My Take
William Fichtner is the ultimate "oh, THAT guy" actor, and I mean that as the highest compliment. You've seen him a hundred times and probably never learned his name, but you definitely remember the face: those pale, slightly unsettling eyes and that voice that can flip from charming to menacing in a single line. He's the secret sauce in a stack of late-90s and 2000s favorites of mine, popping up in Heat, Contact, Armageddon, The Perfect Storm, and Black Hawk Down without ever phoning it in. He made the masked bank robber in The Dark Knight unforgettable in about ninety seconds of screen time. I love that he never needed to be the lead; he just quietly elevates whatever he's in, and I'll happily watch anything with him lurking in the cast.
Overview
William Edward Fichtner (born November 27, 1956) is an American actor. Raised in the Buffalo, N.Y. area, he started his career with supporting appearances in Virtuosity (1995), Heat and Strange Days (both 1995). A prolific character actor in film, Fichtner is recognized for memorable performances in Contact (1997), Armageddon (1998), Go (1999), The Perfect Storm (2000), Black Hawk Down (2001), Crash (2004), and The L…
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- William Fichtner
- Name (Japanese)
- ウィリアム・フィクナー
- Reading
- うぃりあむ・ふぃくなー
- Born
- November 27, 1956 (age 69)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Sagittarius / Monkey
- Origin
- Mitchel Air Force Base, New York, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- 2 cm
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / character actor / television actor / film actor / voice actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Maryvale High School
- University
- State University of New York at Brockport
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.