Best Actor Nominee Profile

Billy Bob Thornton

Vegas odds: Even money

Born: Hot Springs, Arkansas

Age: 41

His role: Thornton plays Karl Childers, a mentally challenged murderer who befriends and defends a young boy after being released from an insane asylum.

Quote: "I'm one of those people who just attract weirdos. I always seem to end up, like, in the middle of the desert with some biker, you know, and he's threatening to tie me up or something. I've known a lot of strange people."

Previous Academy honors: None

Did you know . . .
Thornton named his son Harry after pal of President Clinton and producer Harry Thomason, whom he worked with on the television series Hearts Afire.

He has been married four times.

Sling Blade co-star John Ritter summed up the film's writer-director-star by saying, "If David Lynch and Horton Foote had a baby, Billy Bob would be the son."

He thought up the character of Karl Childers on the set of his first television movie, The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains, because he was tired of begging for bit parts. He performed the character in monologues for eight years before writing, directing, and starring in Sling Blade.

He had co-stars Dwight Yoakam and John Ritter in mind when he wrote the script.

He has a three-picture deal with Miramax.

Oddmakers say:

Next up: U-Turn, Oliver Stone's stab at film noir, and Primary Colors, in which he'll play Richard Jemmons, a character loosely based on James Carville.

Film credits:
Sling Blade, 1996 (Screenplay; Direction; Karl Childers)
A Family Thing, 1996 (Screenplay)
Dead Man, 1995 (Big George Drakoulious)
Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade, 1994 (Screenplay; Karl Childers)
On Deadly Ground, 1994 (Homer Carlton)
Floundering, 1994 (Gun Clerk)
Trouble Bound, 1993 (Coldface)
Tombstone, 1993 (Johnny Tyler)
The Ghost Brigade, 1993 (Langston)
Indecent Proposal, 1993 (Day Tripper)
Bound by Honor, 1993 (Lighting)
One False Move, 1992 (Screenplay; Ray Malcom)
Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, 1992 (Donny)
For the Boys, 1991 (Marine Sergeant)
South of Reno, 1988 (Counterman)
Hunter's Blood, 1986 (Billy Bob)

Odds courtesy of Lenny Del Genio, Bally's Las Vegas