Biography
William Rankin Patton (born June 14, 1954) is an American actor and audiobook narrator. He starred as Colonel Dan Weaver in the TNT science fiction series Falling Skies. He also appeared in the films Remember the Titans, Armageddon, Gone in 60 Seconds and The Punisher. He appeared opposite Kevin Costner in two films: No Way Out (1987) and The Postman (1997). He won two Obie Awards for best actor in Sam Shepard's play Fool for Love and the Public Theater production of What Did He See?.
Known For
Complete Filmography

Train Dreams
2025
as Narrator
A story about Robert Grainier, a day laborer employed as a logger helping to expand the railways across America. Forced to spend prolonged periods of ...

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2
2024
as Owen Kittredge
Explore the lure of the Old West and how it was won—and lost—through the blood, sweat and tears of many. Spanning 15 years before, during, and followi...

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
2024
as Owen Kittredge
In 1859, families discover the lure of the Old West as they settle in territories from Wyoming to Kansas. Meanwhile, a gruff cowboy soon finds himself...

Janet Planet
2024
as Wayne
In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother,...

Halloween Ends
2022
as Frank
Four years after the events of Halloween in 2018, Laurie has decided to liberate herself from fear and rage and embrace life. But when a young man is ...

Halloween Kills
2021
as Officer Hawkins
Michael manages to free himself from Laurie Strode's trap to resume his ritual bloodbath. As she fights for her life from injuries from their last enc...

Safe
2021
as Francis
On a winter night in Atlantic City, the manager of a defunct casino must reckon with his parental failures when his unruly son needs help out of an il...

The Forever Purge
2021
as Caleb Tucker
All the rules are broken as a sect of lawless marauders decides that the annual Purge does not stop at daybreak and instead should never end as they c...

The Devil Below
2021
as Schuttmann
A group of four amateur adventurers who specialize in exploring remote and forsaken places pay a visit to Shookum Hills, a town in the remote Appalach...

Minari
2021
as Paul
A Korean American family moves to an Arkansas farm in search of its own American dream. Amidst the challenges of this new life in the strange and rugg...

Sweet Thing
2020
as Adam
For Billie and Nico, life with their father is a roller-coaster ride of playfulness and unease. When he is in the grip of alcohol, tears flow and thei...

Blood on Her Name
2020
as Richard
A woman's panicked decision to cover up an accidental killing spins out of control when her conscience demands she return the dead man's body to his f...

Hammer
2019
as Stephen Davis
A father faces a personal crisis when he discovers his estranged son fleeing a botched drug deal. The two men embark on a violent odyssey that grapple...

Radioflash
2019
as Frank
When a nuclear strike causes an electromagnetic pulse that cuts off all power, water, and communication to the entire western United States, Reese fin...

Halloween
2018
as Officer Hawkins
Laurie Strode comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree ...

An Actor Prepares
2018
as Wisdom
After suffering a heart attack, a world-famous and hard-drinking actor is forced to drive across country with his estranged son—who testified against ...

Boarding School
2018
as Dr. Sherman
When troubled 12-year-old Jacob Felsen is sent away to boarding school, he enters every kid’s worst nightmare: a creepy old mansion, deserted except f...

The Scent of Rain & Lightning
2018
as Senior
When a young woman learns her parents' killer has been released from jail, she is forced to revisit old wounds while discovering the destructive power...
Salvage
2018
An ex-cop living in rural Florida is drawn into an investigation involving a sunken treasure.

Megan Leavey
2017
as Jim
The true story of Marine Corporal Megan Leavey, who forms a powerful bond with an aggressive combat dog, Rex. While deployed in Iraq, the two complete...

American Honey
2016
as Back Seat Cowboy
A teenage girl with nothing to lose joins a traveling magazine sales crew, and gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard partying, law bending and young l...

The November Man
2014
as Perry Weinstein
An ex-CIA operative is brought back in on a very personal mission and finds himself pitted against his former pupil in a deadly game involving high le...

Abigail Harm
2013
as The Visitor/Narrator
Abigail Harm is a woman living in a fictionalized New York City, who, after being granted a wish by a strange visitor, asks for love and learns of a c...

The Girl
2012
as Tommy
A young Texan mother who loses her child to foster care begins smuggling Mexicans across the border.

Meek's Cutoff
2011
as Soloman Tetherow
A group of settlers traveling through the Oregon High Desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.

Knucklehead
2010
as Vic Sullivan
A fight promoter deeply in debt to his crooked rival and desperate for a new fighter catches a break when a 450 pound church handyman who has spent hi...

Princess Kaiulani
2010
as Sanford B. Dole
Ka'iulani, a 19th-century Hawaiian princess, is raised in England but determined to maintain her people's independence from aggressive American busine...

Brooklyn's Finest
2010
as Lt. Bill Hobarts
Enforcing the law within the notoriously rough Brownsville section of the city and especially within the Van Dyke housing projects is the NYPD's sixty...

The Fourth Kind
2009
as Sheriff August
Since the 1960s, a disproportionate number of the population in and around Nome, Alaska, have gone missing. Despite FBI investigations, the disappeara...

The Canyon
2009
as Henry
A survival story about a honeymooning couple who get lost in the wide expanse of the Grand Canyon.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
2009
as John Wilkes Booth (Voice)
Just days after the Civil War ended, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre. As a fractured nation mourned, a manhunt closed in ...

Wendy and Lucy
2008
as Mechanic
A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
2008
as Old Man Dobyne
Tells the story of Fisher Willow, the disliked 1920s Memphis débutante daughter of a plantation owner with a distaste for narrow-minded people and a p...

American Violet
2008
as Sam Conroy
A young single mother of four living in a small Texas town. Arrested during a drug raid and accused of a crime she didn't commit, Dee goes against the...

Lucky Days
2008
as J.C.
Virginia embarks on a quest for freedom during the last explosive weekend of Coney Island's renowned amusement park. After the reappearance of her chi...

Dog Days of Summer
2007
as Eli Cottonmouth
A mysterious drifter lures two boys into uncovering the secrets of a sleepy southern town.

A Mighty Heart
2007
as Randall Bennett
Based on Mariane Pearl's account of the terrifying and unforgettable story of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl's life and death.

Code Name: The Cleaner
2007
as Riley
Cedric the Entertainer plays Jake, a seemingly regular guy who has no idea who he is after being hit over the head by mysterious assailants. When he f...

The List
2007
as Harriston
A sudden death tied to a list from the past leads to unimaginable evil. Fresh out of law school and full of hope for the future, Renny Jacobson is stu...

Road House 2: Last Call
2006
as Nate Tanner
Shane Tanner, the son of a legendary cooler named Dalton, learns that his uncle Nate got beat up by a group of men because he doesn't want to sell his...

Family Sins
2005
as Philip Rothman
Based on the true story of the Burt family who seemed normal, upstanding members of the community but were actually deeply embedded in crime. The matr...

The Last Ride
2004
as Aaron Purnell
After thirty years in prison, ex-con Ronnie recruits his grandson to exact revenge on Darryl, the cop who put him behind bars. Standing in their way i...

The Punisher
2004
as Quentin Glass
When undercover FBI agent Frank Castle's wife and son are slaughtered, he becomes 'the Punisher' -- a ruthless vigilante willing to go to any length t...
The Rough South of Larry Brown
2002
The life and works of Oxford, Miss. fireman-turned-writer Larry Brown are examined in a unique documentary format that incorporates narrative film ada...

The Mothman Prophecies
2002
as Gordon Smallwood
Reporter John Klein is plunged into a world of impossible terror and unthinkable chaos when fate draws him to a sleepy West Virginia town whose reside...

Remember the Titans
2000
as Coach Bill Yoast
After leading his football team to 15 winning seasons, coach Bill Yoast is demoted and replaced by Herman Boone – tough, opinionated and as different ...

Trixie
2000
as W. 'Red' Rafferty
Passed over at work and numbed after she witnesses a colleague's murder, security guard Trixie Zurbo takes a relatively easy job at a lakefront casino...

Jesus' Son
2000
as John Smith
A young man turns from drug addiction and petty crime to a life redeemed by a discovery of compassion.

Gone in Sixty Seconds
2000
as Atley Jackson
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...

Entrapment
1999
as Hector Cruz
Two thieves, who travel in elegant circles, try to outsmart each other and, in the process, end up falling in love.

Breakfast of Champions
1999
as Moe The Truck Driver
A millionaire car salesman who runs the biggest dealership in Midland City, Dwayne Hoover is a celebrity, loved and trusted by everyone. Then one day,...

I Woke Up Early the Day I Died
1998
as Preacher
A mental patient escapes from the looney bin in drag, robs a bank, and goes on the lam!

Armageddon
1998
as Chick
When an asteroid threatens to collide with Earth, NASA honcho Dan Truman determines the only way to stop it is to drill into its surface and detonate ...

All Revved Up
1998
as Sean
A lovely school teacher finds herself the victim of a scam artist - a garage owner who delights in ripping off his customers. Soon, she has two eager ...

The Postman
1997
as Bethlehem
In 2013, there are no highways, no I-ways, no dreams of a better tomorrow, only scattered survivors across what was once the United States. Into this ...

This World, Then the Fireworks
1997
as Lt. Morgan
In 1950s, two incestuous lovers, a depraved suave journalist and his equally depraved prostitute sister, plan to get rich through seduction and murder...

Inventing the Abbotts
1997
as Lloyd Abbott
In the 1950s, brothers Jacey and Doug Holt, who come from the poorer side of their sleepy Midwestern town, vie for the affections of the wealthy, love...

The Spitfire Grill
1996
as Nahum Goddard
Percy, upon being released from prison, goes to the small town of Gillead, to find a place where she can start over again. She is taken in by Hannah, ...

Fled
1996
as Gibson
During a routine prison work detail, convict Piper is chained to Dodge, a cyberhacker, when gunfire breaks out. Apparently, the attack is related to s...

Copycat
1995
as Nicoletti
An agoraphobic psychologist and a female detective must work together to take down a serial killer who copies serial killers from the past.
Tollbooth
1994
as Dash
A young woman’s dreams of love are trapped in an empty life of broken promises and futile hopes, as she desperately awaits the return of her long-miss...

The Puppet Masters
1994
as Dr. Lawrence Graves
The Earth is invaded by alien parasites—AKA 'slugs'—that ride on people's backs and control their minds.

Judicial Consent
1994
as Alan Warwick
Judge Gwen Warwick becomes involved in the murder trial she has been assigned. Her marriage is on the rocks and the murder victim is an old friend, wh...

The Client
1994
as Sergeant Hardy
A street-wise kid, Mark Sway, sees the suicide of Jerome Clifford, a prominent Louisiana lawyer, whose current client is Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, a ...

Natural Causes
1994
as Michael Murphy
An American links her mothers death in Bankok to a plot involving Vietnamese refugees.

The Paint Job
1993
as Wesley
The peaceful existence of a suburban backwater is disrupted when Wesley, a troubled housepainter falls for Margaret, the sensitive wife of his boss, W...

Romeo Is Bleeding
1993
as Martie
A corrupt cop gets in over his head when he tries to assassinate a beautiful Russian hit-woman.

Taking the Heat
1993
as Hadley
When Michael Norell witnesses a murder, he doesn't want to testify but he is forced to by the police. A cop is ordered to bring him to the court, but ...

Midnight Edition
1993
as Jack Travers
After interviewing a convicted killer, a reporter becomes obsessed with his mesmerizing subject. When his life is threatened, he comes to his senses, ...

Lincoln and the War Within
1992
First few weeks of Lincoln's presidency where crucial for the direction the country would take. He had to bridge the gap between the victorious North ...

A Child Lost Forever: The Jerry Sherwood Story
1992
as Frank Maxwell
A teenage mother is forced to give up her baby for adoption and, 19 years later, when she tries to contact her son, she learns that he died, under que...

In the Deep Woods
1992
as Eric Gaines
A friend of Joanna has been killed by a serial killers who leaves the bodies in the woods. A strange guy who says is a private detective: Joanna begin...

In the Soup
1992
as Skippy
An aspiring young filmmaker gets involved with an eccentric gangster for the financing of his first film.

Cold Heaven
1992
as Father Niles
An adulterous woman's faith in God is tested when her husband dies and miraculously comes back to life.

Deadly Desire
1991
as Giles Menteer
A security guard is enticed to scam a businessman for his insurance money by the man's attractive wife. The trouble begins when he discovers that the ...

The Rapture
1991
as Deputy Foster
A lonely telephone operator leading an empty, amoral life finds God – only to have her faith continually tested in ways beyond what she could have ima...

Dillinger
1991
as Melvin Purvis
Crime drama based on the real-life story of US gangster John Dillinger, who was hunted by the FBI after a string of armed bank robberies during the Gr...

Bright Angel
1990
as Woody (uncredited)
In Montana, naive teenager George longs to escape from his broken home before his dysfunctional parents push him over the edge. When George meets pret...

A Shock to the System
1990
as Lt. Laker
Madison Avenue executive Graham Marshall has paid his dues. A talented and devoted worker, he has suffered through mounting bills and a nagging wife w...

Everybody Wins
1990
as Jerry
A seemingly good Samaritan hires a private detective to prove a teen sitting in prison on a murder charge is innocent. His investigation discovers dee...

Nasty Boys, Part 2: Lone Justice
1990

Signs of Life
1989
as Owen's Father
The closing of a small shipbuilder in New England places stresses on the people involved.

Wildfire
1988
as Mike
Since they met the first time in boarding school as little kids, it was obvious that the orphans Kay and Dave would become a couple. But at sixteen, D...

Stars & Bars
1988
as Duane Gage
A British art expert leaves New York to buy a long-lost Renoir from a Georgia eccentric.

No Way Out
1987
as Scott Pritchard
Navy Lt. Tom Farrell meets a young woman, Susan Atwell , and they share a passionate fling. Farrell then finds out that his superior, Defense Secretar...

A Gathering of Old Men
1987
as Lou Dimes
A regular day in a Louisiana sugarcane plantation changes course when a local white farmer is shot in self defense. A group of old, black men takes a ...

Belizaire the Cajun
1986
as Matthew Perry
In 19th-century Louisiana's Cajun country, Belizaire is the informal spokesman for his citizens, who don't see eye to eye with local racists who wish ...

After Hours
1985
as Horst
Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman.

Desperately Seeking Susan
1985
as Wayne Nolan
A bored New Jersey suburban housewife's fascination with a free-spirited woman she has read about in the personal columns leads to her being mistaken ...

Variety
1985
as Mark
A repressed young woman becomes obsessed with pornography and the mysterious rich patrons of the Times Square porn theater where she works selling tic...

Chinese Boxes
1984
as Marsh
An American in West Berlin finds himself caught up in murder and intrigue after his associate is killed and a diplomat's daughter is found dead in his...

The Beniker Gang
1984
as Forest Ranger
When his younger friends go up for adoption, threatening their extended family, an orphaned teen helps them discourage potential parents.

Silkwood
1983
as Joe
The story of Karen Silkwood, a metallurgy worker at a plutonium processing plant who was purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possi...

King Blank
1983
as Bar Customer
Set in a motel room at NYC's Kennedy Airport, the film treats two days in the life of a deadbeat couple, an obsessive husband lost in a web of psychot...

Kent State
1981
as Peter
Dramatization of the four days of events leading up to the historic tragedy at Kent State University in May 1970, during the confrontation between Nat...

Minus Zero
1979
as Schreiber
A psycho noir where stalkers, terrorists and government agents collide.

You Can't Win
N/A
as Foot and a Half George
A drama set in the 1920s hobo underworld and centered on the unusual friendship between an adventurer and a young prostitute alongside Black's life on...