John Malkovich

Acting

John Malkovich

Born 1953-12-09 · Christopher, Illinois, USA

John Gavin Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He has received several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. Malkovich started his career as a charter member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 1976. He moved to New York City, acting in a Steppenwolf production of the Sam Shepard play True West (1980). He made his Broadway debut as Biff in the revival of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman (1984). He directed the Harold Pinter play The Caretaker(1986) and acted in Lanford Wilson's Burn This(1987). Malkovich has received two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor nominations for his performances in Places in the Heart (1984) and In the Line of Fire (1993). Other films include The Killing Fields (1984), Empire of the Sun (1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Of Mice and Men (1992), Con Air (1997), Rounders (1998), Being John Malkovich (1999), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Ripley's Game (2002), Johnny English (2003), Burn After Reading (2008), and Red (2010). He has also produced films such as Ghost World (2001), Juno (2007), and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012). For his work on television, he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for Death of a Salesman (1985). His other Emmy-nominated roles were for portraying Herman J. Mankiewicz in RKO 281 (1999) and Charles Talleyrand in Napoléon (2002). Other television roles include  Crossbones (2014), Billions (2018–19), The New Pope (2020), and Space Force (2020–2022).

Acting credits

Penguins of Madagascar poster
6.5

Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with undercover organization The North Wind to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from destroying the world as we know it.

Penguins of Madagascar

2014

Con Air poster
6.8

Newly-paroled former US Army ranger Cameron Poe is headed back to his wife, but must fly home aboard a prison transport flight dubbed "Jailbird" taking the “worst of the worst” prisoners, a group described as “pure predators”, to a new super-prison. Poe faces impossible odds when the transport plane is skyjacked mid-flight by the most vicious criminals in the country led by the mastermind — genius serial killer Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, and backed by black militant Diamond Dog and psychopath Billy Bedlam.

Con Air

1997

Bird Box poster
6.8

Five years after an ominous unseen presence drives most of society to suicide, a survivor and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety.

Bird Box

2018

RED poster
6.7

After surviving an assault from a squad of hit men, retired CIA black ops agent Frank Moses reassembles his old team for an all-out war. Frank reunites with old Joe, crazy Marvin and wily Victoria to uncover a massive conspiracy that threatens their lives. Only their expert training will allow them to survive a near-impossible mission -- breaking into CIA headquarters.

RED

2010

RED 2 poster
6.5

Retired C.I.A. agent Frank Moses reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to track down a missing portable nuclear device.

RED 2

2013

Burn After Reading poster
6.7

When a disc containing memoirs of a former CIA analyst falls into the hands of gym employees, Linda and Chad, they see a chance to make enough money for Linda to have life-changing cosmetic surgery. Predictably, events whirl out of control for the duo, and those in their orbit.

Burn After Reading

2008

Deepwater Horizon poster
6.9

A story set on the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, which exploded during April 2010 and created the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Deepwater Horizon

2016

Johnny English poster
6.3

A lowly pencil pusher working for MI7, Johnny English is suddenly promoted to super spy after Agent One is assassinated and every other agent is blown up at his funeral. When a billionaire entrepreneur sponsors the exhibition of the Crown Jewels—and the valuable gems disappear on the opening night and on English's watch—the newly-designated agent must jump into action to find the thief and recover the missing gems.

Johnny English

2003

Adaptation. poster
7.3

Charlie Kaufman is a confused L.A. screenwriter overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, sexual frustration, self-loathing, and by the screenwriting ambitions of his freeloading twin brother Donald. While struggling to adapt "The Orchid Thief," by Susan Orlean, Kaufman's life spins from pathetic to bizarre. The lives of Kaufman and Orlean's book become strangely intertwined as each one's search for passion collides with the other's.

Adaptation.

2002

The Man in the Iron Mask poster
6.7

Years have passed since the Three Musketeers, Aramis, Athos and Porthos, have fought together with their friend, D'Artagnan. But with the tyrannical King Louis using his power to wreak havoc in the kingdom while his twin brother, Philippe, remains imprisoned, the Musketeers reunite to abduct Louis and replace him with Philippe.

The Man in the Iron Mask

1998

Being John Malkovich poster
7.4

One day at work, unsuccessful puppeteer Craig finds a portal into the head of actor John Malkovich. The portal soon becomes a passion for anybody who enters its mad and controlling world of overtaking another human body.

Being John Malkovich

1999

Beowulf poster
5.9

A 6th-century Scandinavian warrior named Beowulf embarks on a mission to slay the man-like ogre, Grendel.

Beowulf

2007

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy poster
6.7

Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, Arthur Dent is swept off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher penning a new edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

2005

Zoolander 2 poster
4.9

Derek and Hansel are modelling again when an opposing company attempts to take them out from the business.

Zoolander 2

2016

Mile 22 poster
6.3

An elite group of American operatives, aided by a top-secret tactical command team, must transport an asset who holds life-threatening information to an extraction point 22 miles away through the hostile streets of an Asian city.

Mile 22

2018

Warm Bodies poster
6.5

After a zombie becomes involved with the girlfriend of one of his victims, their romance sets in motion a sequence of events that might transform the entire lifeless world.

Warm Bodies

2013

Places in the Heart poster
7.2

In 1935 rural Texas, recently widowed Edna Spaulding struggles to survive with two small children, a farm to run, and very little money in the bank - not to mention a deadly tornado and the unwelcome presence of the Ku Klux Klan. Edna is aided by her beautician sister, Margaret; a blind boarder, Mr. Will; and a would-be thief, Moze, who decides to teach Edna how to plant and harvest cotton.

Places in the Heart

1984

Changeling poster
7.6

Los Angeles, 1928. When single mother Christine Collins leaves for work, her son vanishes without a trace. Five months later, the police reunite mother and son. But when Christine suspects that the boy returned to her isn't her child, her quest for truth exposes a world of corruption.

Changeling

2008

Velvet Buzzsaw poster
5.4

Big money artists and mega-collectors pay a high price when art collides with commerce. After a series of paintings by an unknown artist are discovered, a supernatural force enacts revenge on those who have allowed their greed to get in the way of art.

Velvet Buzzsaw

2019

Dangerous Liaisons poster
7.2

In 18th century France, Marquise de Merteuil asks her ex-lover Vicomte de Valmont to seduce the future wife of another ex-lover of hers in return for one last night with her. Yet things don’t go as planned.

Dangerous Liaisons

1988

Ava poster
5.8

A black ops assassin is forced to fight for her own survival after a job goes dangerously wrong.

Ava

2020

Empire of the Sun poster
7.5

Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.

Empire of the Sun

1987

In the Line of Fire poster
7.0

Veteran Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan is a man haunted by his failure to save President Kennedy while serving protection detail in Dallas. Thirty years later, a man calling himself "Booth" threatens the life of the current President, forcing Horrigan to come back to protection detail to confront the ghosts from his past.

In the Line of Fire

1993

Bullet Head poster
5.0

A group of career criminals finds itself trapped in a warehouse with the law – and an Attack Dog named DeNiro closing in.

Bullet Head

2017

Behind the camera

The Perks of Being a Wallflower poster
7.8

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1991. High school freshman Charlie is a wallflower, always watching life from the sidelines, until two senior students, Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, become his mentors, helping him discover the joys of friendship, music and love.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

2012

Juno poster
7.1

Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, sixteen year old high-schooler, Juno MacGuff, makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child.

Juno

2007

Demolition poster
6.9

An emotionally desperate investment banker finds hope through a woman he meets.

Demolition

2016

Shattered poster
5.7

Chris, a wealthy divorcee, lives in a high-tech house of his own design in Montana. His life changes when he meets Sky, a mysterious young woman who draws him out of his shell and moves in after Chris is injured.

Shattered

2022

The Libertine poster
5.9

The story of John Wilmot, a.k.a. the Earl of Rochester, a 17th century poet who famously drank and debauched his way to an early grave, only to earn posthumous critical acclaim for his life's work.

The Libertine

2004

Art School Confidential poster
6.1

Starting from childhood attempts at illustration, the protagonist pursues his true obsession to art school. But as he learns how the art world really works, he finds that he must adapt his vision to the reality that confronts him.

Art School Confidential

2006

Ghost World poster
7.1

Two quirky, cynical, teenaged girls try to figure out what to do with their lives following high school graduation. After they play a prank on an eccentric, middle-aged record collector, one of them befriends him, which causes a rift in the girls’ friendship.

Ghost World

2001

The Dancer Upstairs poster
6.1

A police detective in a South American country is dedicated to hunting down a revolutionary guerilla leader.

The Dancer Upstairs

2002

The Dancer Upstairs poster
6.1

A police detective in a South American country is dedicated to hunting down a revolutionary guerilla leader.

The Dancer Upstairs

2002

Kill the Poor poster
5.3

When a marriage of convenience becomes the real thing, Joe moves his pregnant French wife to a tenement building on New York's Lower East Side. The street is like a war zone with none of the nostalgic appeal that Joe remembers from tales of his immigrant grandparents arriving in the same neighborhood with a new life. This is the urban frontier filled with comic mixture of gentrifies, homeboys, dealers and local residents simply bent on staying a float

Kill the Poor

2003

Last Call poster
4.1

Last Call is a fictional account of the final days of exuberant and notorious Welsh poet Dylan Thomas as he sets out on a final poetry tour of New York. Desperate for money and with a wife and three children dependent on him, Thomas accepts a job believing it is beneath him. He spends his time in the city drinking at the White Horse Tavern and becoming increasingly ill between poetry readings. Everything comes to a head when he goes on a bender so extreme he cannot perform the last lecture, makes a scene at the bar, and has his final drink while ruminating on life, death, and the concept of love.

Last Call

2020

No artwork available
NR

Strap-Hanging tells the strange story of a Japanese boy so obsessed by tsunamis that he makes himself a pair of inflatable rubber underpants in case disaster strikes. Stepping into the ‘Top Models Only’ carriage of the underground, he encounters an unexpected trigger.

Strap Hanging

2014

Hideous Man poster
4.0

Hideous Man written and directed by John Malkovich and produced by Bella Freud is their 3rd film collaboration. It tells the story of a group of beatnik girls rehearsing their work for a performance of their alter ego ‘hideous man’.

Hideous Man

2002

Hideous Man poster
4.0

Hideous Man written and directed by John Malkovich and produced by Bella Freud is their 3rd film collaboration. It tells the story of a group of beatnik girls rehearsing their work for a performance of their alter ego ‘hideous man’.

Hideous Man

2002

Lady Behave poster
10.0

Lady Behave follows the progress of a young woman whose manners are so piggish that her boyfriend walks out on her. Defeated, she pulls the phone out of the kitty litter and dials the number of the Lady Behave School of Etiquette.

Lady Behave

2000

Lady Behave poster
10.0

Lady Behave follows the progress of a young woman whose manners are so piggish that her boyfriend walks out on her. Defeated, she pulls the phone out of the kitty litter and dials the number of the Lady Behave School of Etiquette.

Lady Behave

2000

Snow Angel poster
NR

John Malkovich wrote the opening scene of a short film and invited fans to write the next chapter as part of the Sony VAIO Online Script Project. The finished script was turned into an animated film called Snow Angel.

Snow Angel

2008