Do You Remember Billy Bob Thornton’s First Role? The ‘Landman’ Star Appeared in This Crazy Thriller
Most of us first heard of Billy Bob Thornton when 1996’s Sling Blade became a surprise hit, earning him an Adapted Screenplay Academy Award and launching him onto the A-list. But Thornton — star of Landman, the new show from Yellowstone‘s Taylor Sheridan, premiering on Nov. 17 — had already been acting professionally for a decade by that point. In fact, long before he was drinking Angelina Jolie’s blood, Thornton landed his first onscreen role in 1986’s Hunter’s Blood.
A tale of urban professionals whose hunting trip goes awry when they tangle with some evil backwoods poachers, the film starred Sam Bottoms, Kim Delaney and Joey Travolta as some of the doomed city slickers. Inspired by Deliverance (1972), Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and other films about the terrifying violence that rednecks can inflict on unsuspecting yuppie types, the film is gruesome and bloody, full of shootings, hangings and even one death-by-deer-antler moment.
Concorde/courtesy Everett Collection
Delaney was still several years away from her career-defining performance on NYPD Blue and was best known to viewers for her run as Jenny on All My Children. Bottoms had appeared in Apocalypse Now, but was perhaps better known as the sibling of ’70s film star Timothy Bottoms; likewise, Joey Travolta had appeared in a handful of TV roles, but was best known as John Travolta‘s older brother. The film was the directorial debut of Robert C. Hughes, who would go on to carve out a career in children’s and reality TV.
Thornton has a brief role in the film, playing a character also named “Billy Bob.” He can be spotted in a scene about 20 minutes in, as part of a group of rednecks who confront the city slickers in a local bar. Thornton sports a red and white baseball cap, overalls and a beard. *Spoiler Alert* Just one scene later, he is thrown from the roof of a yellow pickup truck that is pursuing the protagonists.
Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch via Getty Images
If you’re interested in watching Hunter’s Blood, get ready to put in a little leg work: Unlike many B-movies featuring actors who later became household names, it has never had a major reissue. It is not streaming and is only available for purchase on DVD (and the odd used VHS copy).
Thornton still had a few more years of dues-paying ahead; he had a small role in the 1989 horror comedy Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, before snagging his first career breakthrough in 1992’s One False Move, a crime thriller that he cowrote and starred in, alongside Bill Paxton. The following year, he appeared in the star-studded Tombstone, where he memorably played a rude card dealer who gets beaten up by Kurt Russell‘s Wyatt Earp.
Thornton has remained reliably popular in the decades since Sling Blade, starring in everything from Armageddon to Bad Santa to the TV adaptation of Fargo. But none of it would be possible if hadn’t threatened Sam Bottoms from the roof of a moving pickup truck nearly 40 years ago.
The Oscars
March 2022
Test your knowledge on the award ceremony's most memorable hosts and the movies that won.
Buy This Issue