Sam Rockwell
American actor; Academy Award-winning performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Last updated
Pete Rockwell and Penny Hess, both actors, are the parents of their only child, Sam Rockwell.[1]
Last updated 2026-10-06 from the source article.
Key facts and history
Rockwell’s career gained momentum in the early 1990s with guest spots on TV series like The Equalizer, NYPD Blue, and Law & Order.[2] The turning point in his career was Tom DiCillo's independent film Box of Moonlight (1996).[3] Rockwell won his first Academy Award for his performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).[4][5][6] When Rockwell was ten, he performed briefly on stage with his mother in an East Village improv comedy sketch, playing Humphrey Bogart.[7]
Rockwell began his high school education at the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, but completed his diploma at Urban Pioneers, an alternative school modeled on Outward Bound.[8] Rockwell's first film role was in the 1989 horror movie Clownhouse, a controversial production that Francis Ford Coppola helped produce.[9] Because director Victor Salva was found guilty of abusing the film's 12-year-old male lead during the making of Clownhouse, the movie was later removed from distribution.[9]
What the cited sources add
The Golden Globe Awards profile lists Rockwell's birth date as November 5, 1968, in Daly City, California, and notes his roles in Box of Moonlight (1996), Lawn Dogs (1997), and The Green Mile (1999).[5] The same source states that Rockwell played a racist cop in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) and portrayed George W. Bush in Vice (2018).[5] A Daily Beast interview notes that Rockwell's early roles included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.[10] The same interview describes his character Owen in The Way, Way Back as the gregarious manager of Water Wizz water park.[10]
References
- Wikipedia, "Sam Rockwell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barney, "Oscars 2018: Bay Area's Sam Rockwell wins best supporting actor", The Mercury News, March 4, 2018; Neal, "Sam Rockwell's 'Confessions'", CBS News, January 22, 2003 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sam Rockwell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Stern, "Sam Rockwell on 'The Way, Way Back,' His Troubled Youth & More", The Daily Beast, July 11, 2017 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sam Rockwell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Weinraub, "AT THE MOVIES; Looking Back At 2 Classics", The New York Times, January 23, 1998 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sam Rockwell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lawrence, "Sam Rockwell wins best supporting actor at Golden Globes", January 7, 2018; "Sam Rockwell", Golden Globe Awards; "The 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards", Screen Actors Guild Awards; "Film - Supporting Actor in 2018", British Academy of Film and Television Arts; "THE 90TH ACADEMY AWARDS - 2018", Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Sam Rockwell", Golden Globe Awards. facts only, no text reused. goldenglobes.com
- "THE 90TH ACADEMY AWARDS - 2018", Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. facts only, no text reused. oscars.org
- Wikipedia, "Sam Rockwell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Winters, "Sam Rockwell; One-Man Gallery of Rogues, Crooks and Oddballs", The New York Times, September 13, 1998; Spencer, Miranda (January 2003). "Sam Rockwell". Biography. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sam Rockwell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nguyen, "Sam Rockwell's alma mater in San Francisco hoping for Oscar glory", KGO-TV, March 2, 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sam Rockwell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sam Rockwell answers one question for (almost) every film he's done GQ February 2026 interview; "A testimony to Hollywood's values", Chicago Tribune, November 4, 1995, p. 19; Adams, "Sam Rockwell", The Talks (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Stern, "Sam Rockwell on 'The Way, Way Back,' His Troubled Youth & More", The Daily Beast, July 11, 2017. facts only, no text reused. thedailybeast.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Sam Rockwell (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Sam Rockwell (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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