Peter Sarsgaard
John Peter Sarsgaard (born March 7, 1971) is an American actor. His first feature role was in Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films Another Day in Paradise and Desert Blue. That same year, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), playing Raoul, the ill-fated son of Athos. Sarsgaard later achieved critical recognition when he was cast in Boys Don't Cry (1999) as John Lotter. He landed his first leading role in the 2001 film The Center of the World. The following year, he played supporting roles in Empire, The Salton Sea, and K-19: The Widowmaker.
For his portrayal of Charles Lane in Shattered Glass, Sarsgaard won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the 2004 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Sarsgaard has appeared in an eclectic range of films, including the 2004 comedy-drama Garden State, the biographical film Kinsey (2004), the drama The Dying Gaul (2005), and big-budget films such as Flightplan (2005), Jarhead (2005), The Skeleton Key (2005), Orphan (2009), An Education (2009), Knight and Day (2010), Green Lantern (2011), Lovelace (2013), Kelly Reichardt's Night Moves (2013), Blue Jasmine (2013), Black Mass (2015), and The Magnificent Seven (2016). Sarsgaard also appeared in the American TV series The Killing (2013) as a man on death row perhaps wrongfully convicted for the brutal murder of his wife—a performance which he says included "some of the best acting I have ever done in my life." In 2021, he had a recurring role on the Hulu miniseries Dopesick.
Sarsgaard has appeared in Off-Broadway productions including Kingdom of Earth, Laura Dennis, Burn This, and Uncle Vanya. In September 2008, he made his Broadway debut as Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin in The Seagull. He is married to actress Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Acted in
The Bride!
2025
September 5
2024
as Roone Arledge
Coup!
2024
as Floyd Monk
Presumed Innocent
2024
as Tommasino 'Tommy' Molto
Memory
2023
as Saul
Pet Shop Days
2023
Vengeance in the Making
2022
as Self
The Survivor
2022
as Emory Anderson
The Batman
2022
as District Attorney Gil Colson
The Lost Daughter
2021
as Professor Hardy
Dopesick
2021
as Rick Mountcastle
The Guilty
2021
as Henry Fisher (voice)
Best Summer Ever
2020
as Camera Man
Human Capital
2020
as Quint Manning
Homemade
2020
as Frank
Interrogation
2020
as David Russell
Mr. Jones
2019
as Walter Duranty
The Sound of Silence
2019
as Peter Lucian
The Lie
2018
as Jay Logan
The Looming Tower
2018
as Martin Schmidt
Wormwood
2017
as Frank Olson
Wormwood
2017
as Frank Olson
Loving Pablo
2017
as Shepard
Jackie
2016
as Robert Kennedy
America Divided
2016
as Self
The Magnificent Seven
2016
as Bartholomew Bogue
Starring Austin Pendleton
2016
as Self
Experimenter
2015
as Stanley Milgram
Black Mass
2015
as Brian Halloran
Pawn Sacrifice
2015
as Father Bill Lombardy
Ladygrey
2015
as Samuel
The Slap
2015
as Hector
Valley Uprising
2014
as Narrator (Voice)
Night Moves
2014
as Harmon
Lovelace
2013
as Chuck Traynor
Blue Jasmine
2013
as Dwight
Very Good Girls
2013
as Fitzsimmons
Robot & Frank
2012
as Robot (voice)
Green Lantern
2011
as Hector Hammond
The Killing
2011
as Ray Seward
Knight and Day
2010
as Fitzgerald
Jake Gyllenhaal Challenges the Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
2010
as Alan Troy (archive footage)
An Education
2009
as David Goldman
Mama's Little Devils: Bad Seeds and Evil Children
2009
as Self
Orphan
2009
as John
In the Electric Mist
2009
as Elrod Sykes
Elegy
2008
as Kenneth Kepesh
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
2008
as Cleveland Arning
Rendition
2007
as Alan Smith
Indie Sex
2007
as Self
Year of the Dog
2007
as Newt
High Falls
2007
as Pedro
Jarhead
2005
as Alan Troy
Flightplan
2005
as Carson
The Skeleton Key
2005
as Luke Marshall
The Dying Gaul
2005
as Robert Sandrich
Kinsey
2004
as Clyde Martin
Garden State
2004
as Mark
Shattered Glass
2003
as Charles 'Chuck' Lane
Death of a Dynasty
2003
as Brendon III
Empire
2002
as Jack
Unconditional Love
2002
as Window Washer
K-19: The Widowmaker
2002
as Vadim Radtchinko
The Salton Sea
2002
as Jimmy the Finn
The Center of the World
2001
as Richard Longman
Housebound
2000
as Mignon
The Cell
2000
as Julia Hickson's Fiancee (uncredited)
Boys Don't Cry
1999
as John Lotter
Desert Blue
1999
as Billy Baxter
Freak City
1999
as Cal Jackson
Another Day in Paradise
1998
as Ty
The Man in the Iron Mask
1998
as Raoul
Cracker
1997
Subway Stories
1997
as Boy No. 1 (segment "Underground")
Dead Man Walking
1995
as Walter Delacroix
Law & Order
1990
as Josh Strand
