Over the years, we've put Samuel L. Jackson's face with more iconic names then we can count. The 70-year-old actor is arguably one of the most influential and prolific actors of our time. We certainly all have our favorite roles of Jackson's, but what are his own career highlights?
When the actor recently dropped in to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Fallon asked Samuel L. Jackson to name the top five characters he's played. Since he has well over 100 acting credits to date, he found narrowing it down to be tough, but his favorites are interesting!
At No. 5 is Nick Fury, a character Samuel L. Jackson has played since the MCU began with the Iron Man post-credit scene in 2008, teasing the formation of the Avengers. Fury doesn't typically play a large role in the movies, but the upcoming Captain Marvel will delve into his past before the eye-patch and he'll be teaming up with Spidey in Spider-Man: Far From Home too.
Then, Jackson decided to group together Quentin Tarantino characters Ordell from Jackie Brown, Jules from Pulp Fiction and Stephen from Django Unchained for the fourth spot because "he'd hate to pull them apart." It looks like picking his favorite roles is like picking a favorite child, especially as far as it goes with his work with the film director who he's collaborated with since the early '90s.
Topping his favorite Quentin characters is Mace Windu from the Star Wars prequels because... well, he's a Jedi! The trilogy of Star Wars films he was involved with may not be beloved by all, but few can argue with how cool it was that Jackson is part of the universe. The actor has also made it clear in the past that he's interested to reprise his role in a future Star Wars movie, even though his character died. Maybe in the planned Obi Wan spinoff?
Then, Samuel L. Jackson just skipped a No. 2 spot-earner right to his favorite role of all time... Mitch Henessey in the 1996 film The Long Kiss Goodnight. He loved playing the wacky private detective "crazy dude" and had a blast working with Geena Davis on it.
Okay, so Mitch Henessey's certainly not a role everyone knows Samuel L. Jackson for and it likely won't go down in history as the other characters he named, but the fact that it's his undisputed top pick 23 years later shows it was a memorable and fun experience that he treasures. So check it out!
You can see Samuel L. Jackson reprise his role as Mr. Glass, 19 years after Unbreakable, in the sequel Glass, coming to theaters on January 18, 2019, along with five other performances coming to the big screen this year alone from the impressive actor, including a Shaft sequel.
