Jon Bernthal

Jon Bernthal broke through as Shane Walsh on The Walking Dead, a role that ran two seasons and established the thing he does better than almost anyone: play a man who is physically incapable of concealing what he feels. The body gives it away first, then the jaw, then the voice.

He turned that into an international profile as Frank Castle, first in the second season of Daredevil and then in his own spinoff series, later returning in Daredevil: Born Again and co-writing the Disney+ special The Punisher: One Last Kill. It is a difficult character to play without becoming a poster, and he keeps grounding it in exhaustion rather than swagger.

The most underrated part of his career is the cameo. Bernthal has quietly become the best one scene actor in American film: the disgruntled deputy in Sicario, the getaway driver in Baby Driver, the office bully in The Wolf of Wall Street, the crew member in Fury. Each is a complete person delivered in a handful of minutes, and directors keep calling because he never treats a small part as a favour.

The last few years have pushed him toward heavier material. We Own This City gave him a genuinely frightening police sergeant, all charm and appetite, and his recurring work on The Bear is a study in restraint inside a series built on volume. He plays Menelaus in The Odyssey next.