Jonathan Edward Bernthal (; born September 20, 1976) is an American actor. Beginning his career in the early 2000s, he came to prominence for portraying Shane Walsh on the AMC horror series The Walking Dead (2010–2012; 2018), where he was a starring cast member in the first two seasons. Bernthal achieved further recognition as Frank Castle / Punisher in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) television series Daredevil (2016) and The Punisher (2017–2019).
His film roles include Snitch (2013), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Fury (2014), Sicario (2015), The Accountant (2016), Baby Driver (2017), Wind River (2017), Widows (2018), Ford v Ferrari (2019), Those Who Wish Me Dead, King Richard, and The Many Saints of Newark (all 2021).
Early life
Jonathan Edward Bernthal was born in Washington, D.C. on September 20, 1976, to a Jewish family. He is the son of Joan Lurie (née Marx) and Eric Lawrence "Rick" Bernthal, a former lawyer with Latham & Watkins LLP and chair of the board of directors for The Humane Society of the United States until 2019. His paternal grandfather was musician and producer Murray Bernthal (1911–2010). He has two brothers: Nicholas, an orthopedic surgeon and professor at UCLA, and Thomas, a consulting agency CEO who is married to billionaire and former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. His cousin was rock musician Adam Schlesinger (1967–2020).
Bernthal grew up in Cabin John, Maryland. He attended the Sidwell Friends School, graduating in 1995. He has often described his younger self as a "troublemaker". After high school, he studied at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, but dropped out. On the advice of his acting teacher, Alma Becker, he joined the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia. During his time there, he was a catcher for a Russian professional baseball team.
Career
2002–2009: Early career
Bernthal was discovered while at the Moscow Art Theatre by the executive director of Harvard University's Institute for Advanced Theater Training at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts; he studied there as a graduate-level certificate student and completed his studies in 2002. After graduating he moved to New York City to pursue a career in theater. He is a method actor.
Since 2002, Bernthal has performed in over thirty plays regionally and Off-Broadway, including many with his own theater company, the now defunct Fovea Floods. He also had small guest roles in multiple television series, such as Boston Legal, CSI: Miami and How I Met Your Mother.
Bernthal relocated to Los Angeles in 2006. He booked his first regular role on a television series with the CBS sitcom The Class; the show was canceled after one season. He had roles in films, such as Day Zero and World Trade Center.
2009–2015: Breakthrough
Television and The Walking Dead: 2009–2013
In 2009, Bernthal was a series regular on the ABC television series Eastwick, and starred alongside actress Jaime Ray Newman (his future co-star in The Punisher); Eastwick was canceled after one season. In 2010, Bernthal portrayed Sgt. Manuel Rodriguez on the HBO miniseries The Pacific.
Bernthal found critical success portraying Shane Walsh in Frank Darabont's The Walking Dead, based on the comic book series of the same name. He was a regular on the show until 2012 and was nominated for the Breakout Performance – Male Award at the 2011 Scream Awards. Bernthal reunited with Darabont for the TNT series Mob City, in which he played LAPD Detective Joe Teague, a police officer working in a corrupt 1940s Los Angeles, which was cancelled after one season.
During this period, Bernthal had supporting roles in the 2009 fantasy film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian as mobster Al Capone and Roman Polanski's thriller film The Ghost Writer. He also appeared in the 2011 Woody Harrelson feature Rampart. He guest starred in episodes of television shows such as Numbers and Harry's Law. In 2011, Bernthal performed in the premiere of the dark comedy play Small Engine Repair. The play was critically acclaimed; critics praised Bernthal's performance for his "energy and wit" and he was nominated for an Ovation Award. After its world premiere run Small Engine Repair was transferred Off-Broadway by MCC Theater with Bernthal signing on to reprise his role. However, filming commitments made Bernthal withdraw from the play and he was replaced by James Badge Dale.