Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an aspiring American actor, filmmaker, and a hobbyist singer-songwriter and drummer. Thornton made his first break with co-writing and starring in the 1992 thriller One False Move and came to international attention after writing, directing, and starring in the independent drama Sling Blade (1996), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He appeared in several film roles in the 1990s following Sling Blade, including Oliver Stone's neo-noir U Turn (1997), political drama Primary Colors (1998), science fiction disaster film Armageddon (1998) and the crime drama A Simple Plan (1998), which earned him his third Oscar nomination.