1961–1969: Early roles and breakthrough '' in 1976 Voight started his off-Broadway career in a
revue called
O Oysters, which ran in early 1961. He made his Broadway debut in the fall of 1961 as Rolf in
The Sound of Music. In the early 1960s, Voight found work in television, appearing in several episodes of
Gunsmoke, between 1963 and 1968, as well as guest spots on
Naked City and
The Defenders, both in 1963, and ''
Twelve O'Clock High, in 1966 and Cimarron Strip'' in 1968. Voight's theater career took off in January 1965, playing Rodolfo in
Arthur Miller's
A View from the Bridge in an
Off-Broadway revival. Voight's film debut did not come until 1967, when he took a part in Phillip Kaufman's crimefighter spoof,
Fearless Frank. He also took a small role in 1967's western,
Hour of the Gun, directed by veteran
helmer John Sturges. In 1968 he took a role in director Paul Williams's
Out of It. In 1968, Voight was cast in the groundbreaking
Midnight Cowboy (1969), the film that would make his career. He played Joe Buck, a naïve male
hustler from
Texas, adrift in New York City. He comes under the tutelage of
Dustin Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo, a tubercular petty
thief and
con artist. The film explored late 1960s New York and the development of an unlikely, but poignant friendship between the two main characters. Directed by
John Schlesinger and based on a novel by
James Leo Herlihy, the film struck a chord with critics and audiences. Because of its controversial themes, the film was released with an X rating and would make history by being the only X-rated feature to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Both Voight and Hoffman were nominated for Best Actor, but lost out to
John Wayne in
True Grit. 1970–1989: Stardom and acclaim in April 1988 In 1970, Voight appeared in
Mike Nichols' adaptation of
Catch-22, and re-teamed with director Paul Williams to star in
The Revolutionary, as a left-wing college student struggling with his conscience. Voight next starred in 1972's
Deliverance. Directed by
John Boorman, from a script that
James Dickey had helped to adapt from his own novel of the same name, it tells the story of a
canoe trip in a feral, backwoods America. Both the film and the performances of Voight and co-stars
Burt Reynolds and
Ned Beatty received great critical acclaim, and were popular with audiences. Voight also appeared at the
Studio Arena Theater, in
Buffalo, New York, in the
Tennessee Williams play
A Streetcar Named Desire from 1973 to 1974 as
Stanley Kowalski. Voight played a directionless young boxer in 1973's
The All American Boy, then appeared in the 1974 film
Conrack, directed by
Martin Ritt. Based on
Pat Conroy's autobiographical novel
The Water Is Wide, Voight portrayed the title character, an idealistic young schoolteacher sent to teach underprivileged black children on a remote
South Carolina island. The same year he appeared in
The Odessa File, based on
Frederick Forsyth's thriller, as Peter Miller, a young German journalist who discovers a conspiracy to protect former
Nazis still operating within Germany. This film first teamed him with the actor-director
Maximilian Schell, who acted out a character named and based on the "Butcher of Riga"
Eduard Roschmann, and for whom Voight would appear in 1975's
End of the Game, a psychological thriller co-starring
Jacqueline Bisset and based on a story by Swiss novelist and playwright
Friedrich Dürrenmatt. According to Joseph McBride's biography of
Steven Spielberg, Voight was Spielberg's first choice for the role of Matt Hooper in the 1975 film
Jaws and he turned down the role, which was ultimately played by
Richard Dreyfuss. However, in interview with Dr. Ben Carson on September 6, 2024, Voight was asked if he turned down the part of Quint in Jaws; Voight said that the offer of a part in Jaws is "a myth" and that Spielberg had actually offered him a part in a different, less successful film, a role that he turned down because he thought it was a "repeat of the character from Midnight Cowboy". In 1978, Voight portrayed the
Vietnam veteran Luke Martin in
Hal Ashby's film
Coming Home, and was awarded
Best Actor at the
Cannes Film Festival, for his portrait of a cynical, yet noble paraplegic, reportedly based on real-life Vietnam veteran-turned-antiwar-activist
Ron Kovic, with whom
Jane Fonda's character falls in love. The film included a much-talked-about love scene between the two. Fonda won her second
Best Actress award for her role, and Voight won for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the Oscars. In 1979, Voight once again put on
boxing gloves, starring as an alcoholic ex-heavyweight in
Franco Zeffirelli's
The Champ with
Faye Dunaway and
Ricky Schroder. The film was an international success, but less popular with American audiences. He next reteamed with director Ashby in 1982's ''
Lookin' to Get Out'', in which he played Alex Kovac, a con man who has run into debt with New York mobsters and hopes to win enough in Las Vegas to pay them off. Voight both co-wrote the script and also co-produced. He also produced and acted in 1983's
Table for Five, in which he played a widower bringing up his children by himself. Also in 1983, Voight was slated to play Robert Harmon in
John Cassavetes' Golden Bear-winning
Love Streams, having performed the role on stage in 1981. However, a few weeks before shooting began, Voight announced that he also wanted to direct the picture and was consequently dropped. In 1985, Voight teamed up with Russian writer and director
Andrei Konchalovsky to play the role of escaped con Oscar "Manny" Manheim in
Runaway Train. The script was based on a story by
Akira Kurosawa, and paired Voight with
Eric Roberts as a fellow escapee, and
Rebecca De Mornay as an assistant locomotive engineer. Voight received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and won the
Golden Globe's award for Best Actor. Roberts was also honored for his performance, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Voight followed up this and other performances with a role in the 1986 film,
Desert Bloom, and reportedly experienced a "spiritual awakening" toward the end of the decade. In 1989, Voight starred in and helped write
Eternity, which dealt with a television reporter's efforts to uncover corruption.
1990–2012: Established actor in 1993 Voight began acting in television productions in the early 1990s, beginning with 1991's
Chernobyl: The Final Warning, followed in 1992 by
The Last of His Tribe and The Rainbow Warrior, the story of the
ill-fated Greenpeace ship sunk by
French operatives in
Auckland Harbour. For the remainder of the decade, Voight would alternate between feature films and television movies, including a starring role in the 1993 miniseries
Return to Lonesome Dove, a continuation of
Larry McMurtry's
western saga, 1989's
Lonesome Dove. Voight played Captain Woodrow F. Call, the part played by
Tommy Lee Jones in the original miniseries. Voight made a cameo appearance as himself on the
Seinfeld episode "
The Mom & Pop Store" airing November 17, 1994, in which
George Costanza buys a car that appears to be owned by Jon Voight. Voight described the process leading up to the episode in an interview on the Red Carpet at the 2006 BAFTA Emmy Awards: ::Well what happened was I was asked to be on Seinfeld. They said: "Would you do a Seinfeld?" And I said, and I just happened to know to see a few Seinfelds and I knew these guys were really tops; they were really, really clever guys, and I liked the show. And so I said "Sure!" and I thought they would ask me to do a walk-on, the way it came: "Would you come be part of the show?" And I said "Yeah, sure I'll do it." You know what I mean? Then I got the script and my name was on every page because it was about my car. And I laughed; it was hysterically funny. So I was really delighted to do it. The writer came up to me and he said "Jon, would you come take a look at my car to see if you ever owned it?", because the writer wrote it from a real experience where someone sold him the car based on the fact that it was my car. And I went down and I looked at the car and I said "No, I never had this car." So unfortunately I had to give him the bad news. But it was a funny episode. In 1995, Voight played the role of "Nate", a sophisticated
fence, in the crime drama film
Heat, directed by
Michael Mann, and appeared in the television films
Convict Cowboy and
The Tin Soldier, also directing the latter film. Voight next appeared in 1996's blockbuster film
Mission: Impossible, directed by
Brian De Palma and starring
Tom Cruise. Voight played the role of spymaster James Phelps, a role originated by
Peter Graves in the television series. In 1997, Voight appeared in six films, beginning with
Rosewood, based on the 1923 destruction of the primarily black town of
Rosewood, Florida, by the white residents of nearby Sumner. Voight played John Wright, a white Rosewood storeowner who follows his conscience and protects his black customers from the white rage. He next appeared in
Anaconda, set in the
Amazon; he played Paul Sarone, a snake hunter obsessed with a fabled giant
anaconda, who hijacks an unwitting
National Geographic film crew who are looking for a remote Indian tribe. Voight next appeared in a supporting role in
Oliver Stone's
U Turn, portraying a blind man. He took a supporting role in
The Rainmaker, adopted from the
John Grisham novel and directed by
Francis Ford Coppola. He played an unscrupulous lawyer representing an
insurance company, facing off with a neophyte lawyer played by
Matt Damon. His last film of 1997 was
Boys Will Be Boys, a family comedy directed by
Dom DeLuise. The following year, Voight had the lead role in the television film
The Fixer, in which he played Jack Killoran, a lawyer who crosses ethical lines in order to "fix" things for his wealthy clients. A near-fatal accident awakens his dormant conscience and Killoran soon runs afoul of his former clients. He also took a substantial role in
Tony Scott's 1998 political thriller,
Enemy of the State, in which he played
Will Smith's character's stalwart antagonist from the NSA. Voight was reunited with director Boorman in 1998's
The General. Set in
Dublin,
Ireland, the film tells the true-life story of the charismatic leader of a gang of thieves,
Martin Cahill, at odds with both the police and the
Provisional IRA. Voight portrays Inspector Ned Kenny, determined to bring Cahill to justice. He next appeared in 1999's
Varsity Blues. He played a blunt, autocratic football coach, pitted in a test of wills against his star player, portrayed by
James Van Der Beek. Produced by fledgling
MTV Pictures, the film became a surprise hit and helped connect Voight with a younger audience. Voight played Noah in the 1999 television production ''
Noah's Ark, and appeared in Second String,
also for TV. He also appeared with Cheryl Ladd in the feature A Dog of Flanders'', a remake of a popular film set in Belgium. Voight next portrayed President
Franklin D. Roosevelt in 2001's action/war film
Pearl Harbor, having accepted the role when
Gene Hackman declined (his performance was received favorably by critics). Also that year, he appeared as Lord Croft, father of the title character of
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Based on the popular video game, the digital adventuress was played on the big screen by Voight's own real-life daughter
Angelina Jolie. That year, he also appeared in
Zoolander, directed by
Ben Stiller who starred as the title character, a vapid supermodel with humble roots. Voight appeared as Zoolander's coal-miner father. The film extracted both pathos and cruel humor from the scenes of Zoolander's return home, when he entered the mines alongside his father and brothers and Voight's character expressed his unspoken disgust at his son's chosen profession. Also in 2001, Voight joined
Leelee Sobieski,
Hank Azaria and
David Schwimmer in the made-for-television film
Uprising, which was based on the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto. Voight played Major-General
Juergen Stroop, the German officer responsible for the destruction of the Jewish resistance, and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. Director Michael Mann tagged Voight for a supporting role in the 2001 biopic
Ali, which starred
Will Smith as the controversial former heavyweight champ,
Muhammad Ali. Voight was almost unrecognizable under his make-up and
toupée, as he impersonated the sports broadcaster
Howard Cosell. Voight received his fourth Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, for his performance. Also in 2001, he appeared in the television mini-series
Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story along with
Vanessa Redgrave,
Matthew Modine,
Richard Attenborough, and
Mia Sara. In 2003, he played the role of Marion Seville/Mr. Sir in
Holes. In 2004, Voight joined
Nicolas Cage, in
National Treasure as Patrick Gates, the father of Cage's character. In 2005, he played the title role in the second part of CBS' miniseries,
Pope John Paul II. In 2006, he was
Kentucky Wildcats head coach
Adolph Rupp in the Disney hit
Glory Road. In 2007, he played
United States Secretary of Defense John Keller in the summer blockbuster
Transformers, reuniting him with
Holes star
Shia LaBeouf. Also in 2007, Voight reprised his role as Patrick Gates in
National Treasure: Book of Secrets. He appeared in
Bratz with his goddaughter
Skyler Shaye. In 2008, he appeared as Creighton Kinkaid in the Christmas film
Four Christmases. In 2009, Voight played Jonas Hodges, the American antagonist, in the seventh season of the hit
Fox drama
24, a role that many argue is based on real life figures
Alfried Krupp,
Johann Rall and
Erik Prince. Voight plays the
chief executive officer of a fictional
private military company based in northern Virginia called
Starkwood, which has loose resemblances to
Academi and
ThyssenKrupp. Voight made his first appearance in the two-hour prequel episode
24: Redemption on November 23. He then went on to recur for 10 episodes of Season 7. He joined
Dennis Haysbert as the only two actors ever to have been credited with the "Special Guest Appearance" card on
24. That same year Voight also lent his voice talents in the
Thomas Nelson audio Bible production known as
The Word of Promise. In this dramatized audio, Voight played the character of
Abraham. The project also featured a large ensemble of other well-known Hollywood actors including
Jim Caviezel,
Louis Gossett Jr.,
John Rhys-Davies,
Luke Perry,
Gary Sinise,
Jason Alexander,
Christopher McDonald,
Marisa Tomei and
John Schneider.
2013–2024: Later career in 2024 In 2013, Voight made his much-acclaimed appearance on
Ray Donovan as Mickey Donovan, the main character's conniving father. The role earned him a
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2014 as well as nominations for two
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He reprised his role in the 2022 film
Ray Donovan: The Movie. He played Henry Shaw Sr. in
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016). The following year he acted in the
Christian drama Same Kind of Different as Me alongside
Greg Kinnear and
Renée Zellweger. On March 26, 2019, Voight was appointed to a six-year term on the Board of Trustees of the
Kennedy Center in Washington DC. He portrayed
Supreme Court Justice Warren E. Burger in the film
Roe v. Wade (2020). In 2022 he participated in the documentary film
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy with
Bob Balaban,
Brian De Palma and
Brenda Vaccaro. It premiered at the
79th Venice International Film Festival and was later shortlisted for the
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the
96th Academy Awards. In 2022, Voight was cast in the science fiction epic
Megalopolis, directed by
Francis Ford Coppola. In
Reagan, Jon Voight is cast as
Viktor Ivanov, a former
KGB agent. The film, starring
Dennis Quaid as
Ronald Reagan, was theatrically released in the United States on August 30, 2024.
2025–present: Special Ambassador to Hollywood On January 16, 2025, it was announced by
president-elect Donald Trump that Voight would serve in a new role as a Special Ambassador to
Hollywood, sharing the role with fellow actors
Mel Gibson and
Sylvester Stallone. Trump stated that he wants these actors to make Hollywood "stronger than ever before" by bringing back business lost to "foreign countries". According to
Deadline, by May 2025, Voight had held meetings with both Hollywood unions and executives on issues with domestic film production. Stallone and Gibson were not involved and have not held similar talks of their own. In the 2026 movie
Monument, he portrayed the Israeli architect
Yaakov Rechter. ==Political views==