Kingpin became a Hollywood player with "Sling Blade" (1996), on which he did triple duty as star, screenwriter and director. The project had its genesis in a monologue the actor created on the set of his first TV-movie, "The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains" (HBO, 1987) to channel his anger. Thornton created Karl Childers, a mentally-challenged murderer, and nurtured the character for close to a decade, first performing the soliloquies on stage and then in the 1994 short "Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade", directed by George Hickenlooper. By the time he expanded the story to feature length, Thornton had made a deal to direct as well as write and star. The result was a languid Southern Gothic story that earned critical praise.

Born and raised in a poor family, the Arkansas native hooked up with future writing partner Tom Epperson when both were children. Thornton began acting while in high school eventually deciding to pursue a full-time performing career. He and Epperson briefly landed in NYC before heading westward to Hollywood. Settling in L.A. in the late 1970s, Thornton worked variously as a rock singer, drummer and actor. He and Epperson wrote scripts which they attempted to sell, although they met with little success initially. After almost ten years in California, the tall, imposing actor made his feature debut in the forgettable direct-to-video release "Hunter's Blood" (filmed in 1986; released in 1988). After a brief turn as a soldier in the Bette Midlervehicle "For the Boys" (1991), Thornton won acclaim for his featured role in Carl Franklin's "One False Move" (1992), which he co-wrote with Epperson. His portrayal of a sociopathic ex-con involved with a black woman (Cynda Williams, who was briefly Thornton's third wife) earned him critical praise. Subsequent feature appearances included supporting roles in Taylor Hackford's "Bound By Honor" (1993), Steven Seagal's directorial debut "On Deadly Ground" (1994) and Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man" (1995).

Epperson and Thornton's second produced script, "A Family Thing" (1996) garnered attention for its novel story: a white man discovers he has a black half-brother. Actor Robert Duvall brought the germ of the idea to the duo and they in turn fashioned a vehicle for the Oscar-winning actor. The scenario attracted the attention of James Earl Jones who played Duvall's half-brother and offered a star-making role for Irma P Hall as the men's elderly aunt. While the film won reviewers' attention, it set no box-office records. Nevertheless, Thornton's stock in Hollywood was on the rise and later that year, he made his solo screenwriting and directorial debut with "Sling Blade". Appearing onscreen with close-cropped hair, clean-shaven and using slow, raspy vocals punctuated with growls, the actor was barely recognizable as Karl. Although the film alternated between static set pieces (betraying its stage origins) and leisurely-paced scenes, it did feature a strong cast including Lucas Black as a boy who befriends Karl, Natalie Canerday as his mother, John Ritter as a gay man for whom the boy's mother works and especially Dwight Yoakam as the mother's bigoted, abusive boyfriend. Thornton won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and earned another nomination as Best Actor.

Thornton's career which had gradually been gaining steam exploded with the success of "Sling Blade". He signed a three-picture deal with Miramax and was suddenly one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood; he was nearly unrecognizable as a psychotic mechanic in Oliver Stone's "U-Turn" before playing a reluctant religious convert in Duvall's "The Apostle", among his 1997 roles. The following year found him as a would-be marijuana kingpin in "Homegrown", a wily political advisor (patterned after real-life spin doctor James Carville) in "Primary Colors" and the Mission Control leader in the summer blockbuster "Armageddon", in addition to playing Bill Paxton's half-wit brother in "A Simple Plan". For the latter, in which he significantly altered his appearance, he earned a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination. Thornton returned to the director's chair to helm "All the Pretty Horses" (2000), which he also adapted from Cormac McCarthy's novel.

On the small screen, Thornton played a character named (appropriately enough) Billy Bob in the busted pilot "Circus" (ABC, 1987) before making his series debut as an ex-greaser who was a surrogate brother to a gang in "The Outsiders" (Fox, 1989). He later carved a niche portraying good ol' boys on such sitcoms as "Evening Shade" (CBS, 1990-93) and the John Ritter-Markie Post vehicle "Hearts Afire" (CBS, 1992-95), both executive produced by friend and fellow Arkansan Harry Thomason. With Epperson, Thornton wrote the HBO movie "Don't Look Back" (1996), directed by Geoff Murphy and starring Eric Stoltz as a musician-addict who stumbles onto drug money with near fatal results.

Thorton's most critically acclaimed role since "Sling Blade" (1996) came when he starred opposite Halle Barry in "Monster's Ball" (2001). Thorton played a hardened jail warden whose life is emerged in his own bitter history and ingrained racism. His character transforms and ends up falling in love with the black woman whose husband he executed. His exquisite portrait of an agonized man trying to embrace love for the first time in years earned him an impressive array of critical plaudits and awards nominations. However, Thornton may have been his own worst enemy when it came to competing for Oscar gold, as he also turned in particularly fine performances in two other films that same year with a comedic turn in Barry Levinson's "Bandits" and sharp, haunting role as the barber drawn into a dark melodrama in the Coen Brothers' loopy noir "The Man Who Wasn't There." Oscar-watchers suggested that Thornton split his own vote among the three roles, resulting in no nominations for the actor.

Thornton's always-reliable acting was also often overshadowed by his bizarre, high-profile relationship with the much-younger actress Angelina Jolie, who became his fifth wife in 2000 after the two met on the 1999 film "Pushing Tin." Their surprise union was characterized by dramatic, obsessive affectations including acquiring tattoos of each other's names and wearing vials of each other's blood when separated. However, the marriage lasted only two years: Jolie filed for divorce in 2002, shortly after adopting a Cambodian orphan who took Thornton's name. On screen in 2002, the actor appeared as a philanderer in the offbeat comedy "Waking Up in Reno" which also starred Charlize Theron Patrick Swayzeand NatashaRichardson.