John Turturro

Actors/Filmmakers

John Michael Turturro (born February 28, 1957) is an American actor, writer and filmmaker, known for his association with the independent film movement. He has appeared in over sixty feature films and has worked frequently with the Joel & Ethan Coen, Adam Sandler and Spike Lee. He began his acting career on-screen in the early 1980s, with his mainstream breakthrough coming with Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989), with Danny Aiello; and the Coen Brother’s Miller’s Crossing (1990), with Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, and Albert Finney; and Barton Fink (1991), with John Goodman, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Other notable films include State of Grace (1990), with Sean Penn Ed Harris, Gary Oldman,, Robin Wright, and John C. Reilly; Robert Redford’s Quiz Show (1994), with Ralph Fiennes; Tom DiCillo‘s Box of Moonlight (1996), with Sam Rockwell and Catherine Keener; The Big Lebowski (1998), with Jeff Bridges, Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, and Philip Seymour Hoffman; O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), with George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson, and Holly Hunter; The Man Who Cried (2000), with Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, and Harry Dean Stanton; Secret Window (2004), with Depp; and the Transformers film. In 2016, in a lead role, he portrayed a lawyer in the HBO miniseries The Night Of and had a recurring role in the miniseries The Plot Against America in 2020.

An Emmy Award winner, Turturro has also been nominated for four Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and four Independent Spirit Awards. He directed Mac (1992), which won the Golden Camera Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Illuminata (1998), with Beverly D’Angelo and Ben Gazzara; Romance and Cigarettes (2005), with James Gandolfini, Kate Winslet, Buscemi, and Christopher Walken; Fading Gigalo, with Woody Allen and Sharon Stone; and The Jesus Rolls (2020), a spin-off to The Big Lebowski, with Bobby Cannavale, Audrey Tautou, and Susan Surandan.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

  • Raging Bull (1980) – directed by Martin Scorsese – uncredited
  • Exterminator (1984) – directed by Mark Buntzman
  • The Flamingo Kid (1984) – directed by Garry Marshall
  • Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) – directed by Susan Seidelman
  • To Live and Die in L.A. Carl Cody  (1985) – directed by William Friedkin
  • Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) – directed by Woody Allen
  • The Color of Money (1986) – directed by Martin Scorsese
  • Gung Ho (1986) – directed by Ron Howard
  • Off Beat (1986) – directed by Michael Dinner
  • Five Corners (1987) – directed by Tony Bill
  • The Sicilian (1987) – directed by Michael Cimino
  • Do the Right Thing (1989) – directed by Spike Lee
  • Catchfire (1990) – directed by Dennis Hopper
  • State of Grace (1990) – directed by Phil Joanou
  • Mo’ Better Blues (1990) – directed by Spike Lee
  • Miller’s Crossing (1990) – directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
  • Men of Respect (1991) – directed by William Reilly
  • Jungle Fever (1991) – directed by Spike Lee
  • Barton Fink (1991) – directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
  • Mac (1992) – also director and co-writer
  • Brain Donors (1992) – directed by Dennis Dugan
  • Being Human (1993) – directed by Bill Forsyth
  • Fearless (1993) – directed by Peter Weir
  • Quiz Show (1994) – directed by Robert Redford
  • The Search for One-eye Jimmy (1994) – Sam Henry Kass
  • Search and Destroy (1995) – directed by David Salle
  • Unstrung Heroes (1995) – directed by Diane Keaton
  • Clockers (1995) – directed by Spike Lee
  • Sugartime (1995) – directed by John N. Smith – TV movie
  • Girl 6 (1996) – directed by Spike Lee
  • Box of Moonlight (1996) – directed by Tom DiCillo
  • Grace of My Heart (1996) – directed by Allison Anders
  • Lesser Prophets (1997) – directed by William DeViza
  • The Truce (1997) – directed by Francesco Rosi – aka La Tregua – Italy
  • Illuminata (1998) – also director, co- writer
  • Rounders (1998) – directed by John Dahl
  • He Got Game (1998) – directed by Spike Lee
  • O.K. Garage (1998) – directed by Brandon Cole
  • The Big Lebowski (1998)** – directed Joel & Ethan Coen
  • Animals with the Tollkeeper (1998) – directed by Michael Di Jiacomo
  • Summer of Sam (1999) – directed by Spike Lee
  • Cradle Will Rock (1999) – directed by Tim Robbins
  • O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) – directed Joel & Ethan Coen
  • The Man Who Cried (2000) – directed by Sally Potter
  • Company Man (2000) – directed by Peter Askin & Douglas McGrath
  • Two Thousand and None (2000) – directed by Arto Paragamian
  • The Luzhin Defence (2000) – directed by Marleen Gorris
  • Monkeybone (2001) – directed by Henry Selick
  • Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001) – directed by Jill Sprecher
  • Monday Night Mayhem (2002) – directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
  • Collateral Damage (2002) – directed by Andrew Davis
  • Mr. Deeds (2002)* – directed by Steven Brill
  • Fear X (2003) – directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
  • Anger Management (2003)* – directed by Peter Segal
  • Opopomoz (2003) – directed by Enzo D’Alò – Italy/Spain/France
  • Secret Passage (2004) – directed by Ademir Kenović – aka The Lion’s Mouth
  • Secret Window (2004) – directed by David Koepp
  • She Hate Me (2004) – directed by Spike Lee
  • 2BPerfectlyHonest (2004) – directed by Randel Cole
  • Romance and Cigarettes (2005) – also director, writer
  • The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation (2005) – directed by John Canemaker – short
  • The Good Shepherd (2006) – directed by Robert De Niro
  • A Few Days in September (2006) – directed by Santiago Amigorena – aka Quelques jours en septembre – Italy/France
  • Transformers (2007)* – directed by Michael Bay
  • Margot at the Wedding (2007) – directed by Noah Baumbach
  • Slipstream (2007) – directed by Anthony Hopkins
  • Joulutarina (2007) – directed by Juha Wuolijoki – English dub – Finland
  • What Just Happened (2008) – directed by Barry Levinson
  • You Don’t Mess With The Zohan (2008) – directed by Dennis Dugan
  • Miracle at St. Anna (2008) – directed by Spike Lee
  • The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009) – directed by Tony Scott
  • Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)* – directed by Michael Bay
  • Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy (2009) – directed by Roman Paska – also co-writer, executive producer – aka Prove una tragedia siciliana – Italy
  • Passione (2010) – also director, co-writer – documentary
  • The Nutcracker in 3D (2010) – directed by Andrei Konchalovsky – UK/Hungary/Canada
  • Cars 2 (2011)* – directed by John Lasseter
  • Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)* – directed by Michael Bay
  • Somewhere Tonight (2011) – directed by Michael Di Jiacomo – Netherlands
  • Fading Gigolo (2013) – also director, writer
  • Gods Behaving Badly (2013) – directed by Marc Turtletaub
  • God’s Pocket (2014) – directed by John Slattery
  • Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) – directed by Ridley Scott
  • Rio, I Love (2014) – also directed with Guillermo Arriaga, Stephen Elliott, Im Sang-soo, Nadine Labaki, Fernando Meirelles, Carlos Saldanha, Paolo Sorrentino, & Andrucha Waddington – anthology
  • Mia madre (2015) – directed by Nanni Moretti – Italy/France
  • Partly Cloudy with Sunny Spells (2015) – directed by Marco Pontecorvo – aka Tempo instabile con probabili schiarite – Italy
  • The Ridiculous 6 (2015) – directed by Frank Coraci
  • Hands of Stone (2016) – directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz
  • Landline (2017) – directed by Gillian Robespierre
  • Hair (2017) – also director, writer – short
  • Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)* – directed by Michael Bay
  • Gloria Bell (2018) – directed by Sebastián Lelio – US/Chile
  • The True Adventures of Wolfboy (2019) – directed by Martin Krejčí
  • The Jesus Rolls (2020) – also director, writer
  • The True Adventures of Wolfboy (2020) – directed by Martin Krejčí
  • The Batman (2022)* – directed by Matt Reeves