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Artist
Billy Bob Thornton
12+ albums
Alt-countrycountrybluesrockblues rock
about
Billy Bob Thornton (born William Robert Thornton on August 4, 1955) is an Academy Award-winning American screenwriter, actor, as well as occasional director, playwright and singer. He came to fame in the mid 1990s, after writing, directing, and starring in the film Sling Blade, and has since established a career as a Hollywood leading actor, having appeared in several successful films, including 2003's Bad Santa. Thornton, who has been described in media reports as "Hollywood's go-to alpha male",[1] is also known for his former marriage to actress Angelina Jolie. Early life Thornton was born in Arkansas to Billy Ray Thornton, a high school history teacher and basketball coach, and Virginia R. Faulkner, a psychic. Thornton has three younger brothers, Jimmy Don, born in 1958 and now deceased, Jim Bean, and John David, born in 1969. Thornton lived in both Alpine, Arkansas and Malvern, Arkansas during his childhood, and also spent time with his grandfather, Otis Thornton, a forest ranger, in a small shack in the woods. He attended Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, where he studied psychology but dropped out after two semesters. Thornton is the cousin of noted professional wrestlers Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk, which Terry Funk notes in his autobiography Terry Funk: More Than Hardcore. In the late 1980s, Thornton settled in Los Angeles to pursue his career as an actor alongside future writing partner Tom Epperson. Thornton initially had a difficult time succe
