Bill Pullman

Acting

Bill Pullman

Born 1953-12-17 · Hornell, New York, USA

William James Pullman (born December 17, 1953) is an American actor. After graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in theatre, he was an adjunct professor at Montana State University before deciding to pursue acting. Pullman made his film debut in Ruthless People (1986), and starred in Spaceballs (1987), The Accidental Tourist and The Serpent and the Rainbow (both 1988), Newsies (1992), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), While You Were Sleeping (1995), Independence Day (1996), Lost Highway (1997), and Lake Placid (1999). He also voiced Captain Joseph Korso in Titan A.E. (2000). He has also appeared frequently on television, usually in TV films. Since the 21st century began, Pullman has also acted in miniseries and regular series such as Torchwood (2011), playing starring roles in 1600 Penn (2012–13) and The Sinner (2017–2021). In 2021, he had a recurring role in the miniseries Halston. Pullman also has a long stage-acting career. He has appeared on Broadway several times, including in Edward Albee's The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? (2002).

Acting credits

The Equalizer poster
7.3

McCall believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when he meets Teri, a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can’t stand idly by – he has to help her. Armed with hidden skills that allow him to serve vengeance against anyone who would brutalize the helpless, McCall comes out of his self-imposed retirement and finds his desire for justice reawakened. If someone has a problem, if the odds are stacked against them, if they have nowhere else to turn, McCall will help. He is The Equalizer.

The Equalizer

2014

Independence Day poster
6.9

Strange phenomena surface around the globe. The skies ignite. Terror races through the world's major cities. As these extraordinary events unfold, it becomes increasingly clear that a force of incredible magnitude has arrived. Its mission: total annihilation over the Fourth of July weekend. The last hope to stop the destruction is an unlikely group of people united by fate and unimaginable circumstances.

Independence Day

1996

Dark Waters poster
7.5

A tenacious attorney uncovers a dark secret that connects a growing number of unexplained deaths to one of the world's largest corporations. In the process, he risks everything — his future, his family, and his own life — to expose the truth.

Dark Waters

2019

Scary Movie 4 poster
5.5

Cindy finds out the house she lives in is haunted by a little boy and goes on a quest to find out who killed him and why. Also, Alien "Tr-iPods" are invading the world and she has to uncover the secret in order to stop them.

Scary Movie 4

2006

Spaceballs poster
6.9

When the nefarious Dark Helmet hatches a plan to snatch Princess Vespa and steal her planet's air, space-bum-for-hire Lone Starr and his clueless sidekick fly to the rescue. Along the way, they meet Yogurt, who puts Lone Starr wise to the power of "The Schwartz." Can he master it in time to save the day?

Spaceballs

1987

The Equalizer 2 poster
6.8

Robert McCall, who serves an unflinching justice for the exploited and oppressed, embarks on a relentless, globe-trotting quest for vengeance when his former partner is murdered.

The Equalizer 2

2018

Lost Highway poster
7.5

A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.

Lost Highway

1997

Independence Day: Resurgence poster
5.4

We always knew they were coming back. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented force. Only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can bring our world back from the brink of extinction.

Independence Day: Resurgence

2016

Sleepless in Seattle poster
6.7

After the death of his mother, a young boy calls a radio station in an attempt to set his father up on a date. Across the country, an engaged woman becomes convinced that they belong together, despite their never having met. Will their paths collide despite the odds?

Sleepless in Seattle

1993

The Serpent and the Rainbow poster
6.4

A Harvard anthropologist is sent to Haiti to retrieve a strange powder that is said to have the power to bring human beings back from the dead. In his quest to find the miracle drug, the cynical scientist enters the rarely seen netherworld of walking zombies, blood rites and ancient curses. Based on the true life experiences of Wade Davis and filmed on location in Haiti, it's a frightening excursion into black magic and the supernatural.

The Serpent and the Rainbow

1988

Casper poster
6.3

Casper is a kind young ghost who peacefully haunts a mansion in Maine. When specialist James Harvey arrives to communicate with Casper and his fellow spirits, he brings along his teenage daughter, Kat. Casper quickly falls in love with Kat, but their budding relationship is complicated not only by his transparent state, but also by his troublemaking apparition uncles and their mischievous antics.

Casper

1995

While You Were Sleeping poster
7.0

A transit worker pulls commuter Peter off railway tracks after he's mugged, but—while he's in a coma—his family mistakenly thinks she's Peter's fiancée, and she doesn't correct them. Things get more complicated when she falls for his brother, who's not quite sure that she's who she claims to be.

While You Were Sleeping

1995

The Grudge poster
5.9

An American nurse living and working in Tokyo is exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim.

The Grudge

2004

The Last Seduction poster
6.8

A devious femme fatale steals her husband’s drug money and hides out in a small town where she meets the perfect dupe for her next scheme.

The Last Seduction

1994

A League of Their Own poster
7.2

As America's stock of athletic young men is depleted during World War II, a professional all-female baseball league springs up in the Midwest, funded by publicity-hungry candy maker Walter Harvey. Competitive sisters Dottie Hinson and Kit Keller spar with each other, scout Ernie Capadino and grumpy has-been coach Jimmy Dugan on their way to fame.

A League of Their Own

1992

The Coldest Game poster
6.2

Warsaw, Poland, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962. Josh Mansky, a troubled math genius and former US chess champion, is recruited to hold a dangerous public match against the Soviet champion, while playing the deadly game of espionage hidden in the darkest shadows of a hostile territory.

The Coldest Game

2019

Lake Placid poster
5.9

When a man is eaten alive by an unknown creature, the local Game Warden teams up with a paleontologist from New York to find the beast. Add to the mix an eccentric philanthropist with a penchant for "Crocs", and here we go! This quiet, remote lake is suddenly the focus of an intense search for a crocodile with a taste for live animals...and people!

Lake Placid

1999

American Ultra poster
6.1

Mike is an unmotivated stoner whose small-town life with his live-in girlfriend, Phoebe, is suddenly turned upside down. Unbeknownst to him, Mike is actually a highly trained, lethal sleeper agent. In the blink of an eye, as his secret past comes back to haunt him, Mike is thrust into the middle of a deadly government operation and is forced to summon his inner action-hero in order to survive.

American Ultra

2015

Sommersby poster
6.4

Set in the South just after the US Civil War, Laurel Sommersby is just managing to work the farm without her husband, believed killed in battle. By all accounts, Jack Sommersby was not a pleasant man, thus when he suddenly returns, Laurel has mixed emotions. It appears that Jack has changed a great deal, leading some people to believe that this is not actually Jack but an imposter. Laurel herself is unsure, but willing to take the man into her home, and perhaps later into her heart.

Sommersby

1993

The High Note poster
7.0

Set in the dazzling world of the LA music scene comes the story of Grace Davis, a superstar whose talent, and ego, have reached unbelievable heights. Maggie is Grace’s overworked personal assistant who’s stuck running errands, but still aspires to her childhood dream of becoming a music producer. When Grace’s manager presents her with a choice that could alter the course of her career, Maggie and Grace come up with a plan that could change their lives forever.

The High Note

2020

Titan A.E. poster
6.6

A young man finds out that he holds the key to restoring hope and ensuring survival for the human race, while an alien species called the Drej are bent on mankind's destruction.

Titan A.E.

2000

Battle of the Sexes poster
6.8

The true story of the 1973 tennis match between world number one Billie Jean King and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs.

Battle of the Sexes

2017

Killing Faith poster
5.8

In the summer of 1859, a widowed physician reluctantly agrees to take a recently freed slave and her mysterious Caucasian daughter on a five-day journey through the bloody West to find a distant town's Faith Healer. The woman believes her daughter is possessed. The doctor believes she simply carries The Sickness. Either way the fact remains that every living thing the girl touches mysteriously dies.

Killing Faith

2025

Too Big to Fail poster
6.9

An intimate look at the epochal financial crisis of 2008 and the powerful men and women who decided the fate of the world's economy in a matter of a few weeks.

Too Big to Fail

2011

Behind the camera