In a few short years, Michael Shannon has amassed a film and TV career made up of ethically and psychologically complicated men. Currently he stars on HBO's Boardwalk Empire as Nelson Van Alden, a creepily pious Prohibition agent tasked with stopping Atlantic City's rampant bootlegging operations
2 of 10 Andrew Cooper/Touchstone/Kobal Collection
Shannon had a small role in Pearl Harbor (2001), opposite Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin
3 of 10 Imagine Entertainment
10michael-shannon-8mile2
It must be daunting to play Eminem's nemesis, but that was nothing compared with having a sex scene with Kim Basinger, as Shannon did in 8 Mile (2002), in which he played her ne'er-do-well boyfriend
4 of 10 Warner Bros. Pictures
09michael-shannon-kangaroo1
Yes, that's Shannon in Kangaroo Jack (2003), playing the film's main villain, a thug named Frankie Lombardo who wants to kill Jerry O'Connell and Anthony Anderson
5 of 10 Columbia Pictures
08michael-shannon-badboys1
Opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, Shannon played a real bad boy in Bad Boys II (2003), a white supremacist hilariously named Floyd Poteet
6 of 10 Lions Gate Entertainment
07michael-shannon-bug1
Shannon reprised the role he played on stage opposite Ashley Judd and Harry Connick Jr. in Tracy Letts' Bug (2006), as a mentally ill veteran who believes he's been infested with parasites
7 of 10 Paramount Pictures
06michael-shannon-devil-dead1
Shannon donned fatigues to play a Marine searching for 9/11 survivors in the rubble in Oliver Stone's World Trade Center (2006)
8 of 10 THINKFilm
05michael-shannon-devil-dead1
In Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), Shannon plays a grieving man who demands payment after Ethan Hawke's character gets his sister's husband killed
9 of 10 Dreamworks
04michael-shannon-revolutionary-road1
Shannon received a surprising best supporting actor nomination for Revolutionary Road (2008), in which he played the unhinged John Givings, who speaks for the audience when he tells Frank and April Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) that their marriage is doomed
10 of 10 Sony Pictures
03michael-shannon-runaways2
In The Runaways (2010), Shannon played Kim Fowler, the snake-oil-salesman manager who would make a young Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) rock stars