In addition to film work, Thornton began a career as a singer-songwriter. He has also been nominated for an Emmy Award, four Golden Globes, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. Thornton has received the President's Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, a Special Achievement Award from the National Board of Review, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After Sling Blade, he directed several other films, including Daddy and Them (2001), All the Pretty Horses (2000), and Jayne Mansfield's Car (2012). Thornton has written a variety of films, usually set in the Southern United States and mainly co-written with Tom Epperson, including A Family Thing (1996) and The Gift (2000).

In 2016–2021 he starred for four seasons in an Amazon original series, Goliath, which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama. In 2014, Thornton starred as Lorne Malvo in the first season of the anthology series Fargo, earning a nomination for the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie at the Emmy Awards and won Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Film at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards.

In the 2000s, Thornton achieved further success starring in dramas Monster's Ball (2001), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), and Friday Night Lights (2004) and comedy films, Intolerable Cruelty (2003), and Bad Santa (2003). He appeared in several major film roles in the 1990s following Sling Blade, including Oliver Stone's neo-noir U Turn (1997), political drama Primary Colors (1998), science fiction disaster film Armageddon (1998), the highest-grossing film of that year, and the crime drama A Simple Plan (1998), which earned him his third Oscar nomination. He had his first break when he co-wrote and starred in the 1992 thriller One False Move, and received international attention after writing, directing, and starring in the independent drama film Sling Blade (1996), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an American film actor, writer and director.

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