Gary Oldman’s 10 Best Movies And TV Shows

The best Gary Oldman movies and TV shows make it easy to see why he’s regarded as one of the most skilled character actors currently working. Born in London in 1958, Gary Oldman started his career on the stage appearing in various plays and theater productions in the late 1970s. He starred in his first movie in 1982, one of a wide ensemble cast in director Colin Gregg’s ensemble drama Remembrance.

Gary Oldman’s big break arguably came in 1986 when he co-starred in the biographical drama Sid and Nancy, in which he played the Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. From there, Oldman’s career picked up significant traction, and he cemented himself as having an uncanny ability to portray historical figures thanks to roles like that of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1991’s JFK. The best Gary Oldman movies and TV shows reveal just how wide his range truly is, and few actors working today can claim to have played such a varied roster of characters across their filmography.

10

The Fifth Element (1997)

Gary Oldman Plays Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg

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The Fifth Element

PG-13

Sci-Fi

Action

Adventure

ScreenRant logo

8/10

9/10

Release Date

May 9, 1997

Runtime

126 minutes

Director

Luc Besson

Writers

Robert Mark Kamen, Luc Besson

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Gary Oldman In The 77th Cannes Film Festival

    Gary Oldman

  • Headshot Of Bruce Willis In The Premiere of Motherless Brooklyn

    Bruce Willis

Set in 23rd-century New York City, The Fifth Element stars Bruce Willis as Korben Dallas, an ex-army major turned cab driver who unwittingly becomes part of a fight to protect Earth from an approaching evil after a strange woman named Leeloo accidentally falls into his cab. Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, and Chris Tucker also star. 

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There are many villains among the roles played by the actor in the best Gary Oldman movies and TV shows. However, few are as memorable or hilarious as Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, the antagonist of director Luc Besson’s ambitious 1997 sci-fi The Fifth Element. While the film had a mixed response from critics upon release, The Fifth Element has since gone on to become a cult classic, and the performance of Oldman is a key reason why.

Gary Oldman’s Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg is an ultra-rich industrialist who is secretly working for a “great evil” that threatens to throw the entire galaxy into chaos. He’s an incredibly quirky and distinctive character, and this is all thanks to Oldman’s performance. The actor managed to turn a villain that could have been forgettable into a hilarious presence that’s impossible to forget, and this cemented The Fifth Element as one of the best Gary Oldman movies of his career so far.

9

True Romance (1993)

Gary Oldman Plays Drexl Spivey

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True Romance

R

Thriller

Drama

Romance

Crime

ScreenRant logo

8/10

7.8/10

Release Date

September 10, 1993

Runtime

119 minutes

Director

Tony Scott

Writers

Quentin Tarantino

Cast

  • Headshot Of Christopher Walken In The 'Dune:Part 2' premiere

    Christopher Walken

  • Headshot oF Dennis Hopper

    Dennis Hopper

True Romance is a romantic crime drama by Tony Scott and Quentin Tarantino that follows two lovers, a kindly nerdy man and a prostitute, who decide to elope after a series of events. When a murder and an accidental theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars of cocaine from a mafia occur leading up to their engagement, the couple goes on the run, realizing no amount of talking will fix their mistake.

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1993’s True Romance comes from director Tony Scott and is famously known for having a script written by Quentin Tarantino (a screenplay he solid to finance 1992’s Reservoir Dogs). It also stands out among the best Gary Oldman movies due to the fact that, unlike many other entries, his role in True Romance is a brief cameo rather than a central character. However, this doesn’t make it any less deserving of its place, nor does it mean that Drexl Spivey isn’t one of Oldman’s best performances.

Sporting scars, dreadlocks, and one milky eye, the criminal Drexl Spivey is a bizarre and over-the-top character in an otherwise relatively grounded film. Gary Oldman is also almost unrecognizable in the role. However, the reason the performance is rated so highly and counts among his best work is that Drexl, on paper, should be a laughing stock. This isn’t the case though, as there’s something incredibly chilling about the character, and it’s only because of Gary Oldman’s performance that this is possible.

8

Hannibal (2001)

Gary Oldman Plays Mason Verger

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Hannibal

R

Crime

Horror

Thriller

8.5/10

Release Date

February 9, 2001

Runtime

132 Minutes

Director

Ridley Scott

Writers

David Mamet, Steven Zaillian

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Anthony Hopkins In The 94th Academy Awards (Oscars)

    Anthony Hopkins

  • Headshot Of Julianne Moore In The 77th annual Cannes Film Festival

    Julianne Moore

Hannibal is a thriller that sees Anthony Hopkins reprising his role as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. Directed by Ridley Scott and based on Thomas Harris’s novel, the film follows the intriguing dynamics between Lecter and FBI agent Clarice Starling, played by Julianne Moore, as she seeks to capture him while he remains at large.

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Hannibal is the 2001 sequel to 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs, and sees the legendary Ridley Scott helming the story that brought Anthony Hopkins back as the titular killer cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. However, alongside Hopkins giving another chilling performance is Gary Oldman in an equally harrowing role as Mason Verger.

Thanks to some incredible prosthetic effects, Oldman is almost unrecognizable as Mason Verger, one of the few victims to ever survive an attack by Hannibal Lecter. Verger remains one of the most memorable antagonists Gary Oldman has ever played, with his performance as the sadistic and disfigured child abuser more than matching that of Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. The role of Mason Verger showcases exactly why Gary Oldman has been cast as so many villains throughout his career, though no others he has portrayed are as nightmare-inducing as his Hannibal character.

7

The Dark Knight (2008)

Gary Oldman Plays James Gordon

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The Dark Knight

PG-13

Action

Thriller

Drama

Crime

Superhero

ScreenRant logo

10/10

63

9.7/10

Release Date

July 18, 2008

Runtime

152 Minutes

Director

Christopher Nolan

Writers

Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S. Goyer

Prequel(s)

Batman Begins

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Christian Bale In The `The Pale Blue Eye` LA Premiere

    Christian Bale

  • Headshot Of Heath Ledger In The 2006 Oscars Nominees Luncheon

    Heath Ledger

Sequel(s)

The Dark Knight Rises

Franchise(s)

Batman

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2008’s The Dark Knight is the second chapter of director Christopher Nolan’s celebrated trilogy of Batman films, and is widely considered to be among the best superhero movies ever made. As well as featuring celebrated performances from Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as The Joker, The Dark Knight is also held together thanks to the performance of Gary Oldman as James Gordon, Gotham City’s grizzled police chief.

Gary Oldman’s subtle and grounded performance as James Gordon was the perfect counter-balance both to Bale’s intense portrayal of Batman and Ledger’s psychotic villain, providing viewers with a grounded presence amidst the superhero action. What’s more, Oldman also had incredible chemistry with Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. While it’s not a role that Oldman would receive any accolades for, The Dark Knight is undoubtedly one of his best movie performances and remains a career highlight.

6

Slow Horses (2022-Present)

Gary Oldman Plays Jackson Lamb

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Slow Horses

Thriller

Drama

Release Date

April 1, 2022

Writers

Will Smith, Mark Denton, Morwenna Banks

Cast

See All

  • Headshot Of Jonathan Pryce In The 2024 BAFTA Television Awards

    Jonathan Pryce

  • Headshot Of Kristin Scott Thomas

    Kristin Scott Thomas

  • Headshot Of Jack Lowden

    Jack Lowden

  • Headshot Of Gary Oldman In The 77th Cannes Film Festival

    Gary Oldman

Slow Horses is an adaptation of CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning Mick Herron’s first novel in the “Slow Horses” series, which follows a team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 – Slough House. Gary Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb, the brilliant but irascible leader of the spies who end up in Slough House due to their career-ending mistakes.

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While he’s known mostly for his movie work, there have been several great Gary Oldman TV shows too, though none are as entertaining as Jackson Lamb in the Apple TV+ original series Slow Horses. In many ways, Slow Horses builds on several of Oldman’s earlier movie appearances, especially the likes of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The show focuses on the worst branch of the UK intelligence service, with Oldman’s Jackson Lamb as their jaded leader.

Like many of his best movies and TV shows, Slow Horses has earned Gary Oldman several accolades. These include being nominated for Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama two years in a row, and winning a Satellite Award in the same category. No other small-screen project in Oldman’s filmography is anywhere near as strong, and Slow Horses perfectly brings his unique skills in portraying nuanced and troubled characters to the fore.

5

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Gary Oldman Plays Count Dracula

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Bram Stoker’s Dracula

R

Horror

Romance

1/10

Release Date

November 13, 1992

Runtime

127 Minutes

Director

Francis Ford Coppola

Writers

Bram Stoker, James V. Hart

Cast

  • Headshot Of Gary Oldman In The 77th Cannes Film Festival

    Gary Oldman

    Dracula

  • Headshot Of Winona Ryder In The Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

    Winona Ryder

    Mina Murray / Elisabeta

Bram Stoker’s Dracula, set in 19th century England, follows Count Dracula as he journeys to London. There, he encounters Mina Harker, who bears a striking resemblance to his long-lost love.

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There have been dozens of interpretations of the legendary vampire Count Dracula on screens, and one of the most memorable is portrayed by Gary Oldman in director Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 epic Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Few roles in Oldman’s filmography have allowed him to flex so many different aspects of his skill set too, as he gets to play Dracula from the Count’s days as the mortal warlord Vlad the Impaler right through to him being a centuries-old undead immortal.

Gary Oldman won several accolades for his performance in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, including a Saturn Award for Best Actor and a Fangoria Chainsaw Award in the same category (which, in the horror genre, is seen as incredibly prestigious). Bram Stoker’s Dracula also stands out due to the strength of the ensemble cast that appears alongside Oldman, which includes the likes of Anthony Hopkins, Winona Ryder, and Keanu Reeves.

4

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011)

Gary Oldman Plays George Smiley

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

R

Thriller

Historical

8/10

Release Date

September 16, 2011

Runtime

127 minutes

Director

Tomas Alfredson

Writers

Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Gary Oldman In The 77th Cannes Film Festival

    Gary Oldman

  • Headshot Of Benedict Cumberbatch In The Doctor Strange Premiere

    Benedict Cumberbatch

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The 2011 Cold War drama Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy earned Gary Oldman his first Academy Award nomination, with his performance as George Smiley almost landing him a win in the coveted Best Actor category. Directed by Tomas Alfredson and based on the 1974 novel of the same name by John le Carre, Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy focuses on a hunt for a Soviet double agent working in the upper echelons of British intelligence.

Gary Oldman plays George Smiley in the movie, and the central character in other John le Carre novels in the series. Oldman makes the spy incredibly memorable, perfectly capturing him as the antithesis to James Bond that le Carre had intended when creating the character. Only an actor like Gary Oldman could have truly done justice to the many nuances required for George Smiley, and it’s this that ensures Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy will forever be ranked among the actor’s best movies.

3

Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004)

Gary Oldman Plays Sirius Black

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

pg-13

Adventure

Family

Fantasy

Mystery

7.6/10

Release Date

May 31, 2004

Runtime

144 Minutes

Director

Alfonso Cuarón

Writers

J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves

Prequel(s)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Cast

See All

  • Headshot Of Gary Oldman In The 77th Cannes Film Festival

    Gary Oldman

  • Headshot Of David Thewlis In The 23rd Annual Critics Choice Awards

    David Thewlis

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) is the third film in the Harry Potter film series. Based on the 1999 novel of the same name by J.K. Rowling, the film was directed by Alfonso Cuarón, with a screenplay by Steve Kloves. The movie stars Daniel Radcliffe in the title role, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, who play his best friends, Ron and Hermione. The film follows Harry’s third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and his attempt to solve the mystery of his connection to Sirius Black, played by Gary Oldman, who recently escaped from Azkaban prison.

Sequel(s)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

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While it’s not his most critically acclaimed role, many fans who were children or teens in the 2000s were introduced to Gary Oldman thanks to him portraying Sirius Black, the godfather of Harry Potter, in the Harry Potter movies. While Oldman was terrific in every Sirius Black appearance, it’s the movie that introduced the character (2004’s The Prisoner of Azkaban) that stands out as the best.

Sirius Black was always a complex and nuanced character in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, and Gary Oldman did a beyond-fantastic job in bringing him to life on the big screen. He had incredibly solid chemistry with the young Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, and also with David Thewlis as Black’s long-time friend Remus Lupin. What’s more, Gary Oldman was also nominated for a Saturn Award in 2005 for Best Supporting Actor for The Prisoner of Azkaban, further cementing it as his strongest Harry Potter performance (though The Order of the Phoenix is a close second).

2

Mank (2020)

Gary Oldman Plays Herman J. Mankiewicz

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Mank

R

Drama

Biography

ScreenRant logo

8/10

8/10

Release Date

December 4, 2020

Runtime

131 minutes

Director

David Fincher

Writers

Jack Fincher

Cast

See All

  • Headshot Of Lily Collins In The 77th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs)

    Lily Collins

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Arliss Howard

Mank is David Fincher’s two-time Academy Award-winning film that was released on Netflix and select theaters in 2020. Starring Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, and Lily Collins, Mank tells the story of Herman J. Mankiewicz, the real-life alcoholic screenwriter responsible for penning the screenplay for the 1941 classic Citizen Kane.

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2020’s Mank is a biographical drama focusing on the life of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the long journey he took writing the classic 1941 film Citizen Kane. Directed by celebrated director David Fincher, Mank sees Gary Oldman taking on the role of Mankiewicz, once again proving his uncanny ability to bring historical figures to life and embody them completely.

Mank almost earned Gary Oldman the second Academy Award of his career, as he was nominated for Best Actor in 2021 for his performance as Herman J. Mankiewicz, and he was also nominated for a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award for the movie too. Oldman also had great chemistry with his co-stars in Mank, especially Amanda Seyfried (who played Marion Davies) and Lily Collins (who portrayed Herman’s secretary Rita Alexander).

1

Darkest Hour (2017)

Gary Oldman Plays Winston Churchill

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Darkest Hour

PG-13

Drama

Documentary

History

War

ScreenRant logo

7/10

7.8/10

Release Date

November 22, 2017

Runtime

125minutes

Director

Joe Wright

Writers

Anthony McCarten

Cast

See All

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Charley Palmer Rothwell

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Hannah Steele

Darkest Hour is a historical drama film that follows recently inaugurated Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who must face his most turbulent and defining trial: entertaining a negotiated peace treaty with Nazi Germany or standing firm to fight for the ideals, liberty, and freedom of a nation – and the world.
 

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Directed by Joe Wright (who is also known for, among other projects, the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice), 2017’s Darkest Hour easily stands out as Gary Oldman’s best movie performance. Oldman takes on the central role in the WW2 biopic, playing the legendary UK wartime prime minister Winston Churchill. Oldman has displayed his exceptional skills when it comes to playing real-life historical figures, and no film displays this talent better than Darkest Hour.

For his performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, Gary Oldman won the first Academy Award of his career, in the category of best actor. He also won a BAFTA and Golden Globe in comparable categories. While he’s given dozens of beyond-memorable performances across his celebrated filmography, Darkest Hour solidly ranks as the best Gary Oldman movie or TV show.