David Harbour’s Best Roles Before and After Stranger Things

Finn Wolfhard. Maya Hawke. Sadie Sink. Joe Keery.

Stranger Things has provided a treasure trove of new young talent, introducing the world to the next generation of stars. But the most interesting breakout may not be one of the kids we first met in Hawkins, Indiana. Rather, it’s a guy who was in his 40s when the first season aired, who had more than two decades of experience before getting the part.

I’m referring to David Harbour, whose performance as Jim Hopper transformed him from a reliable that guy to a beloved character actor. Harbour brings a gruff likability and a blue collar charm to his roles before and after Hopper, so let’s take a look at some of his best work beyond Stranger Things.

Randall Malone, Brokeback Mountain (2005)

One of Harbour’s first film roles came in the powerful romantic Western Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee and written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, based on the short story by Annie Proulx. Harbour plays Randall Malone, a closeted gay man who seems to have everything that Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) wants: a wife, respectability, and a way to meet other like-minded men in Mexico.

Harbour has limited screen time as Malone, but the way he shifts from gregariousness in public to sublime sadness when alone with Jack underscores the central tragedy of the film. Randall may seem like he’s got it all figured out, but even he isn’t happy in the limited life society allows him.

Shep Campbell, Revolutionary Road (2008)

Based on the novel by Richard Yates, Sam Mendes‘ Revolutionary Road was promoted as a reunion for Titanic lovers Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. However, writer Justin Haythe contrast the tragic, timeless love of that film with suburban ennui, casting the stars as perpetual unhappy postwar couple Frank and April Wheeler.

As the Wheelers seek satisfaction beyond their green lawns, they are joined by neighbors Shep and Milly Campbell, played by Harbour and Kathryn Hahn. The Campbells represent both a possibility and escape and a reminder of the Wheeler’s stultifying existence, which gives Harbour and Hahn some room to play dark comedy, despite the bleak tone that Mendes emphasizes.

Gregg Beam, Quantum of Solace (2008)

Quantum of Solace has the unenviable task of following up the excellent James Bond reboot Casino Royale, a task made harder by studios driving writers to go on strike. The result is a mess of a film, terribly directed by Marc Forster, which squanders the energy of Daniel Craig‘s first outing as 007.

One thing that does work is Harbour’s small role as Gregg Beam, a colleague of Bond’s CIA counterpart Felix Leiter. Where much of Craig’s James Bond run put pathos over humor, Harbour brought levity to Beam. His sarcastic line deliveries make Quantum of Solace briefly fun, a rare oasis of pleasure in a pretty dire flick.

Roger Anderson, Pan Am (2011-2012)

Harbour must have taken notes during Quantum of Solace, because a few years later, he got to play a British spy in the swingin’ sixties. ABC’s Temu Mad Men show Pan Am focused on the pilots and stewardesses of a plane operated by the titular airline. Amongst the many unlikely plot lines in the series’ first and only season were those involving special agent Roger Anderson, played by Harbour.

Let’s be completely honest here. Harbour does not play a convincing English superspy, and is only marginally more believable when Anderson is revealed to be a KGB agent. But Harbour wears the miscasting well, somehow still having fun with the goofy plot, even if some of the laughs come at his character’s expense.

Elliot Hirsch, The Newsroom (2012-2014)

After The West Wing, the excellent show about smug centrist liberals doing the most important job ever, and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a terrible show about smug centrist liberals doing the most important job ever, Aaron Sorkin created The Newsroom, a series about smug centrist liberals working on a nightly network news show, the most important job ever. Where most of the show follows principled maverick Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) and his staff, Harbour has a reoccuring guest role as McAvoy’s former co-anchor Elliott Hirsch.

With McAvoy speaking for/at the people, Hirsch often feels like a simple foil, the guy who chooses the status quo instead of the truth. And the series does put Hirsch through the wringer, including a storyline in which he gets beat up outside his hotel room. But Harbour knows how to keep the audience on the side of his stuffed shirt of a character, even when the show wishes we weren’t.

Hellboy, Hellboy (2019)

Okay, let’s get this out of the way up top: the 2019 Hellboy is very bad. Worse, it casts Harbour in the title role instead of bringing back a pitch-perfect Ron Perlman for a third outing. But here’s the thing: Harbour’s just as good as Hellboy, bringing a different take to Mike Mignolia’s Right Hand of the Apocalypse/working stiff.

Where Perlman played Anung un Rama as perpetually tired of anything that wasn’t a cat or a pancake or Liz Sherman, Harbour’s Hellboy has a bit more youth and spark. That doesn’t mean he’s thrilled to deal with a pig fairy or the Baba Yaga. But he’s quicker with a biting remark and more ready for action, allowing Harbour’s version to stand alongside the fan favorite portrayed by Perlman, despite being in a much weaker movie.

Santa Claus, Violent Night (2022)

Like Hellboy, Violent Night doesn’t work as a movie, but gets a lot of help by casting Harbour in the lead. Here, Harbour plays Viking warrior Nicomund the Red, forced to atone for his cruelty by spending eternity giving gifts and spreading joy as Santa Claus. Santa does his job well, but when a group of burglars (lead by John Leguizamo as “Scrooge”) break into a house and threaten a young girl named Trudy (Leah Brady), he recovers his brutal tendencies to save the day.

Violent Night is a fun romp whenever it lets Harbour smack around baddies by using Yultide magic. However, director Tommy Wirkola and writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller devote way too much screentime to cute little moppet Trudy and Scrooge’s crew, dragging down the film. But none of that takes away from Harbour’s infectuous performance at the center.

Eric Frankenstein, Creature Commandos (2024)

As this list demonstrates, Harbour excels at getting the audience to sympathize with unlikable characters. By that measure, his greatest accomplishment might be winning the viewers over to one of fiction’s greatest monsters, reimagined as Eric Frankenstein in James Gunn‘s animated DCU series Creature Commandos.

Like Mary Shelley’s creation, Eric just wants his maker Victor Frankenstein (Peter Serafinowicz) to give him a mate. But when the Bride (Indira Varma) rejects him, Eric doesn’t destroy the lab like in Bride of Frankenstein, nor does he take the hint and go away. Instead, he endlessly pursues the Bride over generations, and eventually to the world of superheroes when his beloved becomes a member of Task Force M. Harbour doesn’t paper over the fact that Eric is essentially an unkillable incel, neither does he downplay any of the character’s hilariously pathetic lines, making him one of the more complicated parts on this list.

Red Guardian, Thunderbolts* (2025)

Delightful as he is as Eric Frankenstein, Harbour’s best superhero role remains the one he plays for the Marvelous competition, Alexei Shostakov better known as the Soviet super soldier Red Guardian. First introduced in Black Widow, Alexei is an utter buffoon, a gregarious man too in love with his own legend to fully accept that his government betrayed him and put him in a gulag, let alone the harm he’s done to his pseudo-family.

Unsurprisingly, Harbour plays Alexei’s lovable goofball side with ease. But in Thunderbolts*, he discovers the sadness that dwells under the character’s lovable exterior. Paired with an excellent Florence Pugh as his daughter Yelena, Harbour makes Alexei more than a big dumb idiot, turning the Red Guardian into a full-realized person.