The Role — Landry Clarke
Landry Clarke began as comic relief and ended as one of the most quietly beloved characters on Friday Night Lights. Bookish, deadpan, and devoted to his alternative-metal band Crucifictorious, Landry was the best friend of backup-quarterback-turned-hero Matt Saracen — the kid on the margins of Dillon’s football religion who improbably talked his way onto the Panthers roster. Plemons played him with a guileless decency that made even the show’s riskiest storyline land.
That storyline — the second-season arc in which Landry kills a man assaulting Tyra Collette and then conceals it — remains one of the most debated swings in the series. Whatever viewers thought of the plot, the consensus on Plemons was unanimous: a teenager could carry guilt, longing, and dry humor in the same scene without ever tipping into caricature. It was the first real signal of how far his range would stretch.
Before Dillon
Born April 2, 1988, in Dallas and raised in the small town of Mart, Texas, near Waco, Jesse Plemons had been working as a child actor for years before Friday Night Lights, appearing in commercials and small film and television roles. He was a teenager when he was cast as Landry — one of the genuine Texas locals in an ensemble built to feel authentically of its place. The part was meant to be minor. It became the launchpad for one of his generation’s most respected screen careers.
After Friday Night Lights
Few FNL alumni have traveled further from the Dillon bench. Plemons turned a recurring role as the chillingly blank Todd Alquist on Breaking Bad (2012–2013) into a breakout, then earned an Emmy nomination as butcher Ed Blumquist in the acclaimed second season of Fargo (2015). More Emmy recognition followed for the Black Mirror standout “USS Callister” (2017) and the true-crime miniseries Love & Death (2023).
On film he became a fixture for major directors: Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master (2012), the comedy Game Night (2018), and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), plus Alex Garland’s Civil War (2024). His turn as the wounded, watchful George Burbank in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog (2021) brought an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 2024 he won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his triple performance in Yorgos Lanthimos’s Kinds of Kindness — a remarkable arc for an actor first discovered, almost by accident, on a high-school sideline.
Selected Filmography
- Friday Night Lights — Landry Clarke2006–2011
- The Master2012
- Breaking Bad — Todd Alquist2012–2013
- Fargo — Ed Blumquist2015
- Black Mirror: “USS Callister”2017
- Game Night2018
- The Power of the Dog2021
- Love & Death2023
- Killers of the Flower Moon2023
- Civil War2024
- Kinds of Kindness2024
Find Jesse Plemons Online
Jesse Plemons is known for keeping a notably low public profile and is not an active social-media presence. We were unable to confirm an officially verified Instagram, X/Twitter, Facebook, or personal website, so we link only his verified references above and omit any account we could not authenticate.