Tommy Lee Jones is a well known and respected actor and director who has been in the business for many years. He was a football star in his college years, but instead of going into a sports career, he moved to New York and began acting instead, where he made his debut on Broadway. The first film role he landed, playing a college student in Love Story, was coincidentally written with Jones as a source of inspiration for his character.

As he began to earn award nominations for his performances, Jones became a more popular and recognizable actor. His career began to pick up, and he acted in many blockbuster movies that cemented him as an iconic actor. Throughout his career he’s acted in a lot of action movies, but he wasn’t just limited to these, sometimes taking roles in political films or somber, quite dramas as well, and even directing a handful of excellent films, including the three great films The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, The Sunset Limited, and The Homesman. No matter what he's acted in, though, he fully encompassed his role and made a lot of memorable movies.

7 The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Two cowboys sitting on the ground in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Sony Pictures Classics

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is inspired partly by the real killing of a teenager in Texas, and partially inspired by the famous Faulkner novel As I Lay Dying. Estrada works in Texas as a cowboy and shoots a nearby coyote before he gets into his flock of goats. Norton, a nearby border patrol officer, mistakes the shooting as an attack and shoots at Estrada, killing him. Instead of reporting this and getting in trouble, Norton buries the body to hide the evidence. His body is later found and reburied in a local cemetery, but evidence that border patrol may have killed him is ignored by the sheriff. Peter Perkins, having found out that Norton killed his friend, kidnaps Norton and forces him to come along for the journey as he takes Estrada’s body to be buried in his hometown.

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Jones has two roles in this movie: not only does he star as Perkins, but he is the director of the film as well. He knows just how to play the role of the vengeful friend who doesn’t really care what happens to his captive and is just looking to take care of his friend’s final wish. At the Cannes Film Festival, where the movie debuted, Jones won Best Actor, with his film nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or. The film remains a masterful example of the neo-western movie and is still hauntingly tense to this day.

6 Lincoln

Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The historical drama Lincoln is a biographical film about the final four months of President Lincoln’s life. It is loosely based on Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, a biography written by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The last four months of Lincoln’s life were perhaps some of the most significant, and most remembered, moments of his presidency, besides the Emancipation Proclamation. With the Civil War near its end, Lincoln fears the return of the confederate states would mean they would ignore his proclamation, so he hopes to get it passed as the Thirteenth Amendment before that happens.

The movie chronicles the difficulties Lincoln had in trying to abolish slavery in the nation. Jones plays Thaddeus Stevens, a supporting role in the House of Representatives. Stevens represents a critical moment in the House’s debate, as he argues for the amendment just as the Confederate is on the way to discuss the terms of peace, the last moment Lincoln will have to get the amendment passed without them. Jones steps up to the plate and delivers this crucial speech in an unforgettable way. He received best supporting actor nominations at the Oscars, BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and the Satellite awards.

5 Coal Miner's Daughter

A couple in Coal Miner's Daughter
Universal Pictures

Another biographical film, Coal Miner’s Daughter is also a musical of sorts, telling the story of country music singer Loretta Lynn. Starting in her early teen years, the movie shows how she started out in a poor family with several siblings, and is married at the age of 15. By 19 she’s already a mother of four, and has begun singing occasionally at local honky-tonks and radio stations on the weekends. Norm Burley, owner of Zero Records record label, hears Loretta sing in one of her radio appearances and gives her and her husband the money they need to travel to LA, where a demo of her first single is made. They consider going on a promotional tour to push the record, but tragedy strikes, fame comes knocking, and life gets hectic.

Jones plays Doolittle Lynn, Loretta Lynn’s husband. As the one there to support Lynn as well as bring some tough issues into her life, Jones shows us how both can still work side by side and really brings out the facets of who Doolittle was as a person. He's sensual but also firm here, where he also earned his first Golden Globe nomination from his performance.

4 JFK

Tommy LEe Jones in court in JFK
Warner Bros.

JFK is a conspiracy theory political thriller examining the events leading up to John F. Kennedy's assassination and its alleged cover up through the eyes of a former district attorney Jim Garrison, adapted from the books On the Trail of the Assassins and Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy. After Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested for the murder of a police officer, and is also suspected to be Kennedy’s assassin, he is killed. Jim Garrison and his team begin to investigate possible links to the JFK assassination in New Orleans, but the federal government rebukes the investigation, and it is closed.

Years later he reopens it after reading the Warren report, believing there to be multiple inaccuracies in it. Now, he tries once more to see if he can find what really happened, believing Oswald was framed by the government. Jones plays Clay Shaw, the person Garrison’s investigation leads him to and who he attempts to take to trial for the actual assassination. With the way that Jones played Shaw, it’s impossible to tell if he really was guilty or not, no matter what the final court verdict was. With a surprising flamboyance and queer Southern charm, i’s an endlessly interesting character that Jones brings great depth to. He was nominated for best supporting actor at the Oscars and the BAFTAs.

3 Men In Black

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black
Sony Pictures Releasing

Men In Black could quite possibly be one of the most iconic movies Jones has been in. The Men in Black is a secret government organization created after first contact with aliens in the 60s. They keep an eye on alien activity on Earth, as the public doesn’t know, and shouldn’t find out, that there are some aliens hidden among them, disguised as humans. Agent J is recruited to the Men in Black as a new member, and with his partner, Agent K, they investigate an alien crash in upstate New York. There they find a hostile creature in search of something he and his race can use to end another alien race, and they have to try to stop him before it’s too late.

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Jones plays Agent K, the seasoned officer put to the test with the new guy. He comes across as a hardened, standoffish guy, but Jones shows us he still has a bit of a soft side as he cares about Agent J’s wellbeing. He received a best supporting actor nomination at the Satellite awards.

2 The Fugitive

Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive
Warner Bros.

The action thriller The Fugitive is based on the 1960s TV series of the same name, but is so much more realistic and tense than that show. Chicago surgeon Richard Kimble comes home to find his wife has been fatally injured by an intruder with a prosthetic arm. After struggling with her killer, he loses and the killer escapes, leaving little evidence behind. The evidence they did have, however, wrongfully incriminated Kimble as the murdered, who is arrested, convicted, and given the death sentence. He and his fellow prisoners try to escape while being transported to death row, and though not all of them make it out alive, Kimble survives the escape attempt and manages to evade the police after as well, returning to Chicago in order to hunt down the real murderer, get his revenge, and clear his name.

Jones plays Deputy U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard, who can be seen as an antagonist for the movie. He spends his time chasing after Kimble after his escape, trying to arrest him once more. It’s a complicated role, to chase down the man who you learn is trying to prove his innocence, but Jones has no hesitation and brings his A game to the screen. He won the Oscar and Golden Globes for best supporting actor, and was nominated for the same award at the BAFTAs.

1 No Country For Old Men

Tommy Lee Jones in No Country for Old Men
Miramax Films

No Country For Old Men is a neo-western based on a book of the same name. It follows the stories of three men whose lives intersect: Llewelyn Moss, a veteran, Anton Chigurh, a hitman, and Ed Tom Bell, a sheriff. Moss is hunting in the desert when he comes across a drug deal that has gone bad, with several dead men and a briefcase of two million dollars. He takes the money for himself, but is quickly chased, suddenly on the run in an attempt to keep the money. Chigurh is hired to recover the money now that Moss has it, searching the currently abandoned house for it. This break-in catches Bell’s attention, and it leads to him following on the trail as well.

Jones plays Bell, the sheriff trying to pick up the pieces of the crime. Though his story seems outshined by Moss and Chigurh, there's a strong argument to be made that Jones is actually the centerpiece of the film, not just in a dramatic sense but in thematic and ethical ways as well, something the ending of No Country For Old Men makes somewhat clear. Jones still does a phenomenal job in showing an honest cop struggling and failing to figure out and stop the violent crimes he suddenly seems to be surrounded with. He is truly one of the 'old men' without a country here, and his melancholic, slightly humorous, tough performance is utterly perfect. He won a BAFTA for best supporting actor.