One of modern cinema's most diverse acting talents takes a trip to the Moon.

There are few actors today as versatile as Sam Rockwell. Since his début in the teen-horror Clownhouse, the 40-year-old has gone on to become a one-man gallery of crooks, rogues, and oddballs. Critics adore him. Cinephiles applaud him. Yet he still manages to tread comfortably on the line between stardom and obscurity. Touted as `the next big thing' for over a decade, Rockwell has made a career of playing the antihero. He shifts between supporting roles and leading parts as if they were gears in a car and is widely considered one of the finest actors working today. With a name like a character from an Austin Powers movie, Rockwell is the go-to man for directors with controversial or challenging parts. Thus, when Duncan Jones, son of David Bowie, entered into a career as a filmmaker, it's no wonder he wrote his début feature, Moon, as a vehicle for Sam Rockwell. As audiences worldwide prepare to see him in the biggest role of his career, lets look back at some of the memorable performances from this gifted actor.

The son of two actors, Rockwell was born with a passion to tell stories and grew up captivated by films like Taxi Driver, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and The Deer Hunter. His breakthrough performance was in 1997 as a lovable oddity in Tom DiCillo's Box of Moonlight. He went on to star in a number of indie dramas and had his first foray into studio pictures as a child murderer in The Green Mile. Despite only having a small amount of screen time, Rockwell left a lasting impression as the charismatic killer.

Charisma was again a major feature in his role as Eric Knox in Charlie's Angels. One of his most well-known parts, Rockwell was unforgettable as the quirky and deranged supervillain who was just as comfortable moonwalking to Pharoahe Monch as he was shooting missiles from his helicopter. However, it was his leading turn in George Clooney's directorial début, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, that certified Rockwell as a rising talent. He won the Silver Berlin Bear for best actor for playing game-show impresario Chuck Barris, who claimed to have been a CIA hitman.

With a growing reputation as a diverse character actor, Rockwell went on to star in several large supporting roles in films such as Matchstick Men, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Snow Angels, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Perhaps his most controversial role was as a sex-addicted con man in last year's Choke, which is based on a book by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk. As a serious actor, it would be difficult to find a juicer part than that of a man who pays for his mother's hospital bills by playing on the sympathies of those who save him from choking to death. On the surface, it's the kind of character that audiences should have loathed, but Rockwell threw himself in to the part, making him poignant and hilarious. He followed Choke with the Oscar-nominated Frost/Nixon, in which he played passionate political writer James Preston Jr.

Although he has spent much of his career playing second fiddle, in his latest film Rockwell is back as a leading man. In fact, he is the only actor in Moon. He plays astronaut Sam Bell, who is wrapping up a three-year stint on the moon, where he has been overseeing the mining interests of the Lunar Corporation. With the exception of recorded messages from his family and bosses back on Earth, his only company is the base's computer, Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey). That is, until he meets a younger, angrier version of himself, who claims to be there to fulfil the same three-year contract. Engaging the eye as much as the mind, Moon draws from classic science-fiction films and is propelled by an intense performance from Rockwell. Taking out the Best British Film award at the Edinburgh film festival earlier this year, Moon has been hailed as a remarkable début from Duncan Jones, who wrote the film to lure in Rockwell to work with him.

‘Moon was written for Sam Rockwell,' says Jones, once known as Zowie Bowie.

‘I'd met with Sam about a year before making Moon to talk to him about another project.

‘It didn't work out, but it came up that Sam was into sci-fi and that if I had something in that genre, he would love to see it.

‘As soon as the meeting was over, I got to work. I needed to write a sci-fi film starring Sam Rockwell.'

Made on a budget of $5 million and shot in thirty-three days, Moon has been hailed as an intelligent, intriguing, and unique film held together by Rockwell's performance. Critics have tipped this as the film to finally elevate the American actor to A-list, leading-man status. Whether this will actually come to fruition remains to be seen; however, Rockwell seems content with his position in modern-day cinema. If nothing else, the role will be another display of brilliance from Rockwell and can be added to his repertoire of unusual characters. In the meantime, his next move is away from the indie circuit and back into blockbuster mode as he stars alongside Robert Downey Jr and Mickey Rourke in Iron Man 2.

By Maria Lewis