Woody Harrelson is an American actor who made his film debut as an uncredited extra in Harper Valley PTA (1978). His breakthrough role was as bartender Woody Boyd on the NBC sitcom Cheers (1985–1993), which garnered Harrelson a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series from a total of five nominations. He would later reprise the character in other television shows, such as Frasier and The Simpsons. In 1992, Harrelson starred opposite Wesley Snipes in White Men Can't Jump. He then appeared in the Oliver Stone-directed Natural Born Killers (1994) alongside Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Downey Jr. For his performance as free-speech activist Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and an Academy Award for Best Actor. He next appeared in The Thin Red Line (1998).

From 1999 to 2000, Harrelson acted in the Broadway revival of The Rainmaker. He then had a minor role in the 2003 comedy Anger Management. From 2005 to 2006, Harrelson played Rev. Shannon in a London production of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana. His next film role was as hit-man Carson Wells in the Coen brothers-directed No Country for Old Men (2007), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. That year he also portrayed physician Robert O. Wilson in the documentary Nanking. In 2008, Harrelson starred opposite Will Ferrell in Semi-Pro and Will Smith in Seven Pounds. His work in The Messenger (2009) garnered him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. He then starred in Zombieland (2009), later returning to the franchise in Zombieland: Double Tap (2019).

Harrelson starred as Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games (2012). He would return to the role for three more films: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014), and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015). He then played the title role in the 2016 biopic LBJ. For his performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), Harrelson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, but he lost both to co-star Sam Rockwell. That year, he also portrayed the militaristic "Colonel" in War for the Planet of the Apes. The following year, he appeared in the Ron Howard-directed Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). He then portrayed Admiral Chester Nimitz in the Roland Emmerich-directed Midway (2019), after having a minor role in Emmerich's 2012 (2009). During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, he portrayed candidate Joe Biden for multiple episodes of Saturday Night Live. In 2021, Harrelson portrayed serial killer Cletus Kasady and voiced the symbiote Carnage in the Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) film Venom: Let There Be Carnage, having first played the former character in a mid-credits cameo in Venom (2018).

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1978	Harper Valley PTA	Extra	Uncredited
1986	Wildcats	Krushinski
1990	Cool Blue	Dustin
1991	L.A. Story	Station manager	Uncredited
	Doc Hollywood	Hank Gordon
	Ted & Venus	Homeless Vietnam Veteran
1992	White Men Can't Jump	Billy Hoyle
1993	Indecent Proposal	David Murphy
1994	Natural Born Killers	Mickey Knox
	The Cowboy Way	Pepper Lewis
	I'll Do Anything	Ground Zero Hero
1995	Money Train	Charlie Robinson
1996	The People vs. Larry Flynt	Larry Flynt
	Kingpin	Roy Munson
	The Sunchaser	Dr. Michael Reynolds
1997	Wag the Dog	Sgt. William Schumann
	Welcome to Sarajevo	Jordan Flynn
1998	The Thin Red Line	Sgt. William Keck
	Palmetto	Harry Barber
	The Hi-Lo Country	Big Boy Matson
1999	Play It to the Bone	Vince Boudreau
	EDtv	Ray Pekurny
	Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me	Himself
	Grass	Narrator (voice)
2003	Anger Management	Galaxia / Security Gary
	Go Further	Himself
	Scorched	Jason "Woods" Valley
2004	After the Sunset	Stanley "Stan" P. Lloyd
	She Hate Me	Lenald Power
2005	North Country	Bill White
	The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio	Leo "Kelly" Ryan
	The Big White	Raymond "Ray" Barnell
2006	Free Jimmy	Roy Arnie (voice)
	A Scanner Darkly	Ernie Luckman
	A Prairie Home Companion	Dusty
2007	The Walker	Carter Page III
	No Country for Old Men	Carson Wells
	Battle in Seattle	Dale
	The Grand	One Eyed Jack Faro
	Nanking	Robert O. "Bob" Wilson
2008	Semi-Pro	Ed Monix
	Sleepwalking	Randall
	Transsiberian	Roy
	Surfer, Dude	Jack Mayweather
	Management	Jango
	Seven Pounds	Ezra Turner
2009	The Messenger	Captain Anthony "Tony" Stone
	Defendor	Arthur Poppington / Defendor
	Zombieland	Tallahassee
	2012	Charlie Frost
2010	Bunraku	The Bartender
	Hempsters: Plant the Seed	Himself
2011	Friends with Benefits	Tommy Bollinger
	Ethos	Narrator (voice)
	Rampart	David Douglas "Dave" Brown
2012	The Hunger Games	Haymitch Abernathy
	Seven Psychopaths	Charlie Costello
2013	How to Make Money Selling Drugs	Himself
	Now You See Me	Merritt McKinney
	Out of the Furnace	Harlan DeGroat
	Free Birds	Jake (voice)
	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire	Haymitch Abernathy
2014	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1	Haymitch Abernathy
2015	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2	Haymitch Abernathy
2016	Triple 9	Sergeant Detective Jeffrey Allen
	Now You See Me 2	Chase McKinney/Merritt McKinney
	The Duel	Abraham Brant
	LBJ	Lyndon B. Johnson
	The Edge of Seventeen	Max Bruner
2017	Lost in London	Himself	Also director, producer and writer
	Wilson	Wilson
	War for the Planet of the Apes	Colonel J. Wesley McCullough
	The Glass Castle	Rex Walls
	Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri	Sheriff Bill Willoughby
	Shock and Awe	Jonathan Landay
2018	Solo: A Star Wars Story	Tobias Beckett
	Venom	Cletus Kasady / Red	Mid-credits cameo
2019	The Highwaymen	Maney Gault	Also executive producer
	Zombieland: Double Tap	Tallahassee
	Midway	Admiral Chester Nimitz
2020	Kiss The Ground	Narrator
2021	Kate	Varrick
	Venom: Let There Be Carnage	Cletus Kasady and Carnage (voice)
2022	Triangle of Sadness	Captain Thomas Smith
	The Man from Toronto	Randy
2023	Champions	Marcus Marakovich	Also executive producer
2024	Suncoast	Paul Warren
	Fly Me to the Moon	Moe Berkus	Post-production
2025	Last Breath	Duncan Allcock	Post-production
	Ella McCay	TBA	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Roles	Notes	Ref.
1985–1993	Cheers	Woody Boyd	196 episodes
1987	Bay Cove	Slater	Television film
1988	Mickey's 60th Birthday	Woody Boyd	Television special
1989	Dear John	Richard	Episode: "Love and Marriage"
1989–2023	Saturday Night Live	Himself (host)	5 episodes
1990	Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme	Lou the Lamb	Television film
1994	The Simpsons	Woody Boyd (voice)	Episode: "Fear of Flying"
1996	Spin City	Tommy Dugan	Episode: "Meet Tommy Dugan"
1999	Frasier	Woody Boyd	Episode: "The Show Where Woody Shows Up"
2001–2002	Will & Grace	Nathan	7 episodes
2012	Game Change	Steve Schmidt	Television film
2013	David Blaine: Real or Magic	Himself	Television special
2014	True Detective	Martin "Marty" Hart	8 episodes; also executive producer
2019	Live in Front of a Studio Audience	Archie Bunker	2 episodes
2019	Saturday Night Live	Joe Biden	3 episodes
2020–present	The Freak Brothers	Freewheelin' Franklin Freek (voice)	Main role; also executive producer
2021	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Himself	Episode: "The Watermelon"
2023	White House Plumbers	E. Howard Hunt	5 episodes; also executive producer

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Location	Notes	Ref.
1985–1986	Biloxi Blues	Joseph Wykowski, Roy Selridge (standbys)	Neil Simon Theatre
1987–1988	The Boys Next Door	Jack	Lamb's Theatre
1999–2000	The Rainmaker	Bill Starbuck	Brooks Atkinson Theatre
2002	On an Average Day	Bob	Harold Pinter Theatre
2005–2006	The Night of the Iguana	Shannon	Lyric Theatre
2012	Bullet for Adolf	—	New World Stages Stage IV	Director and playwright

Music video

Year	Title	Performer	Album	Ref.
2015	"Song for someone"	U2	Songs of Innocence (single)

Audio

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref(s)
2023	White House Plumbers Podcast	Himself	3 episodes

See also

• List of awards and nominations received by Woody Harrelson