Tim Blake Nelson

Tim Blake Nelson
Nelson at the 2016 Fantastic Fest
Born	Timothy Blake Nelson (1964-05-11) May 11, 1964 (age 60) Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
Education	Brown University (BA) Juilliard School (GrDip)
Occupations	Actor playwright director producer screenwriter
Years active	1989–present
Spouse	Lisa Benavides ​ (m. 1994)​
Children	3

Timothy Blake Nelson (born May 11, 1964) is an American actor and playwright. Described as a "modern character actor",^[1] his roles include Delmar O'Donnell in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Gideon in Minority Report (2002), Doctor Steve Pendanski in Holes (2003), Doctor Jonathan Jacobo in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), Danny Dalton Jr. in Syriana (2005), Samuel Sterns in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Richard Schell in Lincoln (2012), the titular character of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) and Henry McCarty in Old Henry (2021). He portrayed Wade Tillman / Looking Glass in the HBO limited series Watchmen (2019), for which he received a Critics' Choice Television Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2020.

Nelson's directorial credits include Eye of God (1997), which was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and an Independent Spirit Award; O (2001), a modern-day adaptation of Othello; and the Holocaust drama The Grey Zone (2001). Eye of God and The Grey Zone were both adapted from Nelson's own plays. Nelson has also co-directed music videos for Billy Woods and Kenny Segal including "Babylon by Bus" and "Soft Landing". He also co-directed the music video for Armand Hammer feat. Pink Siifu's "Trauma Mic".

Nelson recently published his debut novel, City of Blows (2023), an epic group portrait of four men grappling for control of a script in a radically changing Hollywood.

Early life

Nelson was born to a Jewish family^[2][3] in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Ruth Nelson (née Kaiser),^[4][5] a noted Tulsa social activist and philanthropist, and Don Nelson, a geologist and wildcatter.^[6][7] His maternal uncle is businessman George Kaiser.^[8]

His maternal grandparents Herman Geo. Kaiser and Kate Kaiser, daughter of businessman Max Samuel, were from Germany, and escaped the Nazis shortly before World War II. They moved to Britain in 1938,^{[9]: 96seq.} where Nelson's mother was born,^{[9]: 87seq. [10]} and immigrated to the United States in 1941.^[11][12][13] His father's family were Russian-Jewish emigrants.^[14]

Nelson attended the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain Resort Arts and Conference Center in Lone Wolf, Oklahoma.^[15]

Nelson is a 1982 graduate of Holland Hall School in Tulsa,^[4] and a graduate of Brown University, where he was a classics major as well as senior orator for his class of 1986. At Brown, he studied under philosopher Martha Nussbaum.^[16] He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He won the Workman/Driskoll award for excellence in classical studies.^[17] He graduated from Juilliard in 1990, a member of Group 19.^[18]

Career

Nelson with Ahna O'Reilly in 2012

Nelson's debut play, Eye of God, was produced at Seattle Repertory Theatre in 1992. The Grey Zone premiered at MCC Theater in New York in 1996, where his 1998 work Anadarko was produced. He was a co-star of the sketch comedy show The Unnaturals, which ran on HA! (later CTV, and would turn into Comedy Central) between 1989 and 1991, alongside Paul Zaloom, John Mariano and Siobhan Fallon Hogan.^[19]

Nelson has appeared as an actor in film, TV and theatre. He had a featured role as Delmar in the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? According to directors Joel and Ethan Coen, he was the only one in the cast or crew who had read Homer's Odyssey, a story upon which the film is loosely based.^[20] He sang "In the Jailhouse Now" on the film's soundtrack (which received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002). He has had a number of supporting performances in feature films such as Holes, Minority Report, Syriana and Lincoln. He also appeared in Marvel Comics adaptations The Incredible Hulk and Fantastic Four.

Nelson narrated the 2001 audiobook At the Altar of Speed: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of Dale Earnhardt, Sr. He appeared on stage extensively off-Broadway in New York at theatres including Manhattan Theater Club, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Class Company, Soho Repertory Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, and Central Park's Open Air Theater in the Shakespeare plays Richard III, Troilus and Cressida, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

He has directed film versions of his plays The Grey Zone and Eye of God (for which he received an Independent Spirit Awards nomination for the Someone to Watch Award), and directed two of his original screenplays: Kansas (1998) and Leaves of Grass (2009). He directed the film O, based on Othello and set in a modern-day high school. For Eye of God, he received the Tokyo Bronze Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival (1997) and the American Independent Award at the Seattle International Film Festival (1997); for O, the Best Director Award at the Seattle International Film Festival (2001); and for The Grey Zone, the National Board of Review's Freedom of Expression Award (2002). Holocaust film historian Rich Brownstein, in his 2021 book "Holocaust Cinema Complete: A History and Analysis of 400 Films, with a Teaching Guide," regards The Grey Zone as the finest Holocaust film ever made. Nelson is on the boards of directors of The Actors Center in New York City and the Soho Rep Theatre.^[21]

Nelson guest-starred on the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation season 10 episode "Working Stiffs". In the episode "My Brother's Bomber" (aired September 29, 2015) of the PBS investigative series Frontline, he talked about the loss of his friend David Dornstein in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.^[22]

In 2018, Nelson played the title character in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a western anthology film by Joel and Ethan Coen,^[23] after receiving the original script 16 years prior, in 2002. The film was released on Netflix on November 16, after a limited theatrical run,^[24] and received positive reviews,^[25][26] with many highlighting Nelson's performance and his overall segment. He portrayed Ralph Myers in the drama/legal drama Just Mercy (2019). In January 2023, he joined the cast of Dune: Part Two,^[27] though his role was ultimately cut out of the film.^[28]

Playwright

Nelson's play Socrates opened at The Public Theater in 2019, starring Michael Stuhlbarg.^[29] It was favorably received by numerous publications, including the New York Times.^[30]

Personal life

Nelson resides in New York City with his wife, Lisa Benavides, and their three sons.^[4] One of his sons is Henry Nelson, a film director who directed Asleep in My Palm.^[31] On May 8, 2009, he was inducted as an honorary member of the University of Tulsa's Beta of Oklahoma chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa national collegiate honor society.^[32] Nelson currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Bryn Mawr College, the school from which his mother Ruth Nelson graduated in 1958.^[33][34]

Filmography

Key

†	Denotes productions that have not yet been released

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	This Is My Life	Dennis
1993	Motel Blue 19	Adult Luther (voice)	Uncredited
1994	Amateur	Young Detective
1995	Heavyweights	Roger Johnson
1996	Joe's Apartment	Cockroach (voice)
1997	Eye of God	—	Director and writer
	Donnie Brasco	FBI Technician
	Prix Fixe	Busboy	Short film
1998	The Thin Red Line	Pvt. Lysander Tills
	Kansas	—	Short film; director and writer
2000	Hamlet	Flight captain
	O Brother, Where Art Thou?	Delmar O'Donnell
2001	O	—	Director
	The Grey Zone	—	Director, writer, producer and editor
2002	The Good Girl	Bubba
	Cherish	Daly
	Minority Report	Gideon
2003	A Foreign Affair	Jake Adams	Also executive producer
	Holes	Dr. Kiowa "Mom" Pendanski
	Wonderland	Billy Deverell
2004	Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed	Dr. Jonathan Jacobo
	The Last Shot	Marshal Paris
	Bereft	Dennis
	Meet the Fockers	Officer Vern LeFlore
2005	The Amateurs	Barney Macklehatton
	My Suicidal Sweetheart	Various
	The Big White	Gary
	Syriana	Danny Dalton
2006	Come Early Morning	Uncle Tim
	The Darwin Awards	Perp
	Hoot	Curly
	Fido	Mr. Theopolis
2007	The Astronaut Farmer	Kevin Munchak
2008	The Incredible Hulk	Samuel Sterns
	American Violet	David Cohen
2009	Saint John of Las Vegas	Militant Ned
	Leaves of Grass	Bolger	Also director, writer and producer
2011	Flypaper	Peanut Butter
	Yelling to the Sky	Coleman
	Detachment	Mr. Wiatt
	The Big Year	Fuchs
2012	Big Miracle	Pat Lafayette
	Lincoln	Richard Schell
2013	Blue Caprice	Ray
	As I Lay Dying	Anse
	Child of God	Sheriff Fate
	Snake and Mongoose	Mike McAllister
2014	The Homesman	Freighter
	The Sound and the Fury	Father
	Kill the Messenger	Alan Fenster
	Rickover: The Birth of Nuclear Power[35]	Admiral Hyman Rickover	Documentary
2015	Anesthesia	Adam Zarrow	Also director, writer and producer
	Fantastic Four	Dr. Harvey Allen
2016	The Confirmation	Vaughn
	Colossal	Garth
	Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk	Wayne Pfister
2017	Deidra & Laney Rob a Train	Truman
	The Vanishing of Sidney Hall	Johan Tidemand
	The Institute	Dr. Lemelle
	The Long Home	Hovington	Unreleased
2018	Monster	Leroy Sawicki
	The Ballad of Buster Scruggs	Buster Scruggs	Segment: "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"
2019	The Report	Raymond Nathan
	Arara	Thomas
	The Hustle	Portnoy	Uncredited
	Angel Has Fallen	Vice President Martin Kirby
	Just Mercy	Ralph Myers
	Zeroville	Professor Kohn
	The True Don Quixote	Don Quixote
	The Jesus Rolls	Doctor
2021	Naked Singularity	Angus
	Old Henry	Henry	Also executive producer
	Ghosts of the Ozarks	Torb
	National Champions	Rodger Cummings
	Nightmare Alley	Carny Boss
2022	Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio	The Black Rabbits (voice)
2023	Ghosted	Borislov
	Ninety-Five Senses	Coy (voice)	Short film
	Asleep in My Palm	Tom	Also producer
2024	The Bricklayer	O'Malley
	Bang Bang	Bernard 'Bang Bang' Rozyski	[36]
	Greedy People	Wallace Chetlo	[37]
	The Invisibles	Charlie
2025	Captain America: Brave New World †	Samuel Sterns / Leader	Post-production
	On The End †	Tom Ferreira	Post-production[38]
TBA	The Long Home †	Hovington	Complete but no official release date[39]
	Ann Lee †	TBA	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989–1991	The Unnaturals	Recurring characters
1995	House of Buggin'	Kidnapper	Episode: "The Paco Vasquez Story"
1996	Dead Man's Walk	Johnny Carthage	3 episodes
2005	Stella	Mountain Man	Episode: "Camping"
	Warm Springs	Tom Loyless	Television film
2006	Haskett's Chance	—	Pilot; director
2009	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Paulie Krill	Episode: "Working Stiffs"
2011	CHAOS	Casey Malick	13 episodes
	Modern Family	Hank	Episode: "Dude Ranch"
2012–2015	Black Dynamite	Chief Humphrey Magillahorn / Donald Sterling / PBS Executive / XXX Film Director (voice)	4 episodes
2014	Klondike	Meeker	6 episodes
2015, 2019	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Randy	4 episodes
2015	Z: The Beginning of Everything	—	Episode: "Pilot"; director
	For Justice	Ochs Rainey	Pilot
2017	Wormwood	Sidney Gottlieb	4 episodes
2018	Dallas & Robo	The Woodsman (voice)	8 episodes
2019	Watchmen	Wade Tillman / Looking Glass	6 episodes
2020	Big City Greens	Grampa Ernest Green (voice)	Episode: "Garage Tales"
2022	Lost Ollie	Zozo (voice)	4 episodes
	Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities	Nick Appleton	Episode: "Lot 36"
	George & Tammy	Roy Acuff	Episode: "The Race Is On"
2023	Poker Face	Keith Owens	Episode: "The Future of the Sport"
TBA	The Sensitive Kind	TBA	Upcoming series

Video games

Year	Game	Role
2008	The Incredible Hulk	Samuel Sterns (voice)

Music videos

Year	Artist(s)	Title	Notes
2023	Billy Woods and Kenny Segal	"Soft Landing"	Director, with Henry Nelson[40]
	Billy Woods and Kenny Segal featuring ShrapKnel	"Babylon by Bus"	Director, with Henry Nelson[41]
	Armand Hammer featuring Pink Siifu	"Trauma Mic"	Director, with Henry Nelson[42]
2024	ShrapKnel	"Deep Space 9 Millie Pulled a Pistol"	Director, with Henry Nelson[43]

References

1. Coggan, Devan (October 5, 2021). "Tim Blake Nelson reflects on his most memorable roles, from 'Buster Scruggs' to 'Watchmen'". EW.com. Retrieved January 28, 2024.
2. "Feature Article and Interviews - THE GREY ZONE (2001)". Aboutfilm.com. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
3. Bloom, Nate (February 2, 2012). "Jewish stars: Whales, ghosts and 'Smash'". Cleveland Jewish News. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
4. Michael Smith, "Bloomer Sooner: Tulsa native Tim Blake Nelson's roots are showing", Tulsa World, May 6, 2009.
5. "Star's Talents Return to Tulsa" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 1, 2011. Retrieved September 27, 2007.
6. Tulsa Historical Society, 1999 Hall of Fame Inductee: Ruth K. Nelson Archived January 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, tulsahistory.org; accessed June 14, 2017.
7. Sherrow, Rita. "Native Tulsan Featured in Miniseries: Tim Nelson Makes Leap From Shakespeare to 'Dead Man's Walk'".
8. Bloom, Nate (August 6, 2015). "Celebrity jews". jweekly.com. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
9. Ulf Heinsohn, Max Samuel: a real mentsh, inventor, self-made-man / Menschenfreund, Erfinder, Selfmademan, Scott Galliart (trlr.), Stiftung Begegnungsstätte für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur in Rostock / Max-Samuel-Haus (ed.), (= Schriften aus dem Max-Samuel-Haus; vol. 15), Rostock: Hinstorff, 2022, page as indicated behind the footnote sign. ISBN 978-3-356-02380-0.
10. Stated on WTF with Marc Maron, December 3, 2018
11. "The Grey Zone". NPR. October 26, 2002. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
12. "Blunt Review: Film Reviews, Celebrity Interviews, Music Reviews with Web Celeb Emily Blunt". Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved September 27, 2007.
13. "Jonathan Valania: O Brother Who Art Thou? A Q&A With Actor/Writer/Director Tim Blake Nelson". HuffPost. April 3, 2013. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
14. "People adapt to 'Grey Zone' Jewish workers in Nazi camp". The Washington Times. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
15. Oklahoma Arts Institute, Alumni Listing Archived August 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
16. Singer, Mark (April 8, 2019). "Tim Blake Nelson, Classics Nerd, Brings "Socrates" to the Stage". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
17. Kari Molvar, "Q&A: Tim Blake Nelson", Brown Alumni Magazine (March/April 2001).
18. [1] Archived December 19, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
19. "The Unnaturals - TV Series - 1989". hollywood.com. February 5, 2015.
20. Romney, Jonathan. "The Coen brothers: Double vision", The Guardian, May 19, 2000.
21. "Roger Ebert's Film Festival - Filmmaker Guests". archive.ebertfest.media.illinois.edu. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
22. "My Brother's Bomber". pbs.org. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
23. Giroux, Jack (July 9, 2017). "'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' Cast Includes James Franco, Tim Blake Nelson, Zoe Kazan, and More". /Film. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
24. Chu, Henry (August 31, 2018). "Coen Brothers Confirm Theatrical Release for 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs'". Variety. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
25. "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. November 8, 2018. Archived from the original on November 18, 2018. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
26. "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on November 7, 2018. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
27. Kit, Borys (January 6, 2023). "Tim Blake Nelson Joins Denis Villeneuve's 'Dune: Part 2' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
28. Sharf, Zack (March 4, 2024). "Denis Villeneuve Cut Two Actors From 'Dune 2' and One of Them Is 'Heartbroken'; No Deleted Scenes Will Be Released: 'When It's Not in the Movie, It's Dead'". Variety. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
29. Schilling, Mary Kay (April 17, 1989). "Tim Blake Nelson's New Play Reveals How Socrates Predicted Donald Trump—And the Tyranny of Democracy". Newsweek. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
30. Collins-Hughes, Laura (June 2, 2019). "Review: In 'Socrates,' a Brainy Tribute to a Prickly Provocateur". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
31. Grobar, Matt (December 1, 2021). "Tim Blake Nelson To Produce & Star In 'Asleep In My Palm', His Son Henry's Feature Directorial Debut". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
32. Murphy, Jennifer (April 11, 2017). "McFarlin Fellows Dinner: An Evening with Tim Blake Nelson". From McFarlin Tower. Archived from the original on June 10, 2021. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
33. "Ruth Nelson Obituary (1935 - 2023) - Tulsa, OK - Tulsa World". Legacy.com. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
34. "Board of Trustees". www.brynmawr.edu. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
35. "Tim Blake Nelson". IMDb.
36. Galuppo, Mia (August 7, 2024). "Tim Blake Nelson on Becoming a Veteran Boxer in 'Bang Bang' and Returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
37. Hammond, Pete (August 21, 2024). "'Greedy People' Review: Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Loopy Cop Tops Black Comedy That Somehow Escaped The Coens' Grasp". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
38. Grobar, Matt (July 29, 2024). "Tim Blake Nelson, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Lois Smith, Anna Chlumsky & More To Star In Drama 'On The End' From Filmmaker Ari Selinger". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
39. Serben, Brandy Lynn (December 22, 2021). "James Franco Speaks on Sexual Misconduct Allegations 4 Years Later". MovieWeb. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
40. "billy woods & Kenny Segal - Soft Landing (Official Video)". YouTube. May 5, 2023. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
41. "billy woods & Kenny Segal - Babylon by Bus feat. ShrapKnel (Official Video)". YouTube. May 26, 2023. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
42. "Armand Hammer - Trauma Mic feat. Pink Siifu (Official Video)". YouTube. August 2, 2023. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
43. "Shrapknel "Deep Space 9 Millie Pulled A Pistol" [OFFICIAL VIDEO]". YouTube. June 7, 2024. Retrieved October 23, 2024.

External links

• Tim Blake Nelson at IMDb
• Tim Blake Nelson at the Internet Off-Broadway Database