Biography
John Carroll Lynch (born August 1, 1963) is an American actor, known for his role as Drew Carey's cross-dressing brother on The Drew Carey Show, and for his role as Norm, the unassuming husband of Margie Gunderson (Frances McDormand) in Fargo. In the fall of 2003, he starred in the CBS show The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire, with Randy Quaid, Chris Penn, Mare Winningham, Elizabeth McGovern, and Ann Cusack. The show was cancelled after only a few episodes. He also had a recurring role in ...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Sorry, Baby
2025
as Pete
Something bad happened to Agnes. But life goes on… for everyone around her, at least.

Babes
2024
as Dr. Morris
After getting pregnant from a one-night stand, a single woman leans on her married best friend and mother of two to guide her through gestation and be...

Outlaw Posse
2024
as Carson
1908. Chief returns from years of hiding in Mexico to claim stolen reparations gold hidden in the hills of Montana but is chased by Angel, whose ratio...

The Trial of the Chicago 7
2020
as David Dellinger
What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history.

Kiss Me Kosher!
2020
as Ron Shalev
When two generations of Israeli women fall for a German woman and a Palestinian man, chaos follows. What happens with lovers who don't fit but do belo...

Be Absolute for Death
2020
In "Spaces #2", 7 internationally acclaimed directors shot, after commissioning by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, a short film at home,...

Be Absolute for Death
2020
Director
In "Spaces #2", 7 internationally acclaimed directors shot, after commissioning by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, a short film at home,...

The Highwaymen
2019
as Lee Simmons
In 1934, Frank Hamer and Manny Gault, two former Texas Rangers, are commissioned to put an end to the wave of vicious crimes perpetrated by Bonnie Par...

Private Life
2018
as Charlie Grimes
Richard and Rachel, a couple in the throes of infertility, try to maintain their marriage as they descend deeper and deeper into the insular world of ...

Anything
2018
as Early Landry
After the death of his wife, a man moves from Mississippi to a run-down Hollywood apartment, where he meets someone new.

The White Orchid
2018
as Sheriff Mann
A social services investigator helps a local sheriff solve the brutal murder of a beautiful blonde known only as The White Orchid.

Lucky
2017
Director
Follows the journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off-the-map desert town. He finds himself at the precipice of ...

Jackie
2016
as Lyndon B. Johnson
An account of the days of First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, in the immediate aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

The Founder
2016
as Mac McDonald
The true story of how Ray Kroc, a salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California....

Shangri-La Suite
2016
as Colonel Tom Parker
Karen and Jack met in a mental hospital and fell in love. They set out to follow what Jack thinks is his destiny: killing Elvis Presley.

The Architect
2016
as Conway
When a couple sets out to build their dream house, they enlist the services of an uncompromising modernist architect, who proceeds to build HIS dream ...

The Invitation
2016
as Pruitt
Will and his new girlfriend Kira are invited to a dinner with old friends at the house of Will’s ex Eden and her new partner David. Although the eveni...

Miracles from Heaven
2016
as Pastor Scott
When Christy discovers her 10-year-old daughter Anna has a rare, incurable disease, she becomes a ferocious advocate for her daughter’s healing as she...

Ted 2
2015
as Tom Jessup
Newlywed couple Ted and Tami-Lynn want to have a baby, but in order to qualify to be a parent, Ted will have to prove he's a person in a court of law.

Hot Pursuit
2015
as Captain Emmett
Straight-arrow policewoman Cooper is excited and thrilled about her next assignment. Her task is to escort Daniella Riva, a wisecracking Colombian bea...

Camp X-Ray
2014
as Col. Drummond
A young woman joins the military to be part of something bigger than herself and her small-town roots. Instead, she ends up as a new guard at Guantana...

The Pretty One
2014
as Frank
When her idolized twin sister Audrey dies in a car accident, Laurel decides to take her place. But, as she eases into the life she has always wanted, ...
Hoke
2014
as Bill Henderson
Life and misadventures of homicide detective Hoke Moseley during the 1980s.

Highland Park
2013
as Rory
A high school faculty lotto pool places its fate in the lucky numbers they've played for ten years after hearing budget cuts have eliminated all their...

Lay the Favorite
2012
as Dave Greenberg
A former stripper's talent with numbers lands her a job with a professional gambler who runs a sports book in Las Vegas.

Crazy, Stupid, Love.
2011
as Bernie
Cal Weaver is living the American dream. He has a good job, a beautiful house, great children and a beautiful wife, named Emily. Cal's seemingly perfe...

Paul
2011
as Moses Buggs
For the past 60 years, a space-traveling smart-ass named Paul has been locked up in a top-secret military base, advising world leaders about his kind....

Sympathy for Delicious
2010
as Evangelist Carroll
A newly paralyzed DJ gets more than he bargained for when he seeks out the world of faith healing.

Shutter Island
2010
as Deputy Warden McPherson
World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his ...

Hesher
2010
as Larry
A young boy has lost his mother and is losing touch with his father and the world around him. Then he meets Hesher who manages to make his life even m...

Love Happens
2009
as Walter
Dr. Burke Ryan is a successful self-help author and motivational speaker with a secret. While he helps thousands of people cope with tragedy and perso...

Gran Torino
2008
as Barber Martin
Disgruntled Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, Thao Lor, a Hmong teenager who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possessi...
The Prince of Motor City
2008
as Paul Riley
A modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet set in Detroit.

Things We Lost in the Fire
2007
as Howard Glassman
A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the f...

Zodiac
2007
as Arthur Leigh Allen
The Zodiac murders cause the lives of Paul Avery, David Toschi and Robert Graysmith to intersect.

Full of It
2007
as Mr. Leonard
A teenager tells outrageous lies at his new high school, only to have them suddenly come true.

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
2006
as Stewart
To improve its relations with Muslim countries, the United States government sends comedian Albert Brooks to south Asia to write a report on what make...

Mozart and the Whale
2005
as Gregory
A love story between two savants with Asperger's syndrome, a kind of autism, whose conditions sabotage their budding relationship.

Freak Weather
2005
as Ed
In this harrowing character study, Jacqueline McKenzie portrays Penny, a young woman lost in a dangerous abusive relationship. One day, she sets out w...

Catch That Kid
2004
as Mr. Hartman
A determined twelve-year-old mountain climber takes drastic action to save her injured father by planning a high-stakes bank heist, using her skills a...

Gothika
2003
as Sheriff Ryan
After a car crash, criminal psychologist Dr. Miranda Grey regains consciousness only to find that she's a patient in the same mental institution that ...

Confidence
2003
as Grant Ashby
What Jake Vig doesn't know just might get him killed. A sharp and polished grifter, Jake has just swindled thousands of dollars from the unsuspecting ...

Live from Baghdad
2002
as Josh Holliman
A group of CNN reporters wrestle with journalistic ethics and the life-and-death perils of reporting during the Gulf War.A Directors Guild Award-winni...

Par 6
2002
as Dour O'Dowell
A cynical man returns to his family's homestead in Texas and starts up a golf course with his brothers and sisters.

Bug
2002
as Wallace Gregory
A small boy squashing an insect sets in motion a series of events, large and small, that include a lost restaurant reservation, a drunken fender-bende...

The Good Girl
2002
as Jack Field, Your Store Manager
A discount store clerk strikes up an affair with a stock boy who considers himself the incarnation of Holden Caulfield.

Bubble Boy
2001
as Mr. Livingston
Jimmy is a young man who was born without an immune system and has lived his life within a plastic bubble in his bedroom... who pines for the sweet ca...

Gone in Sixty Seconds
2000
as Impound Manager
Upon learning that he has to come out of retirement to steal 50 cars in one night to save his brother Kip's life, former car thief Randall "Memphis" R...

Waking the Dead
2000
as Father Mileski
A congressional candidate questions his sanity after seeing the love of his life, presumed dead, suddenly emerge.

The Next Best Thing
2000
as Abbie's Lawyer
A comedy-drama about best friends - one a straight woman, Abbie, the other a gay man, Robert - who decide to have a child together. Five years later, ...

Restaurant
2000
as John English
A few young waiters at a popular New Jersey restaurant are dreaming of becoming actors or otherwise getting into the artistic community.

Tuesdays with Morrie
1999
as Walter
A journalist finds himself questioning his own life when his best friend, a dying man, offers him some very powerful wisdom and advice for coping in r...

Anywhere but Here
1999
as Jack Irwin
Single mother Adele August is bad with money, and even worse when it comes to making decisions. Her straight-laced daughter, Ann, is a successful high...

Late Last Night
1999
as Sgt. Van Wyck
After a fight with his wife, who's leaving him, Dan's day is getting worse by the minute. He calls an old friend for a night of binge drinking and int...

Pushing Tin
1999
as Doctor Freeze (uncredited)
Two air traffic controllers who thrive on living dangerously compete to outdo each other on several levels.

The Minus Man
1999
as Bartender (uncredited)
When the quiet and amiable Vann Siegert drifts into town, no one suspects the evil that lies beneath the surface. Despite his easy charm, Vann is mere...

The Naked Man
1998
as Driver
A man takes matters into his own hands when a pharmaceutical kingpin moves into his town to cause some real trouble.

Mercury Rising
1998
as Martin Lynch
Renegade FBI agent Art Jeffries protects a nine-year-old autistic boy who has cracked the government's new "unbreakable" code.

A Thousand Acres
1997
as Ken LaSalle
The lives of an Iowa farmer's three daughters are shattered when he suddenly decides to bequeath them the family's fertile farm.

Face/Off
1997
as Prison Guard Walton
In order to foil a terrorist plot, an FBI agent undergoes facial transplant surgery and assumes the identity of a criminal mastermind. The plan turns ...

Volcano
1997
as Stan Olber
An earthquake shatters a peaceful Los Angeles morning and opens a fissure deep into the earth, causing lava to start bubbling up. As a volcano begins ...

Dead Men Can't Dance
1997
as Plonder
To stamp out the threat of nuclear war, a special ops team must travel to North Korea to carry out a covert mission to destroy a nuclear power plant. ...

Feeling Minnesota
1996
as Cop
Sam Clayton's marriage to ex-stripper Freddie comes about when she's strong-armed into the match by Red, a club proprietor who once did her a favor. B...

The Fan
1996
as Shopkeeper
When the San Francisco Giants pay center-fielder, Bobby Rayburn $40 million to lead their team to the World Series, no one is happier or more supporti...

Shaughnessy: The Iron Marshal
1996
Irish immigrant Tommy Shaughnessy leaves 19th-century New York City for Kansas and becomes a small-town sheriff.

A Friend's Betrayal
1996
as Mr. Franks
Old feelings of betrayal resurface, renewing a bitter rift between two girlfriends when one learns that the other seduced her son

Voice from the Grave
1996
as Prosecutor O'Gane
A segment from the 'Unsolved Mysteries' TV series inspired this story, in which a nurse (Megan Ward) claims that she's possessed by a murdered co-work...

Fargo
1996
as Norm Gunderson
Jerry, a small-town Minnesota car salesman is bursting at the seams with debt... but he's got a plan. He's going to hire two thugs to kidnap his wife ...

Beautiful Girls
1996
as Frank Womack
During a snowy winter in the small fictional town of Knight's Ridge, Massachusetts, a group of lifelong buddies hang out, drink and struggle to connec...

In the Line of Duty: Hunt for Justice
1995
as The Major
When a state trooper is gunned down on a New Jersey highway, his friend and colleague sets out to track down the killers. Realizing the murder is conn...

The Cure
1995
as Skipper #1
Erik, a loner, finds a friend in Dexter, an eleven-year-old boy with AIDS. They vow to find a cure for AIDS together and save Dexter's life in an even...

Grumpy Old Men
1993
as Moving Man
For decades, next-door neighbors and former friends John and Max have feuded, trading insults and wicked pranks. When an attractive widow moves in nea...

She Rides Shotgun
N/A
Newly released from prison and marked for death by unrelenting enemies, Nate must now protect his estranged 11-year-old daughter, Polly, at all costs....

Fade to Black
N/A
as Wayne
An anxious screenwriter’s darkly comedic descent into madness in Hollywood’s twisted industry sees him mimic his screenplay’s murders, becoming a chil...
Cattywampus
N/A
as Barry
In the middle of a heist, two diamond thieves discover they need to prioritize their work-life balance.
The Whisper Man
N/A
When his 8-year-old son is abducted, a widowed crime writer looks to his estranged father, a retired former police detective, for help, only to discov...