Walton Goggins’ 10 Most Iconic Roles, Ranked
Walton Goggins may not be A-list (yet), but his impressive resume has made his face and million dollar smile as recognizable as Hollywood’s top-billed stars. Hailing from Birmingham, Alabama, the actor took a bet on himself when he moved to Los Angeles, and he’s been rewarded with a lengthy career as one of the industry’s most sought-after character actors.
While Goggins has proven himself capable of transforming into any role, he’s often been tasked with playing a depraved villain or an eccentric oddball, all with his signature Southern drawl. It’s only recently that Goggins has begun to shed the label of supporting player, emerging as a dependable leading man — or at the very least, a key figure in any ensemble. With two Primetime Emmy nominations under his belt, he’s now poised to enter a new chapter in his career: full-fledged stardom.
From Fallout and The Righteous Gemstones to The White Lotus and his film roles, here’s a verifiable ranking of Goggins’ 10 best performances of his career.
10. Rick Hatchett, The White Lotus
Goggins typically does everything at 100 percent. Subtlety isn’t exactly in his vocabulary, which makes his role as Rick Hatchett, the jaded guest at the Thailand branch of the titular hotel, stand out. In this performance, he keeps his cards close to his chest — viewers don’t even know his profession, aside from his vague, stock answer of a bit of “this and that.”
Rick is an enigma, and in many ways, he’s playing one of the straight men in The White Lotus Season 3, often balancing the chaos of his puppy-eyed girlfriend, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), and the nefarious “Gary”/Greg Hunter (Jon Gries). Despite his wild antics with snakes and his quest to find his father’s killer in Bangkok, he feels like a real person with real pain.
While the completion of his arc could bump this character’s ranking up a few spots, for now, it’s hard to place him any higher. But make no mistake, this character deserves a spot on this list, if only for his masterful reaction to that Sam Rockwell monologue.
9. Sonny Burch, Ant-Man and the Wasp
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has sputtered in recent years, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been some bright spots. One of them comes in the form of Sonny Burch, a criminal who wants to exploit Dr. Hank Pym’s (Michael Douglas) technology for evil in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
It would’ve been easy for Goggins to get lost in the shuffle of the battle between our titular heroes, portrayed by Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly, and the villain-of-the-week, Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). But Goggins holds his own, commanding the screen whenever he can and delivering one of the film’s most engaging scenes — a tense interrogation opposite Michael Peña.
While his role doesn’t have much bearing on the larger story of the MCU, it’s still impressive that Goggins managed to be a standout of the film.
8. Wade Felton, The Unicorn
One of Goggins’ few true leading roles came in the late 2010s with the short-lived and largely forgotten CBS sitcom, The Unicorn. Its quick cancellation shouldn’t be a reflection of his performance. Much like his current role on the hit HBO anthology The White Lotus, Goggins plays against type, delivering his most sympathetic portrayal yet — a widowed father getting back into the dating game.
Here, he dials back his twang and inflection to embody a fully realized portrait of a man grieving and stumbling through the awkwardness of having to essentially restart his life at age 50. Much of the humor stems from cringe comedy and Curb Your Enthusiam-esque observations about the bizarre ways humans interact with each other, and Goggins naturally steps into the role of protagonist. While the series often drifts into over-sentimentality, it offers a refreshing change of pace for the actor — one that, given the chance to continue, could’ve become one of his greatest feats.
For now, it remains a blip in his career — an underrated treat for any Goggins completionists. More than anything, though, the titular mythological creature provided a wonderful metaphor for Goggins — there’s truly never been anyone else quite like him.
7. Cecil Stedman, Invincible
Goggins hasn’t done much voice work, but his greatest voiceover achievement so far is undoubtedly his portrayal of Cecil Stedman, a Nick Fury-esque puppet master with a skullet who holds the Invincible universe together.
He adopts the role of father figure in this animated series. As the director of the Global Defense Agency, Cecil ensures that superheroes like Invincible/Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) are using their powers responsibly. Though they don’t always see eye-to-eye, Cecil comes to serve as a mentor for Mark.
As one of Goggins’ most complex characters, Cecil often operates in morally gray areas, especially in his efforts to take down Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). Though he’s willing to do whatever it takes to protect Earth, his drastic tactics often alienate those around him.
He’s an unconventional leader, making Goggins’ unique voice the perfect fit for the role. And while Cecil doesn’t possess any superpowers and isn’t the flashiest character in the show, he’s the glue holding everything together. It’s another one of the thankless yet essential parts Goggins has taken on and elevated in his career.
6. The Ghoul/Cooper Howard, Fallout
Goggins is no stranger to video game adaptations — he previously played the antagonist in Tomb Raider (2018). But it’s his time as former movie star mercenary and current mutated bounty hunter, Cooper Howard, aka The Ghoul, on Fallout that truly endeared him to gamers.
Here, Goggins finds himself under layers of visually stunning makeup and frequently caught in shootouts, but the entertainer never loses track of the emotional stakes that ground the character. He has the tall task of playing two personas: one, a traditional Hollywood cowboy in the vein of Clint Eastwood, and the other, a burned — literally and metaphorically — man in search of his family. In a filmography filled with emotionally wrought figures, this might be the one that’s been through the most.
Though Ghoul’s story is nowhere near complete, the role secures its placement by earning Goggins his most recent Emmy nomination at the time of writing — and his first in a leading actor category.
5. Chris Mannix, The Hateful Eight
After a relatively small role in his first collaboration with director Quentin Tarantino in Django Unchained, Goggins returns with more to prove as one of the eight players in this mystery-western throwback. Once again, he finds himself sharing a the screen with industry icons, this time inside a cramped cabin during a blistering snowstorm.
At the start of the film, Goggins’ character, Captain Chris Mannix, the self-proclaimed Sheriff of Red Rock, Wyoming, appears to be one note. Heavyweights Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, the latter of which earned an Academy Award nomination for her role, dominate the story. However, by the time of the inevitable, bloody Tarantino finale, Goggins makes the biggest impression. Amid a narrative concerned with race relations in a post-Civil War society, Goggins provides crucial comedic relief.
Mannix is one of the less deplorable figures in The Hateful Eight, but that really isn’t saying much. Looking at Goggins’ career as a whole, this is a showcase of his two greatest strengths: being someone you want to laugh at and root against.
4. Boyd Crowder, Justified
The first time Goggins was truly recognized in the public eye came with his depiction of Boyd Crowder, a hothead who becomes a major thorn in Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens’ (Timothy Olyphant) side. Initally appearing as a low-level criminal, Boyd is revealed to come from a long line of criminals, determined to outdo them all.
In Justified, Goggins leans on his charm, but more often than not, he evokes the grit and grime of the South. There’s something particularly terrifying about this character, who’s not content with being just another hillbilly.
For his time as the ambitious pyrotechnic, Goggins was awarded with his first Emmy nomination.
3. Detective Shane Vendrell, The Shield
The first glimpse most audiences had of Goggins came with the FX crime drama The Shield. In one of his first major recurring TV roles, Goggins is Shane Vendrell, a reckless, racist, and bigoted Los Angeles detective whose actions often mirror the criminals he so desperately hunts.
Far from sympathetic, the character set important precedents for the rest of Goggins’ career. It showcased his ability to comfortably work alongside veterans like Michael Chiklis and Glenn Close, while also revealing his willingness to tap into villainy.
Without the producers’ gamble on casting the then-unknown Goggins, many of the other roles on this list may have never followed.
2. "Baby" Billy Freeman, The Righteous Gemstones
The runner-up on this list is the second of two collaborations with Danny McBride — more on the other one later. In this gem, Goggins plays “Baby” Billy Freeman, the younger brother-in-law of televangelist Elijah “Eli” Gemstone II (John Goodman).
A former child star with a strained connection to one of the world’s most successful megachurches, Baby Bill is desperate to claw his way back in. An opportunist at heart, he’ll do whatever it takes — even if it means hosting a Bible-themed game show or manufacturing a conversation with his dead ex-wife.
As he continually lies through his unnaturally white teeth, it’s hard to imagine anyone besides Goggins being so invested in the bit. Never has misbehaving looked so fun than with Uncle Baby Billy’s shenanigans in The Righteous Gemstones.
1. Lee Russell, Vice Principals
Hot off the incredibly underrated Eastbound & Down, McBride had his work cut out for him. Not only did he need to replicate the success of that series, but he also needed someone to replace his former on-screen partner, Steve Little. Enter Goggins, who matched McBride’s freak in every conceivable way in this cult classic about two high school vice principals vying for the sole title of principal.
As the exuberant and impeccably dressed Lee Russell, Goggins is at his most unhinged. Of course, the actor is capable of transforming into any role, but it’s here, as he fully lets loose, that we find ourselves most captivated. As a reckless, borderline sociopathic town gossip, he’s a spark plug for conflict — a character that any series would be lucky to have.
With his iconic rolodex of insults and unbothered facial expressions that continue to live on in GIF form, Vice Principals will likely be Goggins’ lasting legacy — and it’s for good reason.
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