Michael Stuhlbarg has enjoyed a prolific career in television, film, and theater. Both an alumnus of Julliard’s Drama Division and the University of California, Los Angeles, he started his career on the stage and with classics. After five years of working in theater, Stuhlbarg made his feature film debut with 1998’s A Price Above Rubies, in which he played a minor role. While he simultaneously began to develop his film and stage careers even further, he attracted praise from critics, who cited him as one of the young actors to watch throughout the years.
Stuhlbarg’s film breakthrough came in 2010 when he appeared in A Serious Man, directed by the Coen Brothers, and since then, he has created an impressive resume of roles. He appeared in movies like Lincoln, Hugo, and Hitchcock in three years, then moved on to Men in Black 3 and now HBO’s The Staircaseand Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. In the future, per Vanity Fair, Stuhlbarg is set to reunite with Call Me By Your Name co-star Timothée Chalamet in Bones & All. Until then, these are his seven best performances ranked.
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6 Steve Jobs
Legendary Pictures
Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, and Stuhlbarg star in the biographical drama film Steve Jobs. Naturally, this is about the Apple founder’s life. Set in the years between 1984 and 1998, Steve Jobs leads the company to the beginning stages of the glory it now knows today. Stuhlbarg plays Andy Hertzfeld, who was one of the original members who came up with the Mac. Although the movie has questionable historical accuracy and is theatrical in tone, the cast’s performances bring it all together to make it an enjoyable experience overall.
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5 Miss Sloane
EuropaCorp
It seems fitting that Miss Sloane was released in 2016, the year that Western politics seemingly became more polarized than ever. Jessica Chastain stars as Elizabeth Sloane, a D.C. lobbyist summoned to a congressional hearing. Why was she called to appear before Congress? There may have been some unethical behavior going on involved with gun legislation. The film delves deeper into thriller territory when it is discovered that all the evidence may have been forged and that the political party opposing the legislation is out to get Sloane. Stuhlbarg portrays Pat Connors, one of Sloane’s coworkers at the lobbying firm.
4 Boardwalk Empire
HBO
Before there was The Gilded Age, there was Boardwalk Empire. Set in New Jersey in the 1920s, amid Prohibition, Nucky Thompson is building an empire in Atlantic City. A politician with an eye for the future, he sees an opportunity using crime to get what he wants, leading to conflicting morals and opinions about what his next move should be. Stuhlbarg stars as Arnold Rothstein in seasons one through four, who was a real-life New York crime boss in the world of athletics. The show was wildly praised when it was released for television, with nods going towards its scope and high level of acting.
3 Call Me By Your Name
Sony Pictures Classics
Dubbed the “most romantic movie of the year” of its release by Rolling Stone, Call Me By Your Name was a sleeper hit waiting to happen. With the main cast led by Timothée Chalamet — then a relatively unknown actor just making his start — and Armie Hammer, this LGBTQ+ coming-of-age romance snatched hearts. With a dreamy Italian setting and slightly doomed romance feel, the movie was adapted from a novel by André Aciman. Mr. Perlman (Stuhlbarg), the father of the protagonist Elio (Chalamet), provides a fountain of knowledge and is even the reason why the love story can say it started. Stuhlbarg gives a solid performance, making everything come to life.
2 The Looming Tower
Hulu
The Hulu miniseries The Looming Tower tracks down the threat of religious extremists in the 1990s. As the United States looks to interfere with what they deem to be threats in South and Southwest Asia, a feud between the CIA and FBI seems to position the Americans to topple over all their plans and what they have worked for so far. The consequence? A major attack on the United States on its own soil. Stuhlbarg is Richard Clarke in the series, who was the National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counterterrorism from 1998 to 2003.
1 A Serious Man
StudioCanal
The Coen Brother’s 2009 movie A Serious Man is one of Stuhlbarg’s best-known roles to date, as he stars as a Jewish man from Minnesota watching his world crumble. As a physics professor, one of his students attempts to bribe him, but when he confronts the boy’s father, he threatens to sue for defamation if he makes the information public. At the same time, Stuhlbarg’s character is up for his tenure decision, but at home, his family life seems to be falling apart as well. In the film festival circuits, Stuhlbarg was well-praised for his role, which required quite a bit of internal and external conflict with his character.
