In 1985, Voight teamed up with Russian writer and director Andrei Konchalovsky to play the role of escaped con Manny Manheim in Runaway Train.

Voight described the process leading up to the episode in an interview on the Red Carpet at the 2006 BAFTA Emmy Awards:

McCauley's fence Nate ( Jon Voight ) sets up a meeting with Van Zant to sell the bonds back.

To ensure the bill's passage, National Security Agency official Thomas Reynolds ( Voight ) kills Hammersley, but he is unaware of a video camera set up by wildlife researcher Daniel Zavitz ( Lee ) that has captured the entire incident.

: After years of gestation, the idea for the Toonerville Trolley was born one day up in Westchester County when my wife and I had left New York City to visit Charlie Voight, the cartoonist, in the Pelhams.

She may be best known for her role in Midnight Cowboy as a hooker on a busman's holiday, who invites Joe Buck ( Jon Voight ) up to her apartment for sex, seemingly unaware that he is also a prostitute.

Four other actors ( Charles Bronson, Robert Duvall, James Garner, and Jon Voight ) were offered the role of Woodrow Call but declined for various reasons before the role fell to Tommy Lee Jones.

Waldo Salt was the subject of a 1990 documentary Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, which featured interviews with Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jon Voight, John Schlesinger and other collaborators and friends.

Voight gave critically acclaimed biographical performances during the 2000s ( decade ), appearing as sportscaster Howard Cosell in Ali ( 2001 ), as Nazi officer Jürgen Stroop in Uprising ( 2001 ), and as Pope John Paul II in the television miniseries of the same name ( 2005 ).

The film and the performances of Voight and co-star Burt Reynolds received great critical acclaim and were popular with audiences.

Fonda and Voight won an Academy Award for their performances.

In Variety magazine, Todd McCarthy wrote, " The director's visual and aural dapplings are strikingly effective at their best, but over the long haul don't represent a satisfactory alternative to in-depth dramatic scenes ; one longs, for example, for even one sequence in which Ali and Dundee discuss boxing strategy or assess an opponent ", but he did have praise for the performances: " The cast is outstanding, from Smith, who carries the picture with consummate skill, and Voight, who is unrecognizable under all the makeup but nails Cosell's distinctive vocal cadences ".

Starring Jane Fonda and Jon Voight, both in Academy Award-winning performances, it was for this film that Ashby earned his only Best Director nomination from the Academy for his work.

Voight came to prominence in the late 1960s with his performance as a would-be gigolo in Midnight Cowboy ( 1969 ).

In 1970 Voight appeared in Mike Nichols ' adaptation of Catch-22, and re-teamed with director Paul Williams to star in The Revolutionary, as a left wing college student struggling with his conscience.

This film first teamed him with the actor-director Maximilian Schell, who acted out a character named, and based on, " Butcher Of Riga " Eduard Roschmann, and for whom Voight would appear in 1976's End of the Game, a psychological thriller based on a story by Swiss novelist and playwright, Friedrich Dürrenmatt.

Voight, who was awarded Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, for his portrait of an embittered paraplegic, reportedly based on real-life Vietnam veteran-turned-anti-war activist Ron Kovic, with whom Fonda's character falls in love.

In 1979, Voight once again put on boxing gloves, starring in 1979's remake of the 1931 Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper vehicle, The Champ, with Voight playing the part of an alcoholic ex-heavyweight and a young Rick Schroder playing the role of his adoring son.

The script was based on a story by Akira Kurosawa, and paired Voight with Eric Roberts as a fellow escapee.

In 1989 Voight starred in and helped write Eternity, which dealt with a television reporter's efforts to uncover corruption.

The year 1997 was a busy time for Voight in which he appeared in six films, beginning with Rosewood, based on the 1923 destruction of the primarily black town of Rosewood, Florida, by the white residents of nearby Sumner.

Set in the Amazon, Voight played Paul Sarone, a snake hunter obsessed with a fabled giant anaconda, who hijacks an unwitting National Geographic film crew looking for a remote Indian tribe.

Voight was reunited with director Boorman in 1998's The General.

Produced by fledgling MTV Pictures, the film became a surprise hit and helped connect Voight with a younger audience.

On April 27, 2007, Voight spoke about criticism of George W. Bush in an interview with Bill O ' Reilly on The O ' Reilly Factor: " And they — what I hear, you know, talking about our president.

" In another interview in Miami with AventuraUSA. com, Voight said he first met Giuliani " years ago " at a movie premiere in New York City and the main reason for his support was Giuliani's public poise in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

" In a June 13, 2009, article, New York Times columnist Frank Rich said of Voight's speech, in which Voight called to " bring an end to this false prophet Obama ," that: " This kind of rhetoric, with its pseudo-Scriptural call to action, is toxic.

She won her second Oscar in 1978 for Coming Home, as a Marine officer's wife who volunteers at a veterans ' hospital and becomes involved with a disabled Vietnam War veteran ( played by Jon Voight ).

After seeing the Voight movie, Graham decided that it would have been better if there had been a bomb on board a bus with the bus being forced to travel at 20 mph to prevent an actual explosion.

The principal cast members are Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty, with both Cox and Beatty making their feature-film debuts.

The film was going to be directed by John Schlesinger who had worked with producer Hellman and Voight in Midnight Cowboy, but he left the project finding the material too alien to his background.

Jon Voight had been considered for the role of the husband, but after become involved with the film, he campaigned to play the paraplegic veteran.

William Hurt ( at Circle Rep Off-Broadway, memorably performing " To Be Or Not to Be " while lying on the floor ), Jon Voight at Rutgers, and Christopher Walken ( fiercely ) at Stratford CT have all played the role, as has Diane Venora at the Public Theatre.

Voight was raised as a Catholic, and attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York, where he first took an interest in acting, playing the comedic role of Count Pepi Le Loup in the school's annual musical, The Song of Norway.

Voight also took a small role in 1967's western, Hour of the Gun, directed by veteran helmer John Sturges.

In 1968 Voight took a role in director Paul Williams ' Out of It.

Voight was Steven Spielberg's first choice for the role of Matt Hooper in the 1975 blockbuster Jaws, but he turned down the role, which was ultimately played by Richard Dreyfuss.

Jane Fonda won her second Best Actress award for her role, and Voight won for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

For the remainder of the decade, Voight would alternate between feature films and television movies, including a starring role in the 1993 miniseries Return to Lonesome Dove, a continuation of Larry McMurtry's western saga, 1989's Lonesome Dove.

In 1995, Voight played a role in the film, Heat, directed by Michael Mann, and appeared in the television films Convict Cowboy, and The Tin Soldier, also directing the latter film.

Voight played the role of spymaster James Phelps, a role originated by Peter Graves in the television series.

Voight next appeared in a cameo role in Oliver Stone's U Turn, portraying a blind man.

Voight took a supporting role in The Rainmaker, adopted from the John Grisham novel and directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

The following year, Voight had the lead role in the television movie The Fixer, in which he played Jack Killoran, a lawyer who crosses ethical lines in order to " fix " things for his wealthy clients.

He also took a substantial role in Tony Scott's 1998 political thriller, Enemy of the State, in which Voight played Will Smith's stalwart antagonist from the NSA.

Voight next portrayed President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 2001's action / war film, Pearl Harbor, having accepted the role when Gene Hackman declined ( his performance was received favorably by critics ).

Director Michael Mann tagged Voight for a small but crucial role in the 2001 biopic Ali, which starred Will Smith as the controversial former heavyweight champ, Muhammad Ali.

In the critically acclaimed CBS miniseries Pope John Paul II, released in December 2005, Voight, who was raised a Catholic, portrayed the pontiff from the time of his election until his death, garnering an Emmy nomination for the role.

Also in 2007, Voight reprised his role as Patrick Gates in National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

In 2009, Voight played Jonas Hodges, the villain, in the seventh season of the hit Fox drama 24, a role that many argue is based on real life figures Alfried Krupp, Johann Rall and Erik Prince.