Sam Worthington

Samuel Henry John Worthington (born 2 August 1976) is a British-Australian actor. He is best known for playing Jake Sully in Avatar, Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation, and Perseus in Clash of the Titans and its sequel Wrath of the Titans. He later took more dramatic roles, appearing in The Debt (2010), Everest (2015), Hacksaw Ridge (2016), The Shack (2017), Manhunt: Unabomber (2017), and Fractured (2019).

On television, he appeared in his native Australia as Howard in Love My Way and as Phillip Schuler in the television drama mini-series Deadline Gallipoli, for which he was also an executive producer. He voiced the protagonist, Captain Alex Mason, in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010), as well as its sequels Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012), and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018). In 2022, he starred in the true crime miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven.

In 2004, Worthington received Australia's highest film award for his lead role in Somersault.

Worthington was born to English parents in Godalming, Surrey, in South East England, and moved to Perth, Western Australia, when he was six months old. He grew up in Warnbro, a suburb of Rockingham. His mother, Jeanne J. (née Martyn), is a housewife, and his father, Ronald W. Worthington, is a power plant employee. He has a sister, Lucinda.

He attended John Curtin College of the Arts, a school specialising in the dramatic arts, located in Fremantle, Western Australia, where he studied drama but did not graduate. When he left the college, his father gave him $400 and sent him on a one-way trip to Cairns, Queensland, telling him to "work his way home". He began working on construction and odd jobs, eventually settling in Sydney. At age 19, while working as a bricklayer, he auditioned for the National Institute of Dramatic Art and was accepted with a scholarship.

2000–2003

Worthington played a small role alongside Adam Garcia in the Aussie dance film Bootmen (2000). He also played a lead role in the low-budget Aussie comedy Gettin' Square.

2004–2008

Worthington had a major role in Somersault (2004), for which he won the AFI Award for Best Lead Actor. He was well known in Australia for his role as Howard in the acclaimed Australian TV seriesLove My Way, in which he played the main love interest of the female lead. In 2006, he played the lead in a modern Australian retelling of Macbeth.

Worthington's international film career began with a series of small roles in Hollywood production The Great Raid (2005), which was filmed in Australia. He auditioned for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale, but lost the role to Daniel Craig. He starred in the Australian creature-feature film Rogue (2007), as a man named Neil, which gained a 100% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

2009–present

In Terminator Salvation, Worthington played cyborg Marcus Wright, who assists humans despite their suspicions of him. Worthington's next project was the James Cameron-directed science-fiction film Avatar, in which he played Jake Sully, a paraplegic former U.S. Marine who finds himself at the centre of a war between his own species and the indigenous Na'vi people of the moon Pandora. The film became the highest-grossing film of all time, grossing more than $2.8 billion ($3.4 billion adjusted for inflation) in box-office receipts worldwide. In November 2010, Worthington told GQ Australia that he went to audition, but wasn't told what it was for and got annoyed. So he did his part, left, forgot about it – and was called back. "I was a bit pissed off, and I think that came across," he says. "I think Jim saw a spark and liked it because that's Sully's character – a guy who doesn't like to be bullied and a guy who just wants to set things right."

He provided voice work for Captain Alex Mason, the protagonist in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops. Some gamers criticised Worthington's inability to mask his Australian accent, as in Avatar. In November 2010, The Hollywood Reporter named Worthington as one of the young male actors who are "pushing – or being pushed" into taking over Hollywood as the new "A-List".

He was selected as one of the entrants to the Who's Who in Australia 2011 edition.

In 2012, Worthington starred in the sequel to Clash of the Titans, called Wrath of the Titans, alongside Liam Neeson. As in the first film, Worthington played the demigod and son of Zeus, Perseus. He also reprised his role as Alex Mason in Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Also in 2012, Worthington starred as Nick Cassidy in Man on a Ledge, a suspense-thriller film directed by Asger Leth. Though the film received poor reviews from critics, Worthington's performance received praise, with The New Zealand Herald describing him as "suitably terrified".

Worthington portrayed Jim Fitzgerald in the Discovery Channel television series, Manhunt: Unabomber.

In 2019, Worthington starred as Ray Monroe in the Netflix thriller film Fractured.

Worthington has said that when he was about 30, he sold most of his possessions and ended up with around $2,000 to his name.He says he bought a car with the proceeds and was living in it before he auditioned for Avatar.

On 18 October 2013, Worthington had confirmed rumours of a relationship with fellow Australian, model Lara Worthington (née Bingle). They married on 28 December 2014 and had son Rocket Zot in 2015. In 2016, Bingle and Worthington had their second son, Racer. In 2020, the couple announced the birth of their third son, River.

Worthington is a Christian.

Legal issues

On 23 February 2014, Worthington was arrested in New York City for assault, after punching a paparazzo, Sheng Li, who followed Bingle to get a "perfect picture". Video footage of the incident depicts Worthington referring to Bingle as his "wife", furthering speculation about the pair's marital status. Worthington was initially released on a desk appearance ticket, while Li was arrested on charges of reckless endangerment, assault, and harassment.

On 26 February 2014, Worthington appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court, where he was ordered to stay away from Li for six months. The case was adjourned until 8 May 2014, with the actor to face charges of assault in the third degree, attempted assault, and harassment.

On 1 April 2014, Li blamed Bingle for starting the fight and called for her to be arrested. Later that month, Worthington secured a conditional discharge deal on a misdemeanour assault charge, therefore, avoiding any jail time, while the charges against Li were dismissed "in the interest of justice". Li then filed a $3.7 million civil lawsuit against Worthington, which was settled out of court before going to trial in September 2015.

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Bootmen	Mitchell Okden
2001	A Matter of Life	Our Hero	Short film
2002	Hart's War	Corporal B.J. "Depot" Guidry
	Dirty Deeds	Darcy Ryan
2003	Gettin' Square	Barry "Wattsy" Wirth
2004	Enzo	-	Short film; Director, Writer, Music and Cinematography
	Somersault	Joe
	Thunderstruck	Ronnie
2005	The Great Raid	Private First Class Lucas
	Fink!	Able
2006	Macbeth	Lord Macbeth
2007	Rogue	Neil Kelly
2009	Terminator Salvation	Marcus Wright
	Avatar	Jake Sully / Tom Sully
2010	Clash of the Titans	Perseus
	Last Night	Michael Reed
	Love & Distrust	Miles	Segment: "Blue Poles"
	The Debt	Young David Peretz
2011	Texas Killing Fields	Detective Mike Souder
2012	Man on a Ledge	Nick Cassidy
	Wrath of the Titans	Perseus
2013	Drift	J.B.
2014	Sabotage	DEA Agent James "Monster" Murray
	Cake	Roy Collins
	The Keeping Room	Moses
2015	Paper Planes	Jack Webber
	Kidnapping Freddy Heineken	Willem Holleeder
	Everest	Guy Cotter
2016	Hacksaw Ridge	Captain Glover
2017	The Shack	Mack Philips
	The Hunter's Prayer	Stephen Lucas
2018	The Titan	Rick Janssen
2019	Fractured	Ray Monroe
2021	Lansky	David Stone
	The Last Son	Isaac Lemay
2022	9 Bullets	Jack
	Alphas	TBA
	Avatar: The Way of Water	Jake Sully
2024	Avatar 3		Post-production
2026	Avatar 4		Filming
2028	Avatar 5
TBA	The Georgetown Project	Joe	Post-production
TBA	Horizon		Filming

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Television

Video games