Seymour Cassel, with whom he joined for Alexandre Rockwell’s praised indie film, In the Soup (1992), with Steve Buscemi and Jennifer Beals. Patton joined another notable cast for director Peter Medak’s Romeo is Bleeding (1993), starring Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Annabella Sciorra, Juliette Lewis, and Roy Scheider, followed by the hit version of John Grisham’s The Client (1994), with Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, Mary-Louise Parker, and Ossie Davis.

Patton had a colorful turn in the hit thriller, Copycat (1995), starring Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, Dermot Mulroney, and Harry Connick Jr., and then turned to the Sundance Festival hit, The Spitfire Grill (1996), in which he co-starred with Ellen Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden, and Alison Elliott. Patton reunited with director Pat O’Connor for the drama, Inventing the Abbotts (1997), with Liv Tyler, Joaquin Phoenix, and Billy Crudup.

Jennifer Connelly, and Kathy Baker. Patton was featured in the Michael Oblowitz/Larry Gross film adaptation of Jim Thompson’s This World, Then the Fireworks (1997), with Billy Zane, Gina Gershon, and Sheryl Lee, followed by Kevin Costner’s post-apocalyptic epic, The Postman (1997), in which Patton played the antagonist opposite Costner, Larenz Tate, and Tom Petty, earning Patton a Saturn Award nomination for supporting actor. In one of his first blockbusters, Patton held his own alongside the starry cast of Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, and Steve Buscemi in director Michael Bay’s Armageddon (1998), earning $553 million worldwide and topping the year’s box office.

Patton co-starred with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the Ronald Bass-written caper movie, Entrapment (1999), followed by director Alison Maclean’s film version of the Denis Johnson short story collection, Jesus’ Son (1999), with Billy Crudup, Samantha Morton, Holly Hunter, and Dennis Hopper. Patton played support to Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Delroy Lindo, and Robert Duvall in the hit remake, Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), grossing $237 million globally, and followed it up with another hit, director Boaz Yakin’s praised football movie, Remember the Titans (2000), starring Denzel Washington, Donald Faison, and Ryan Gosling.

Patton had a major role in director Mark Pellington’s supernatural The Mothman Prophecies (2002), starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Debra Messing, and Alan Bates. For his next important film, Will Patton joined the fine British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom for the Angelina Jolie-starring A Mighty Heart (2007), about the kidnapping reporter Daniel Pearl played by Dan Futterman. Patton worked with another world-class filmmaker, Kelly Reichardt, on Wendy and Lucy (2008), with Michelle Williams.

Patton played support in writer-director Olatunde Osunsanmi’s psychological horror film, The Fourth Kind (2009), with Milla Jovovich and Elias Koteas, followed by Patton’s supporting role in the film version of a previously unknown Tennessee Williams script, The Loss of Teardrop Diamond (2009), with Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans, Ellen Burstyn, and Ann-Margret.

The busy Will Patton was again cast in support of director Antoine Fuqua’s crime drama, Brooklyn’s Finest (2009), starring Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Lili Taylor, and Ellen Barkin. Patton then reunited with filmmaker Kelly Reichardt for her brilliant Oregon Trail western, Meek’s Cutoff (2010), with Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Bruce Greenwood, and Zoe Kazan. Patton had a rare starring role in writer-director David Riker’s The Girl (2012), with Abbie Cornish, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Patton teamed up with director Roger Donaldson and star Pierce Brosnan for the spy thriller, The November Man (2014), and then turned to indie movies with a supporting role (opposite Riley Keough, Sasha Lane, and Shia LaBeouf) in Andrea Arnold’s Road movie, American Honey (2016), which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Will Patton jumped aboard the Halloween franchise as Deputy Frank Hawkins with the David Gordon Green-directed reboot, Halloween (2018), the sequel Halloween Kills (2021), and the franchise conclusion, Halloween Ends (2022), all starring Jamie Lee Curtis. While he extended his work in another horror franchise with The Forever Purge (2021), produced by Jason Blum and Michael Bay, Patton earned raves and awards consideration for his fine performance in Lee Isaac Chung’s immigrant family drama, Minari (2020).