It’s never been a bad time to be a Lee Pace fan, but all of a sudden—some two decades into the tall, handsome, dramatic (yet quirky!) actor’s career—he is seemingly everywhere. With some high-profile projects on the horizon and an impressive list of films and TV already logged on his resume, we’re rounding up our favorites among his sci-fi, fantasy, and horror projects.
Brother Day, Foundation
Across three seasons of the Apple TV+ Isaac Asimov adaptation, Pace has played Brother Day, filling the middle-aged spot in an ever-rotating trio of cloned rulers, all named Cleon. This means that we’ve seen Pace play multiple iterations of Brother Day, including an ambitious deceiver, a campy warmonger, and a lovelorn drug addict. It’s the same man in appearance only, and that allows Pace the chance to explore all the nuances (and hairstyles) that make Cleon such a complex character.
Season three’s shocking climax left Brother Day’s future uncertain, but Apple TV+ surely realizes Pace is a big reason why people tune into Foundation’s sci-fi dramatics, and we think Day will find a way to return.
Roy Walker/Black Bandit, The Fall
Set during the early days of Hollywood, Tarsem’s lush 2006 fantasy imagines that a stuntman (Pace) befriends a young girl when they’re both hospitalized. He entertains her with the epic tale of a bandit (also played by Pace) fighting an evil ruler, with characters in the made-up story portrayed as exaggerated versions of people in their real lives.
Gorgeous locations and visuals are (rightfully) what everyone remembers about The Fall, but amid its celebration of storytelling is a bleaker plot about Pace’s depressed character encouraging the little girl to help him steal morphine. In the years after its release, The Fall has become a cult classic—a designation helped along by the fact that until a 2024 4K restoration by Mubi, it was notoriously difficult to track down in either streaming or physical form.
Ronan the Accuser, Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel
Pace’s Marvel moment came playing Ronan the Accuser, a Kree warlord who menaces the Guardians of the Galaxy misfits and tries to claim one of Thanos’ Infinity Stones for his own use. That doesn’t go so well for him, but Pace’s performance was so memorable—he’s a villain, but he’s far from one-note—that it was a delight to see Ronan return (briefly) for a failed attempt at battling the Skrulls in 2019’s Captain Marvel, which takes place before the events of 2014’s Guardians.
Aaron, Wonderfalls
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