12 Best Steve Carell Movies

'Kelly Clarkson!' The legendary scream during the infamous chest-waxing scene was improvised, and the pain was very real. Judd Apatow's breakthrough hit made Carell a star overnight. Instead of a cheap caricature, he made shy electronics store clerk Andy a disarmingly sweet, sympathetic character everyone roots for.

With a prosthetic nose, pale skin and an eerily slow way of speaking, Carell disappeared completely into the role of eccentric, unhinged millionaire John du Pont. His dynamic with wrestlers Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo is chillingly intense. The performance earned him a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Actor and silenced critics who saw him only as a comedian.

As the permanently agitated, morally outraged hedge fund manager Mark Baum, Carell serves as the angry conscience of Adam McKay's financial satire. The scenes in which he discovers in Las Vegas just how rotten the American banking system really is show Carell at the height of his dramatic powers.

Fresh out of the hospital after a suicide attempt, Frank Ginsberg, America's 'number one Proust scholar', climbs into his dysfunctional family's rickety yellow VW bus. Carell plays Frank with a beautiful mix of intellectual arrogance, deep depression and unexpected tenderness toward his nephew Dwayne. A masterclass in subtle tragicomic acting.

'I love lamp.' As the weatherman with an IQ of 48, Carell shamelessly stole every scene from his fellow comedians. His completely random remarks became instant pop culture classics. Without Brick Tamland, Anchorman would never have become the legendary comedy it is today.

When his high school sweetheart suddenly asks for a divorce, Cal Weaver sinks into New Balance sneakers and self-pity, until ladies' man Ryan Gosling decides to give him a total makeover. Carell switches effortlessly between painfully relatable heartbreak and sharp slapstick. The legendary backyard confrontation where all the storylines collide is one of the best-timed comic scenes of the decade.

'On a scale from one to ten, what do you think you are? I think you're a three.' Instead of the likable family man, Carell plays a toxic, passive-aggressive stepfather-to-be who systematically destroys an insecure teenager's self-confidence during a summer at the beach. A rare, refreshingly unlikable role proving how much venom Carell can hide beneath his jovial exterior.

Based on the memoirs of David and Nic Sheff, this gripping drama shows the devastating impact of methamphetamine addiction on a family. Carell plays the desperate journalist father obsessively searching for answers to save his son (Timothée Chalamet). His helpless grief and unconditional love cut deep.

Carell clearly enjoys himself as chauvinist tennis hustler Bobby Riggs, who in 1973 provoked the world by claiming that even at 55 he could beat any top female player. Opposite Emma Stone as Billie Jean King, Carell combines over-the-top media circus with a subtle portrait of a gambling addict fighting his own irrelevance.

As a widowed advice columnist who takes his three daughters to a chaotic family reunion, Dan falls head over heels for a woman in a bookstore, only to discover she's his brother's new girlfriend. This bittersweet film runs entirely on Carell's restrained charm, melancholy and musical talent on acoustic guitar.

Reunited with director Adam McKay, Carell plays cunning, booming-laughed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. When young Dick Cheney asks what they actually believe in, Rumsfeld bursts out laughing and slams the door. Carell captures Washington's cynical power politics with chilling flair.

With an indefinable Eastern European accent and a heart that slowly melts for three orphan girls, Carell brought Gru to life, one of the most beloved animated characters of this century. His comic timing and vocal range formed the foundation of a franchise that has grossed billions of dollars.