The best Robert Patrick movies and TV shows include everything from blockbusters to mainstream TV success stories and even smaller indie films. Patrick didn't start professionally acting until he was already in his mid-20s; instead, he focused on a career as an athlete. However, he dropped out of college before graduating when he decided to give acting a try and finally moved to Los Angeles when he was 26. His first roles came in lower-budget sci-fi films, but this eventually led to his biggest roles in the genre.

After getting some Hollywood attention with a ing role as a villain in Die Hard 2, James Cameron cast him as the main villain in his big-budget action sci-fi blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day. That role helped Patrick, who was struggling at the time to land roles, finally hit the big time, and his career has been solid ever since. He had lead roles in TV shows like The X-Files and Peacemaker and movies like Flags of Our Fathers, Walk the Line, and Cop Land.

10 The X-Files (2000-2002)

John Doggett

In The X-Files' eighth season, the sci-fi supernatural series had a huge hole to fill. David Duchovny had left the series as Fox Mulder (although he remained alive in the show's universe), and he needed to be replaced. Showrunner Chris Carter made the decision to switch things up. Since Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) had been the skeptic for so many seasons, she was now the believer, and this meant that Robert Patrick's John Doggett was the new skeptic — really the opposite of everything Mulder represented.

It was a tough sell, and things got worse in the ninth season when Anderson also left the show. Doggett had a new partner in Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), and she took the role of the believer while Doggett remained a hardened skeptic that the supernatural was at play in many of their cases. While many fans rebelled against losing Mulder and Scully, Patrick at least won over critics and earned himself a Saturn Award for Best Television Actor in 2001.

9 True Blood (2012-2014)

Jackson Herveaux

In 2012, Robert Patrick ed the cast of the HBO supernatural horror series True Blood. Based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, this TV series exists in a world where vampires have been in the open for a time, and many now survive on synthetic blood (called Tru Blood). However, the world also still contains covens and hierarchal systems, with vampires always ready to go to war with each other and humans alike when pushed. There are also other monsters in the world, including werewolves.

Robert Patrick plays one of the werewolves in the series named Jackson Herveaux. He debuted in the fifth season as the father of Alcide Herveaux (one of Sookie's main love interests in True Blood). Patrick went on to appear in the final three seasons of the show. Jackson was a powerful character, able to shift into werewolf form at will (except during full moons), and he was an ally to Sookie when he realized her love for his son. True Blood won two Emmy Awards with 16 nominations.

8 Scorpion (2014-2018)

Cabe Gallo

Robert Patrick appeared in the TV series Scorpion as Agent Cabe Gallo. He is the leader of Team Scorpion, a Special Agent with the US Department of Homeland Security placed in control as the team's government handler. Scorpion is an action drama series that follows a team that is the last line of defense against high-tech threats from around the world. Each member is a highly qualified genius in coding, psychology, and engineering, and they save the world through their brains more than their firepower.

Patrick plays Cabe with a lot of depth, showing someone who will do anything to achieve the task at hand but also caring deeply about the young people he has brought on to be part of his team. The series ran for four seasons and 93 episodes on CBS and received mixed reviews, with most critics praising the cast but proclaiming that the show was another police procedural that offered little difference from the other shows it was in competition with.

7 Flags Of Our Fathers (2006)

Colonel Chandler Johnson

In 2006, Clint Eastwood took on an interesting task. He directed two World War II movies — one from the Allies' point of view (Flags of Our Fathers) and one from Japan's point of view (Letters from Iwo Jima). The two films were shot back-to-back, and each told the story of the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima from each side's POV. In Flags of Our Fathers, the main plot shows five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising the flag on Iwo Jima and how it all affected their lives.

Robert Patrick stars as Lieutenant Colonel Chandler Johnson, a real-life hero from Iwo Jima who served as the commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines during the battle of Iwo Jima, leading his battalion in capturing Mount Suribachi. He survived the flag-raising, although he was killed one week later. The film received two Oscar nominations, although Letters from Iwo Jima was more successful, earning four nominations, including Best Motion Picture of the Year and Best Director.

6 Reacher (2023-2024)

Shane Langston

In 2023, Robert Patrick ed the Amazon Prime Video action series Reacher as the main antagonist of the second season. The show has always shown the contrast between Alan Ritchson's Jack Reacher (standing 6'3" and 235 pounds) and the villains, who are often regular-sized men who have utilized their brains and positions of power to inflict pain on people. In the second season, that villain was 64-year-old Robert Patrick, who played New Ave Technologies Head of Security Shane Langston.

Langston's power comes from the men he leads, and while he is able to kill several of Reacher's 110th Unit team, they are no match for Jack Reacher when he finally gets his hands on them. Patrick delivered a perfect diabolical villain in the action series, and seeing him get what was coming to him was a satisfying moment. The second season received a 98% fresh rating, six percent higher than the first, with praise going to Ritchson and the great choreographed fight sequences.

5 The Faculty (1998)

Coach Joe Willis

In 1998, indie filmmaker sensation Robert Rodriguez got a chance to make his first studio film. While the experience wasn't a great one for Rodriguez, and he quickly returned to his indie roots after it, what resulted was a horror film that has since become a cult classic. The film is a spin on the idea of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In this case, students in a high school realize aliens with evil intentions have replaced their teachers. Robert Patrick played one of the teachers.

The cast was incredible, with some young actors who became major stars in later years, including Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Josh Hartnett, and Elijah Wood. However, the adults were just as impressive, with teachers played by Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Bebe Neuwirth, Jon Stewart, and Robert Patrick, who played the football coach. The movie received a mixed reception, although retrospective reviews have praised the film for the themes, atmosphere, and acting talent on display.

4 Cop Land (1997)

Officer Jack Rucker

James Mangold directed the 1997 crime drama Cop Land, a film that followed a sheriff in a small New Jersey town who comes into conflict with corrupt New York City police officers living there. The cast was phenomenal, with Sylvester Stallone as the sheriff and names like Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Peter Berg, and Robert Patrick all part of the ing cast. Patrick plays Officer Jack Rucker, one of the NYC police officers who lives in the town of Garrison.

The film has an interesting plot since the four officers, a detective, and a lieutenant all live in Garrison using a loophole by their designation as "auxiliary transit cops," which means internal affairs can't touch them. They are also protected by the sheriff there (Stallone), but that all changes when Rucker actually threatens him. Cop Land was a small success but received mostly positive reviews, with praise going to the cast and the hard-edged noir storyline.

3 Walk The Line (2005)

Ray Cash

While he was only in the film as a ing cast member, Robert Patrick was part of the Oscar-nominated musical biopic Walk the Line in 2005. The film tells the life story of Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) and his love story with June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). It also goes into detail about Cash's struggles with addiction and fame and his eventual rise to the top of the world as one of country music's most beloved and iconic stars. Robert Patrick plays Johnny's father, Ray Cash.

Ray played a pretty important role in Johnny's life, as he blamed Johnny for his brother's death and claimed the Devil took the wrong boy. Ray further made a bad impression in his son's life later when Johnny was dealing with his addiction issues and his marriage to Vivian ended terribly. Walk the Line was a huge success at the box office and earned five Oscar nominations, with Reese Witherspoon winning for Best Actress. The film also won two BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, and a Grammy Award.

2 Peacemaker (2022)

Auggie Smith / White Dragon

In 2022, Robert Patrick ed the DCU for the James Gunn-created Peacemaker HBO Max series. In this series, John Cena reprises his role as Peacemaker, where he originally appeared in the movie The Suicide Squad. In the streaming series, Peacemaker is asked to help investigate things for Amanda Waller, but he ends up proving he can't be trusted since he will always do things his way over all else. Robert Patrick stars as Peacemaker's father, Auggie Smith.

While Peacemaker and his father have never gotten along, and Auggie has insulted his son constantly throughout his life, what makes Auggie even more dangerous is that he is the former racist costumed villain White Dragon, a white supremacist that Peacemaker eventually has to stop in the end. The series was highly praised for its humor and storyline and received several nominations at the Critics Choice Awards, Saturn Awards, and Primetime Emmy Awards.

1 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

T-1000

The movie that made Robert Patrick a star was the James Cameron sci-fi action sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The first Terminator was a straight horror movie with the unstoppable Terminator relentlessly trying to kill the young Sarah Connor. However, Cameron upped all the action in the second movie, making it more of a giant sci-fi action blockbuster, and much of that was thanks to the T-1000, Patrick's newer model of Terminator that could shapeshift and morph into almost anything.

Of course, when it wasn't turning into the liquid metal, the T-1000 was Robert Patrick posing as a police officer who was trying to hunt down and kill John Connor. It was here that Patrick showed how dominating of a presence he had on the big screen, and if he didn't bring the menace as a man, he had little chance of mattering when he started morphing into other forms. T2 was a monster success, making over $205 million at the box office and winning four Oscars in six nominations.