John Malkovich on stage and screen

American actor, director, and producer John Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. He started acting in the 1980s, appearing in the films Places in the Heart (1984) with Sally Field, Death of a Salesman (1985), The Glass Menagerie (1987), Empire of the Sun (1987), and Dangerous Liaisons (1988) with Glenn Close. His role in Places in the Heart earned him an Academy Award nomination. During the 1990s, he starred in the films Of Mice and Men (1992) as Lennie Small, In the Line of Fire (1993) as Mitch Leary, Beyond the Clouds (1995) as The Director, The Portrait of a Lady (1996) as Gilbert Osmond, Con Air (1997) as Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) as Athos, Being John Malkovich (1999) as John Horatio Malkovich, and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) as Charles VII. His role as Mitch Leary in In the Line of Fire earned him his second Academy Award nomination.

Malkovich at the 2009 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Malkovich went on to appear in the early 2000s films Johnny English (2003) as Pascal Sauvage, The Libertine (2004) as Charles II, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) as Humma Kavula, Eragon (2006) as Galbatorix, Klimt (2006) as Gustav Klimt, Burn After Reading (2008) as Osborne Cox, and Changeling (2008) as Reverend Briegleb. In 2010, he co-starred with Josh Brolin and Megan Fox in the science fiction Western Jonah Hex as Quentin Turnbull. The same year, he also starred in Secretariat with Diane Lane, and Red with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren, a role he later reprised in the sequel Red 2 (2013). Malkovich made an appearance in the science fiction action film Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) as Bruce Brazos. He co-starred in the romantic zombie comedy film Warm Bodies (2013) as General Grigio and lent his voice to the animated movie Penguins of Madagascar (2014) as the villainous octopus Dave.

As a producer, Malkovich has produced the films Ghost World (2001), The Libertine (2004), Juno (2007), and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012).

Filmography

As actor

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1978	A Wedding	Extra	Uncredited	[1]
1984	Places in the Heart	Mr. Will		[2]
	The Killing Fields	Al Rockoff		[3]
1985	Eleni	Nick Gage		[4]
1987	The Glass Menagerie	Tom Wingfield		[5]
	Making Mr. Right	Dr. Jeff Peters / Ulysses		[6]
	Empire of the Sun	Basie		[7]
1988	Miles from Home	Barry Maxwell		[8]
	Dangerous Liaisons	Vicomte de Valmont		[9]
1990	The Sheltering Sky	Port Moresby		[10]
1991	The Object of Beauty	Jake Bartholemew		[11]
	Queens Logic	Eliot		[12]
1992	Shadows and Fog	Paul, The Clown		[13]
	Of Mice and Men	Lennie Small		[14]
	Jennifer 8	FBI Agent St. Anne		[15]
1993	In the Line of Fire	Mitch Leary		[16]
	Alive	Older Carlitos Paez	Uncredited	[17]
	The Convent	Michael Padovic		[18]
1995	Beyond the Clouds	The Director		[19]
1996	Mary Reilly	Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde		[20]
	The Portrait of a Lady	Gilbert Osmond		[21]
	The Ogre	Abel Tiffauges		[22]
	Mulholland Falls	General Thomas Timms		[23]
1997	Con Air	Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom		[24]
1998	The Man in the Iron Mask	Athos		[25]
	Rounders	Teddy "KGB"		[26]
1999	Being John Malkovich	John Horatio Malkovich		[27]
	The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc	Charles VII		[28]
	Le Temps Retrouvé	Le Baron de Charlus		[29]
2000	Shadow of the Vampire	F. W. Murnau		[30]
2001	Knockaround Guys	Teddy Deserve		[31]
	Hotel	Omar Jonnson		[32]
	I'm Going Home	John Crawford		[33]
	Les âmes fortes	Monsieur Numance		[34]
2002	The Dancer Upstairs	Abimael Guzman	Uncredited; also producer and director	[35]
	Hideous Man	The Narrator	Short film; also writer and director	[36]
	Ripley's Game	Tom Ripley		[37]
	Adaptation	Himself		[38]
2003	Johnny English	Pascal Sauvage		[39]
	Um Filme Falado	Captain John Walesa		[40]
2004	The Libertine	Charles II	Also producer	[41]
2005	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	Humma Kavula		[42]
	Colour Me Kubrick	Alan Conway		[43]
	Flipping Uncle Kimono	Himself	Documentary	[44]
2006	Art School Confidential	Professor Sandiford	Also producer	[45]
	Eragon	Galbatorix		[46]
	Klimt	Gustav Klimt		[47]
	The Call	Priest	Short film	[48]
2007	Drunkboat	Mort		[49]
	Beowulf	Unferth		[50]
	Polis Is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place	Himself	Documentary	[51]
2008	The Great Buck Howard	Buck Howard		[52]
	Gardens of the Night	Michael		[53]
	In Transit	Colonel Pavlov		[54]
	Burn After Reading	Osborne Cox		[55]
	Disgrace	David Lurie		[56]
	Mutant Chronicles	Constantine		[57]
	Changeling	Reverend Gustav Briegleb		[58]
2009	Afterwards	Joseph Kay		[59]
2010	Jonah Hex	Quentin Turnbull		[60]
	Secretariat	Lucien Laurin		[61]
	Red	Marvin Boggs		[62]
2011	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	Bruce Brazos		[63]
2012	Lines of Wellington	Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington		[64]
2013	Warm Bodies	General Grigio		[65]
	Siberian Education	Grandfather Kuzya		[66]
	Ecstasy	Vinny	Short film
	Red 2	Marvin Boggs		[67]
2014	Cesar Chavez	Bogdanovich Senior	Also executive producer	[68]
	Penguins of Madagascar	Dave / Dr. Octavius Brine	Voice only	[69]
	Casanova Variations	Giacomo Casanova		[70]
	Cut Bank	Sheriff Vogel		[71]
2016	Zoolander 2	Chazz Spencer		[72]
	Dominion	Dr. Felton		[73]
	Deepwater Horizon	Donald Vidrine		[74]
	Hell	The Soldier	Short film
	Psychogenic Fugue	Various Roles		[75]
2017	Unlocked	Bob Hunter		[76]
	The Wilde Wedding	Laurence Darling	Also executive producer	[77]
	I Love You, Daddy	Leslie Goodwin		[78]
	About Love. For Adults Only	Ed, The Lecturer
	Bullet Head	Walker		[79]
2018	Casanovagen	John Malkovich / Giacomo Casanova
	Supercon	Sid Newberry		[80]
	Mile 22	James Bishop		[81]
	Bird Box	Douglas		[82]
2019	Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile	Judge Edward Cowart		[83]
	Velvet Buzzsaw	Piers		[84]
	Valley of the Gods	Wes Tauros		[85]
2020	Arkansas	"Bright"		[86]
	Ava	Duke		[87]
2021	Rogue Hostage	Sam Safty		[88]
	The Survivalist	Aaron Neville Ramsey		[89]
2022	Shattered	Ronald	Also producer	[90]
	Chariot	Dr. Karn		[91]
	White Elephant	Glen Follett		[92]
	Savage Salvation	Peter		[93]
	Mindcage	The Artist		[94]
2023	Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes	Seneca the Younger		[95]
	One Ranger	Geddes		[96]
	Fool’s Paradise	Ed Cote		[97]
	The Line	Beach Miller		[98]
	Mr. Blake At Your Service!	Andrew Blake		[99]
2025	Opus	Alfred Moretti		[100]
	The Fantastic Four: First Steps †	TBA	Post-production	[101]
TBA	The Yellow Tie †	Sergiu Celibidache	Post-production	[102]
	A Winter's Journey †	Leiermann	Post-production	[103]
	In the Hand of Dante †	TBA	Post-production	[104]
	Sacrifice †	TBA	Post-production	[105]
	Wild Horse Nine †	TBA	Filming	[106]
2115 [n 1]	100 Years	Male Protagonist	Short film; also writer	[107]

Key

†	Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1981	Word of Honor	Gary	Television film	[108]
1983	Say Goodnight, Gracie	Steve		[109]
1984	True West	Lee		[110]
1985	Death of a Salesman	Biff Loman		[111]
1986	Rocket to the Moon	Ben Stark		[112]
1987	Santabear's High Flying Adventure	Santa Claus (voice)		[113]
1989, 1993, 2008	Saturday Night Live	Himself / Host	3 episodes	[114] [115] [116]
1991	Old Times	Deeley	Television film	[117]
1993	Heart of Darkness	Kurtz		[118]
1999	RKO 281	Herman J. Mankiewicz		[119]
2000	Les Misérables	Javert	4 episodes	[120]
2002	Napoléon	Charles Talleyrand	4 episodes	[121]
2014	Crossbones	Blackbeard	9 episodes	[122]
2018–2023	Billions	Grigor Andolov	7 episodes	[123]
2018	The ABC Murders	Hercule Poirot	3 episodes; also associate producer	[124]
2019	Matchday: Inside FC Barcelona	The Narrator (voice)	8 episodes	[125]
2020	The New Pope	Pope John Paul III	9 episodes	[126]
2020–2022	Space Force	Dr. Adrian Mallory	17 episodes	[127]
2020	Home Movie: The Princess Bride	The Impressive Clergyman	Episode: "Chapter Nine: Have Fun Storming The Castle!"	[128]
2021–2023	Ten Year Old Tom	Mr. B (voice)	20 episodes	[129]
2024	The New Look	Lucien Lelong	7 episodes	[130]
2024	Ripley	Reeves Minot	Episode: "VIII Narcissus"	[131]

Key

†	Denotes series that have not yet been released

Podcasts

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2024	Unsinkable	Chief Engineer Pollard (voice)	11 episodes	[132]

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2015	Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare	Oz	Exo Zombies	[133]

Music videos

Year	Artist	Title	Ref.
1992	Annie Lennox	"Walking on Broken Glass"	[134]
2015	Eminem	"Phenomenal"	[135]

As director

• 2002 The Dancer Upstairs
• 2002 Hideous Man

As writer

• 2002 Hideous Man
• 2015 100 Years (due to be released in 2115)

As producer

• 1988 The Accidental Tourist (executive producer)
• 2001 Ghost World
• 2002 The Dancer Upstairs
• 2004 The Libertine
• 2006 Kill the Poor
• 2006 Art School Confidential
• 2007 Juno
• 2011 Young Adult (executive producer)
• 2012 The Perks of Being a Wallflower
• 2013 César Chávez (executive producer)^[136]
• 2015 Demolition (executive producer)
• 2017 The Wilde Wedding (executive producer)
• 2022 Shattered

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Playwright	Venue
1979	The Glass Menagerie	Tom Wingfield	Tennessee Williams	Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago
1980	Balm in Gilead	Stranger	Lanford Wilson	Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago
1982	True West	Lee	Sam Shepard	Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago
				Cherry Lane Theatre, Off-Broadway
1984	Death of a Salesman	Biff Loman	Arthur Miller	Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway debut
1985	Arms and the Man	Captain Bluntschli	George Bernard Shaw	Circle in the Square Theatre, Broadway
1987	Burn This	Pale	Lanford Wilson	Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
				Theater 890, Off-Broadway
				Plymouth Theatre, Broadway
1990				Lyric Theatre, London
1991	States of Shock	Colonel	Sam Shepard	American Place Theater, Off-Broadway
1992	A Slip of the Tongue	Dominic Tantra	Dusty Hughes	Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago
1996	The Libertine	John Wilmot	Stephen Jeffreys	Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago
2005	Lost Land	Count Kristof		Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago
2010	The Infernal Comedy – Confessions of a Serial Killer	Jack Unterweger	Michael Sturminger	Howard Gilman Opera House, New York
2011	The Giacomo Variations	Giacomo Casanova		Ronacher Theatre, Vienna
2017	Just Call Me God	Satur Diman Cha		Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg
2019	Bitter Wheat	Barney Fein	David Mamet	Garrick Theatre, London
2022	In the Solitude of Cotton Fields	The Client / The Dealer	Bernard-Marie Koltès	Dailes Theatre, Riga

Notes

1. Film was completed in 2015, but won't be released until 2115