Lee Pace has been steadily working in film, television and on stage for years. His roles are delightfully varied, quirky, unique, and a testament to his talent and range. His portrayal of Ned rooted the character in the offbeat series Pushing Daisies, while his Ronan the Accuser is one of the most memorable villains in the MCU. Reportedly one of the nicest guys in the business, Pace's star continues to rise, as these roles would attest to.
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Richard Hickock in Infamous (2006)
Infamous looks at the life of Truman Capote (Toby Jones) from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, the time he researched and wrote In Cold Blood. Capote reads about a murder in a small Kansas town and wonders how the townspeople would react, planting the seed for the novel. He is offered the chance to interview the convicted killers in the case, Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) and Richard Hickock (Lee Pace), forming an attachment with Smith. Capote slowly unravels as he tries to consolidate his hope that Smith and Hickock are not given the death penalty with his need for a spectacular ending to his book.
Roy Walker in The Fall (2006)
Pace gets top billing as Roy Walker, an injured, downtrodden stuntman in a hospital who meets Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), a young girl recovering from a broken arm. Walker entertains the girl by telling a tale of six heroes - a man seeking vengeance, a native-American, an explosives expert, Charles Darwin (Leo Bill), a former slave and a mystic - all out to defeat the evil Odious (Daniel Caltagirone). Alexandria's imagination gives visuals to the story, and in between chapters Walker uses Alexandria to steal morphine and other medicines for him.
Ned in Pushing Daisies (2007-08)
Pace's penchant for the peculiar is no more evident than with his role as Ned in the cult-classic TV series Pushing Daisies. Ned is a pastry chef with a unique ability - he can bring the dead back to life for one minute with his touch. He uses this gift to solve murder mysteries with his resurrected childhood sweetheart 'Chuck' (Anna Friel), a skeptical private investigator and a lovesick waitress. The highly acclaimed, award-winning series was a victim of the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike, killing its first season momentum before the second, and final, season finally aired.
Michael in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)
Miss Pettigrew (Frances McDormand), a poor governess, ends up as a social secretary for singer Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams). Her job is to make sure that Lafosse lands a West End role, which Lafosse has been trying to get by sleeping with inept producer and nightclub owner Nick (Mark Strong). Lafosse's single-mindedness leads to her overlooking her piano player Michael (Lee Pace), who loves her and wants to take her on the Queen Mary to New York.
Fernando Wood in Lincoln (2012)
Amid the cast of dozens, Pace plays Democratic Congressman Fernando Wood in the House of Representatives in the epic Lincoln. The film picks up in January 1865 and finds US President Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) focusing on having the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery, passed by the House of Representatives. The task is not an easy one, given that the Civil War still rages in the country. Director Steven Spielberg expertly follows Lincoln's historic efforts up to his death on April 14th, 1865.
Thranduil in The Hobbit Trilogy (2012-14)
The Hobbit Trilogy consists of three fantasy adventure films based on J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, where hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is convinced by Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to help Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and twelve of his fellow dwarves to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon, Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch). Pace's performance as Thranduil, the Elvenking of Mirkwood, was well received by fans and critics alike.
Ronan the Accuser in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy sees a team of misfits come together to keep the villainous Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) from using an Infinity Stone to destroy the planet Xandar. The movie itself is one of the oddest in the MCU (a talking raccoon and a walking tree gets you a reputation), so Pace's Ronan fits right in. He makes an excellent villain - his takedown and taunting of Drax (Dave Bautista) is near perfect, as is his look of bewilderment at Quill's (Chris Pratt) dance-off challenge.
Joe MacMillan in Halt and Catch Fire (2014-17)
Halt and Catch Fire follows a fictionalized insider's point of view of the onset of the personal computer in the 1980s up to the growth of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s. Pace plays entrepreneur Joe MacMillan, a former IBM employee heading a project to build an IBM PC clone for Cardiff Electric. MacMillan is aided by computer engineer Gordon (Scoot McNairy) and programmer Cameron (Mackenzie Davis). Sequential seasons see the creation of a startup company, an online community and the main characters involved in competing web search engines.
Dale in The Party’s Just Beginning (2018)
24-year-old Liusaidh (Karen Gillan) is a Scottish woman who copes with the suicide of her best friend by binge-drinking and engaging in casual sex. She meets Dale (Lee Pace), a stranger at a bar and over a number of days has sex with him before he leaves. One night, she finds the man about to kill himself. She successfully talks him down, and they spend some time together before he leaves yet again. She continues to spiral downwards, almost ending her own life, before deciding to take control and lead a normal life again.
Brother Day in Foundation (2021-Present)
Loosely based on the works of Isaac Asimov, Foundation is set far in the future, where The Empire rules the galaxy. A group of exiles learns that several millennia of destruction and chaos lie ahead for The Empire, as predicted by psycho-historian Hari Seldon (Jared Harris). In order to offet the oncoming disaster, they must defy The Empire now. Pace plays Brother Day, a clone of Cleon I who reigns as Emperor of The Empire.
Greg in Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
The blackly humorous, satirical film features a group of people, including Pace as Greg, at a 'hurricane party' held at a mansion, and as the hurricane descends the group start drinking, dancing, and doing drugs. They then start playing 'Bodies Bodies Bodies', a murder in the dark-style game. The game does not go well, and one of the guests storms off. He is found dead, his throat slashed, and the evening devolves into suspicions, accusations, and more deaths.
