cameron diaz movies
|
 
|
 After 10 years in the trenches of independent filmmaking, charismatic actor Sam Rockwell found himself deluged with scripts following his off-center performance in Tom DeCillo's "Box of Moonlight" (1996), in which his whacked-out backwoods loner presided over a repressed John Turturo's spiritual rebirth.Though the insanity was in DeCillo's script, Rockwell dispatched it effortlessly as if presaging its appearance in future films. A child of actors, Rockwell performed first on stage with his mother at the age of ten and made his feature debut in "Clownhouse" (1988). Roles in movies like "Last Exit to Brooklyn" (1989) and "In the Soup" (1992), which began a three-picture association with critically-acclaimed indie director Alexandre Rockwell, followed, but his career did not really take off until after "Box of Moonlight".
Rockwell wrapped one film after another in its wake, taking advantage of the novel demand for his services. He was featured in numerous independent films, including a much acclaimed role as a working-class cutter of lawns who bonds with a 10-year-old in "Lawn Dogs" (1997) and starred as Jerry opposite Joe Mantegna's Tom in "Jerry and Tom" (1998), among seven projects completed within a year of the release of "Box of Moonlight". He had thought he might break through with the short-lived NBC series "Dream Street" (1989) until he got fired for not being all-American enough and also believed the film "Jack and His Friends" (1992) might rocket him somewhere years before the inevitable breakout arrived.
Throughout the rest of the decade, Rockwell turned in many fine performances in many box office disappointments, including a co-starring role in the Jewish mob comedy "Safe Men" (1998) and smaller roles in "Arresting Gina" (1997) and "William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1999). With a decade's worth of dynamic performances under his belt, the transition from independent films to starring roles in mainstream Hollywood fare would begin in 1998 with a bit part in his biggest film yet, as an entourage member in Woody Allen's all-star comedy "Celebrity." The following year, Rockwell received critical acclaim for his role as "Wild Bill" Wharton in Frank Darabont's Oscar nominated "The Green Mile" (1999) and went on to secure the role of Guy Fleegman in the box office hit "Galaxy Quest" (1999).
As his films brought in top box office dollars, his roles naturally grew, leading to a starring turn as billionaire software mogul Eric Knox in the 2000 summer smash "Charlie's Angels." In 2002, Rockwell appeared with Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito in the crime thriller "Heist" and played the scheming Pero in the Russo brother's heist comedy "Welcome to Collinwood," in which he proved equally adept with both comedy and leading man status.
Though slow to become a household name, Rockwell was well on his way with roles in highly-anticipated features such as George Clooney's directorial debut "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," (2002) in which Rockwell brilliantly played a funhouse mirror version gameshow host-turned-self-proclaimed CIA assassin Chuck Barris (Clooney also championed Rockwell with a leading role in "Welcome to Collinwood," which Clooney produced) and for director Ridley Scott in "Matchstick Men" (2003), in which Rockwell again shined as the promising protegee of a phobia-addled con artist (Nicolas Cage).
 Other Cast |
RSS Feed XML Sitemap HTML Sitemap Privacy Policy