Actor Woody Harrelson has started to really pick up critical acclaim in his movie and television career. He has always been a beloved actor, but it took a while before people realized that his good-ol'-boy personality was just a cover for his immense talent as a movie star. It seems almost hard to believe his career started over 35 years ago to replace another actor on Cheers.
After replacing the beloved Nicholas Colasanto (Coach) following the actor's passing, Harrelson made the loveable and naïve bartender his own and won critical praise. He recently returned in a series of roles as a grizzled police officer, including the HBO crime series True Detective, cementing his status as a legend.
Indecent Proposal (1993)
After playing Woody Boyd on Cheers for eight years, Woody Harrelson took on a more risqué role in the drama movie Indecent Proposal.
At the time, he was the least experienced actor of the lead trio, but he held his own against Demi Moore, who played his wife Diana, and Robert Redford, the man who offers them $1 million to spend the night with Diana. He and Moore won the MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss.
The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
Woody Harrelson gets a lot of recognition for his role in the 1994 crime movie Natural Born Killers, but it was two years later that he really set the world on fire with his role in the Larry Flynt biopic The People Vs. Larry Flynt.
Here, Harrelson played Flynt, the Hustler magazine owner who ended up on trial for smut-peddling, had constant battles with religious leader Jerry Falwell, and ended up being shot outside a courthouse. Harrelson picked up an Oscar nomination for his performance.
Kingpin (1996)
It might not be up to everyone's tastes, but in 1996, Woody Harrelson starred in the Farrelly Brothers comedy, Kingpin. In the same year that Harrelson picked up an Oscar nomination for the Larry Flynt biopic, he also starred in a bowling movie with a terrible combover opposite Bill Murray and Randy Quaid.
Harrelson was a young bowling prodigy who had his hand taken by some rivals and brought in a big Amish kid with a strong bowling arm to get revenge.
Wag The Dog (1997)
In 1997, Woody Harrelson co-starred in a dark political comedy called Wag the Dog, a movie that might hit even harder in today's political climate. In the movie, the United States president is caught making advances on an underage girl, so his advisers try to divert the attention.
A spin doctor (Robert De Niro) is brought in to try to get the public talking about anything but the president's infidelities. He decides to hire a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) to fabricate a war for television. Harrelson is Sgt. William Schumann, a former vet hired to be a forgotten war hero, but who turns out to be an unstable Army convict.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line was a fantastic war movie that was overshadowed by Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, also released the same year.
Malick's movie was just as star-packed as Spielberg's movie, including Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, George Clooney, and John Cusack. Woody Harrelson starred as a sergeant in charge of a unit caught behind enemy fire, who died in an accidental grenade explosion but protected his own men in the end.
EDtv (1999)
Ron Howard directed EDtv in 1999, a movie that was a box office flop put picked up a decent following later when it reached home video.
This movie teamed up Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson fifteen years before they gained critical acclaim in True Detective. The series showcased reality TV before it was the hottest thing on television, with Ed (McConaughey) and Ray (Harrelson) sharing their life with the television audience.
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Richard Linklater has directed some critically acclaimed masterpieces in his career. Movies based on stories by Philip K. Dick are almost always hits when they hit theaters as well. However, when Linklater directed the Dick adaptation A Scanner Darkly, it was a small, almost unnoticed release.
The reason is likely the animation, which was polarizing as it was shot digitally and then animated with interpolated rotoscope. Regardless, the story was as great as expected.
Rampart (2011)
The Shield was a hit TV show on FX that starred Michael Chiklis as a tough cop who tried to do the right thing but was morally bankrupt and on the take. This was based on the actual Rampart Division police scandal in the LAPD, with real-life crooked cops.
In 2011, Woody Harrelson starred in a movie titled Rampart about the same thing. The movie played at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Harrelson won the Best Actor Award from the African American Film Critics Association.
Seven Psychopaths (2012)
The same year that Woody Harrelson turned heads in the HBO crime drama series True Detective, he also starred as a psychopath in the aptly named Seven Psychopaths.
Written and directed by Martin McDonagh (In Bruges), Colin Farrell is a struggling screenwriter who decides to interview actual criminal psychopaths. When his best friend steals a Shih Tzu belonging to a violent gangster played by Harrelson, everyone finds their lives in danger.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Woody Harrelson turned in one of his best roles in the next movie by Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
When a mother (Frances McDormand) feels the local police are not doing enough to find her missing daughter, she puts up three billboards calling them out on it. Harrelson is the sheriff who is trying his best while dealing with the fact he also has terminal cancer. The role earned Harrelson a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.