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Actors Who Played Santa Claus in Movies and TV Shows

Some stars have taken on the ultimate challenge of spreading Christmas cheer by portraying the most iconic holiday figure — Santa Claus.

While all actors find themselves donning a red suit and white beard in their roles as Santa, Billy Bob Thorton had the unique task of playing a naughty version in the 2003 film Bad Santa.

Thornton admitted in October 2019 that he turned to method acting for the infamous scene where his character, Willie, gets drunk before reporting to duty as a mall Santa.

“I was drunk. It’s so obvious,” he told Entertainment Weekly at the time. “I drank about three glasses of red wine for breakfast. That was just an appetizer. Then I switched over to vodka and cranberry juice and then I had a few Bud Lights.”

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Thorton added, “By the time I got to that scene there I barely knew I was in a movie. The fact of the matter is I was supposed to be standing on the escalator. It dumps me out and it literally woke me up and that’s what’s in the movie. And I get up, standing around because I thought I woke up in my house. And then I remembered what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to go there and fall down in all those gifts and be horrible in front of the kids.”

Scroll down to see the actors who’ve portrayed Jolly Old St. Nick below:

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