Timothy Francis “Tim” Robbins is an American actor, director, producer, screenwriter, activist, and musician who has starred in over 50 feature films. Robbins has been acting professionally since 1979 and is known most famously for his roles as Jacob Singer in Jacob’s Ladder, Nuke in Bull Durham, and Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption (all of which fail to appear on this list). Born in West Covina, California in 1958 and raised in New York City by his actress mother and folk singer father, Robbins graduated from UCLA film school in 1981 and has since won a number of Golden Globe Awards and a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for Mystic River. Scroll down to see the highest grossing Tim Robbins movies of all-time in order of worldwide box office gross.
5. Nothing To Lose – $65 million
Directed by Steve Oedekerk, this 1997 comedy co-starring Martin Lawrence took Robbins out of his more dramatic persona and into the character of Nick Beam. A down on his luck businessman whose life is falling apart, Beam teams up with T. Paul (Lawrence), a carjacker, to get back at his boss. The movie was met with mostly negative reviews.
4. Mission to Mars – $110 million
A 2000 science fiction film directed by Brian De Palma, Mission to Mars is set in the year 2020 when a manned Mars exploration mission goes haywire. The World Space Station sends a second rescue team, including Commander Woody Blake (played by Robbins), on an epic space adventure. This film also received a slew of negative reviews.
3. Mystic River – $157 million
The only movie on this list that won any major awards, Mystic River stars Robbins in a career-defining role. Robbins plays Dave Boyle, a blue-collar worker haunted by an adolescent abduction who is accused of murdering his friend’s 19-year old daughter. Directed by Clint Eastwood, Mystic River won Robbins his first and only Oscar to date.
2. Green Lantern – $220 million
Released in 2011, DC Entertainments’ Green Lantern tells the story of the DC Comics superhero of the same name. Robbins plays a relatively minor role as Robert Hammond, a United States senator and the father of the movie’s human villain. The movie was a critical flop and is considered one of the worst superhero movies of the 2000’s.
1. War of the Worlds – $592 million
Loosely based on H.G. Wells’ novel, this science fiction thriller directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning was a summer box office smash. The fourth most successful film of 2005 starred Robbins as Harlan Ogilvy, a man who offers shelter to the characters played by Cruise and Fanning and later suffers a nervous breakdown. War of the Worlds received relatively positive reviews and even garnered a few award nominations.
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for AFI
