Walton Goggins

Goggins was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of Janet Long and Walton Sanders Goggins, Sr.[1] He was raised in Lithia Springs, Georgia, attended Lithia Springs High School, and, for one year, Georgia Southern University.[2]

When he was 19, Goggins moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. He worked on a valet car parking service for various restaurants in the valley and sold cowboy boots. In 1990, after working in a few acting roles in Georgia, he got his first big break in Murder in Mississippi. While filming, Goggins met and became friends with Ray McKinnon, who played his father in the film, and with whom he began a creative partnership that continues.

Goggins played Detective Shane Vendrell in the FX series The Shield. Goggins and McKinnon formed their production company Ginny Mule Pictures, which produced four films: The Accountant (a short film which won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2001), Chrystal (Sundance Dramatic Competition), Randy and the Mob, and That Evening Sun (which won the South by Southwest Special Jury Prize 2009). Goggins and McKinnon also created the series Rectify.[3] Goggins was set to play the lead and AMC had bought the pilot script, written by McKinnon, a role which went to Aden Young when the series later went to SundanceTV.[4]

Goggins played Boyd Crowder in the pilot episode of the 2010 FX series Justified while also shooting a major supporting role as a deadly death row inmate being hunted by the titular antagonists in the film Predators (2010). The character of Boyd was intended to die in the pilot episode, but Justified producer Yost kept the character when test audiences liked Walton Goggins performance. In May 2010, Goggins was promoted to main cast from season 2 onward.[5]

In May 2011, he appeared in "Code of the West", a commercial for Ram Truck's "Guts & Glory" campaign. He appeared in Cowboys & Aliens as Hunt, a bandit formerly in the employ of the protagonist. In July 2011, Goggins was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role on Justified.[6] He portrayed Billy Crash, a sadistic overseer and slave fighting trainer, in the 2012 film Django Unchained.[7]

From 2012 to 2013, Goggins guest-starred as transgender prostitute Venus Van Dam in the FX series Sons of Anarchy. He previously worked with the show's creator, Kurt Sutter, when the latter was a writer and executive producer on The Shield. The name "Venus Van Dam" is a play on the undercover name "Cletus Van Damme" used by Shane Vendrell, the character Goggins portrayed on The Shield.[8] He played Chris Mannix in The Hateful Eight and Lee Russell in the HBO series Vice Principals.[2][9] The New York Times critic Mike Hale wrote, "Walton Goggins makes a habit of being the best thing about the television shows he’s in."[10]

In 2018, Goggins starred as Lawrence in Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Mathias Vogel in Tomb Raider, and Sonny Burch in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Goggins played the role of Wade, the lead character in the CBS sitcom, The Unicorn, which premiered in 2019. He also partnered with Danny McBride again in The Righteous Gemstones playing the reverend "Baby" Billy Freeman.

In 2020, Goggins voiced part of the real crime podcast Deep Cover: The Drug Wars.[11]

Goggins at the Television Academy presents An Evening with Justified in Hollywood, on March 19, 2014

Goggins has received a steady stream of recognition for his professional work. With Ray McKinnon, Lisa Blount and Ginny Mule Pictures, he was recognized by the Spirit of Slamdance Award at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2001 for The Accountant, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2002. Their film Chrystal appeared in the 2004 U.S. Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival,[12] and the same trio were awarded the Spirit of Slamdance Award again for Randy and the Mob.

Goggins was nominated for a Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Drama in 2009 for his role as Detective Shane Vendrell in The Shield. In the same year, McKinnon, Goggins, Hal Holbrook and the rest of the principal cast of That Evening Sun, won the Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Cast at the South by Southwest Film Festival competition.

In 2013, Goggins was nominated for the San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble in Quentin Tarantino's western film Django Unchained.

Goggins' role of Boyd Crowder in Justified received nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series[13] in 2011, the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2011, the TV Guide Award for Favorite Villain in 2013, the Online Film & Television Association's Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2011 and 2014, and for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Goggins' role of Venus Van Dam in Sons of Anarchy received nominations for the Online Film & Television Association's Television Award for Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2013 and 2014, and for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series in 2014 and 2015.

Goggins was married to Canadian Leanne Kaun (born in 1967), who owned a Laurel Canyon, California, dog-walking business; she died by suicide on November 12, 2004.[14] Goggins married filmmaker Nadia Conners in August 2011. Their son, Augustus, was born February 2011.[15]

Goggins showcases some of his photography on a blog[16] that he created when he took a sabbatical and traveled across India.[16] He is active in various nonprofit organizations that range from environmental to humanitarian work, and he regularly attends Global Green USA events. Additionally, Goggins is a partner in a spirits company, Mulholland Distilling.[17]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Walton Goggins.

• Walton Goggins at IMDb
• "Interview with Walton Goggins". The Rafferty/Mills Connection Podcast. 2009.
• "Interview with Walton Goggins on 'Justified' and 'The Shield'". myFanbase. December 2011.
• Walton Goggins Fan site at walton-goggins.net