Timothy Francis Robbins was born in West Covina, California but was raised in New York City. He grew up in Greenwich Village, studied drama at UCLA and graduated with honors in 1981. That same year, he formed the Actors' Gang theater group, an experimental ensemble that expressed radical political observations through the European avant-garde form of theater. He began his television and film work in 1983 but wasn’t on Hollywood’s radar until he landed the role of the dense fastball pitcher "Nuke" Laloosh in 1988’s Bull Durham. His films often reflect his liberal political views and he’s an active member of the Green political Party and activist for many different causes. He touts himself as an avid New York Rangers and New York Mets fan. He’s proven his acting chops in both dramas and comedies and was nominated for an Academy Award for directing 1995’s Dead Man Walking and took home the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his stunning performance in the 2003 crime drama Mystic River. So, in honor of his 55th birthday, here is a Top 10 list of Tim Robbins movies.
10. Arlington Road: This 1999 thriller had Robbins starring opposite Jeff Bridges, Joan Cusack and Hope Davis. Bridges’ character, Michael Faraday, was a professor at George Washington University, who suspected his new neighbor, Oliver Lang, played by Robbins, as being a terrorist. Twists, turns, deceptions and lies pervaded this movie as Robbins’ played one of the most deceptive characters ever in a motion picture. His ice cold stare in many scenes could make the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up, which is a testament to how good he is at playing a bad guy!
9. Antitrust: This 2001 thriller had Robbins co-starring with Ryan Phillipe, Rachael Leigh Cook and Claire Forlani. Robbins played Gary Winston, the CEO of NURV, a prominent tech company. He offered Milo Hoffman, (Phillipe) who started a successful new software development company with his three friends, a lucrative position at NURV. Yet, Hoffman soon learns that NURV and Winston are stealing code from other programmers and then killing them. Though the movie was panned by critics, Robbins did a fantastic job as the nefarious CEO who wanted to take over the tech universe one code at a time and who didn’t care who he had to kill to accomplish his ultimate goal!
8. The Player: In this 1992 crime dramedy, directed by Robert Altman, Robbins played Griffin Mill, a Hollywood studio executive who killed a screenwriter he thought was sending him death threats because he rejected his pitch. There were a bevy of cameos in this movie from Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts, Cher, John Cusack and countless others. The film received critical acclaim and Robbins’ portrayal of a confused executive who ended up getting away with murder earned him the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical and Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival.
7. Bob Roberts: Robbins wrote and directed this 1992 comedy. He played the title role as a right-wing conservative politician who was trying to get elected to the US Senate. The movie was from the perspective of a British documentary filmmaker who was following the Roberts campaign. Whether or not Roberts was a crooked politician in disguise was the plot of the movie as Robbins played a seemingly down-to-earth guy but was Bob Roberts all he seemed? Critics touted the film as a political satire and Robbins’ performance was praised overall.
6. War of the Worlds: Robbins had a small yet distinctive role in this 2005 sci-fi thriller directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise. Robbins played Harlan Ogilvy, who hid Cruise’s character, Ray Ferrier and his young daughter Rachel, played by Dakota Fanning, after the aliens invaded Earth. Robbins gave Ogilvy a creepy vibe as his character vowed revenge against the aliens who took away his family. Though Ferrier reluctantly killed Ogilvy after seeing the aliens harvesting blood and tissue from a human and his ranting threatened Ferrier and his daughter’s safety, Robbins made moviegoers feel sorry for a man whose whole world was taken away by the aliens.
5. Mystic River: Robbins won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in this 2003 crime drama. Directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, Robbins co-starred with several of Hollywood’s heaviest hitters such as Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurence Fishburne and Laura Linney. Robbins played Dave Boyle, a childhood friend of Penn’s character, Jimmy Markum. When Jimmy’s teenage daughter, Katie was murdered, Jimmy suspected Dave as the culprit. Robbins did a excellent job of playing a grown man tortured by his childhood abduction at the hands of pedophiles. The movie was well received by critics and Robbins’ intense performance left moviegoers wondering up until the climax of the movie whether his character was the guilty party.
4. Bull Durham: This 1988 romantic sport comedy put Robbins on Hollywood’s radar! Co-starring with Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon, who Robbins would ultimately have two children with in real life. He played the dimwitted baseball player/catcher Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh. Sarandon’s character, Annie, a minor league baseball groupie who had an affair with a player every season chose “Nuke” but then fell for the experienced catcher Crash Davis (Costner) assigned to train “Nuke.” Robbins’ brought out an offbeat, dim yet playful side to “Nuke” that made him somewhat endearing despite his stupidity. The movie was a resounding success and introduced Hollywood to an actor who still astounds moviegoers with his unlimited acting range.
3. I.Q. : This 1994 romantic comedy was a departure for Robbins, who usually took on more serious roles. He co-starred with Rom Com vet Meg Ryan and the incomparable Walter Matthau. Robbins played Ed Walters, a simple auto mechanic, who met and fell in love at first sight with Catherine Boyd (Ryan,) who was Albert Einstein’s (Matthau’s) brilliant niece. Einstein meets Walters and he and his three other genius friends spend the whole movie trying to get Catherine and Ed together, even going as far as to lie that Ed is a physics genius. Robbins’ quirky portrayal of an ordinary auto mechanic was incredibly endearing and Robbins made it impossible not to root for this character.
2. The Hudsucker Proxy: This 1994 comedy was co-written, produced and directed by the Coen brothers. Robbins co-starred with Jennifer Jason Leigh and the legendary Paul Newman. Robbins played Norville Barnes, a naïve business graduate who Newman’s character installs as the president of his company as a stock scam. Robbins’ portrayal was engaging as he portrayed the simple yet creative Norville with a certain whimsy that made moviegoers fall in love with the character. In this movie, Robbins showed that he could do sweet and lovable just as well as he does cruel and heartless.
1. The Shawshank Redemption: This 1994 crime drama was nominated for a slew of Academy Awards including Morgan Freeman for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Cinematography and Best Picture. Robbins was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance. Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Robbins played banker Andy Dufresne, who was wrongly convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover. During his nearly two decades in Shawshank prison, he befriended Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (Freeman) and the two formed a special bond and helped each other survive the horrors and routine of prison life. Robbins played Andy with a debonair vibe despite his surroundings and imbued with an inner strength and will to survive his ordeal at any cost. Freeman and Robbins’ friendship on-screen was engrossing as they looked out for each other and found a ray of light in each other in such a dark dreary place.