17 Movie Stars Who Delivered Oscar-Worthy Performances On TV Shows

In 2014, Matthew McConaughey was known for romantic comedies and his trademarked fun-loving Southern drawl. He'd been pigeonholed as something of a pretty face, but not quite a formidable actor. All of that changed with the release of Season 1 of HBO's True Detective.

McConaughey's instantly iconic turn as haunted Louisiana detective Rust Cohle cemented his status as one of the great performers of his generation. He was nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his work during a year that would fondly be remembered as the "McConaissance" for the actor's sudden ubiquity and critical acclaim.

Bringing Fargo to television was always going to be a risk. The Coen Brothers' beloved black comic noir about Midwestern mayhem is considered a new American cinema classic, so Noah Hawley's series adaptation had a high bar to clear. In order to make the TV version soar, a major-name actor would need to anchor the piece with gravitas. Who better to translate the Coens' universe to the small screen than Billy Bob Thornton, an actor already known for dark comedy thanks to his work in movies like Bad Santa and A Simple Plan?

Thornton played the sociopathic bad guy Lorne Malvo, who wreaks havoc throughout the icy tundra of rural Minnesota. His work was hailed for its deadpan menace, and he successfully helped launch Fargo into the TV pantheon. Multiple seasons later, Malvo is still considered one of the best villains in the show's history.

More often than not, a movie star jumping to TV means they are looking for awards recognition. On name value alone, a movie star can guarantee serious Emmy and Golden Globe attention. Either an injection of relevance for a flagging career or an effort to cross something off a career bucket list, TV can be a great boon to a movie star's resume.

For Amy Adams on Sharp Objects, that awards attention came in abundance. As haunted crime reporter Camille Preaker, Adams was compelling, layered, and instantly magnetic. She was nominated for an Emmy, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Television Critics Association Award, a Producers Guild of America Award (she was also a producer on the show), and a Golden Globe. She won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress and is back to movies, thanks to Sharp Objects being a limited-run miniseries. Mission accomplished.

Tom Hardy is not known for playing it safe as an actor. He's surprised people with his bizarre take on Marvel Comics antihero Venom, confused audiences through the garbled accent of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, and taken a backseat to Charlize Theron's Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road. So, it should be no great shock that Hardy would pop into the world of television in two period crime dramas, Peaky Blinders and Taboo.

Both shows are partially the brainchild of British TV writer Steven Knight and take place in the seedy underworld of the United Kingdom. Taboo is unique for being co-created by Hardy and his father, Chips Hardy. Giving his father a chance to co-create a TV show was no charity, though. Chips is an accomplished playwright, screenwriter, and novelist in his own right and a former winner of a British Comedy Award.

By putting on the Stetson hat originated by Yul Brenner in the feature film of the same name, Ed Harris made HBO's adaptation of Westworld a must-watch from the beginning.

Harris's performance is controlled mayhem at all times. The character he plays - William, AKA the Man in Black - is sadistic, manipulative, and morally questionable. He's also the most interesting character on a show filled with robots and people who act like robots. The reward for wearing cowboy boots and rolling around in the dirt all day was an Emmy nomination. 

Henry Cavill's movie career hasn't always been the smoothest. He became an internationally known star after being cast as Superman in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel. The DC Comics movie franchise hit rocky terrain after the troubled production and poor box office performance of Justice League. Attempts to launch a different franchise with the adaptation of the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. also went belly-up.

Television was a natural place to regain a semblance of upward momentum for Cavill, who signed on to play the lead in Netflix's The Witcher. Cavill said he harassed his agents to get him a meeting for the lead role of Geralt of Riva. Cavill revealed that he was a fan of the video game adaptations of The Witcher, which started off as a Polish fantasy novel series. His persistence paid off, as The Witcher might be Cavill's most successful project and certainly his most memorable role to date.