The best David Harbour movies and TV shows tell a story of patience paying off, as years of commitment to delivering strong performances eventually led to the fame the actor currently enjoys over three decades after his debut. Born in New York in 1975, David Harbour became a household name thanks to his performance as Hopper in Stranger Things, which debuted in 2016. However, this was far from Harbour’s first role, as he began his career as an actor in 1994, spending years on stage in theatrical productions before his TV debut.

1999 marked David Harbour’s first on-screen appearance, playing a Law & Order. It was in 2004 that he landed his first role in a feature film, director Bill Condon’s biographical drama Kinsey. However, from there, Harbour’s career started to gain momentum, with each new appearance on the big and small screen drawing evermore attention to his name. The best David Harbour movies and TV shows highlight just how important patience is for many actors, as the majority come from later in his career - however, even his earliest appearances are strong, and many are just as noteworthy as the likes of Stranger Things and Black Widow.

10 Brokeback Mountain (2005)

David Harbour Plays Randall Malone

While it’s arguably a stronger film all round than many others in the actor’s filmography, his relative lack of screen time means it would be disingenuous to rank Brokeback Mountain that highly among the best David Harbour movies and TV shows. His character, Randall Malone, is outwardly a family man. However, in private, he’s struggling with having to hide his sexuality - a side of himself he only gets to express during a brief affair with Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal).

David Harbour has very little screentime in Brokeback Mountain, and the 2005 film from Life of Pi director Ang Lee marks his third ever appearance in a feature film. However, Harbour managed to shine in every scene in which Randall Malone appeared. It was a strong early indicator of just how talented the future Stranger Things and Black Widow star truly is, and his performance makes Brokeback Mountain more than deserving of its place among the best David Harbour movie appearances.

9 Hellboy (2019)

David Harbour Plays Hellboy

The 2019 Hellboy reboot is a divisive and incredibly intriguing entry among the best David Harbour movies and TV shows. On the one hand, there are many fans of both the movie and its star who believe it’s among Harbour’s best work. On the other, there are undoubtedly those who believe it’s a project best forgotten for the best of both the franchise and Harbour’s career. However, given his prominence and the fact he’s in the lead role, it’s only fitting that it’s counted when it comes to his most notable movies and TV shows.

Based on the Dark Horse Comics franchise of the same name, Hellboy sees Harbour take on the role of Hellboy, a child of the Devil himself who, once he arrives on Earth as a baby, is raised to become its greatest protector from the forces of darkness. Despite the reviews, David Harbour did the character of Hellboy justice. The awkward-seeming performance that put off many critics was true to the character, because Hellboy himself is incredibly awkward. The movie may have been panned on release, but it still serves as an example of how David Harbour can step into the shoes of even the most difficult-to-portray characters.

8 Creature Commandos (2024)

David Harbour Plays Eric Frankenstein

David Harbour has taken on several voice acting roles across his career, including the part of Tajin in Star Wars: Visions, and his MCU character, Red Guardian, in What If…? However, there’s only one example of his voice acting talents worthy of being counted among the best David Harbour movies and TV shows - Eric Frankenstein in the 2024 DCU animated series Creature Commandos.

Based on the DC comics series of the same name, Creature Commandos focuses on a team of unlikely heroes, many of whom are loosely based on classic horror-movie monsters. David Harbours Eric Frankenstein is a reanimated corpse heavily inspired by the monster in Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein novel. He is intelligent, yet still driven by rage and anger. It’s a nuanced character that David Harbour plays incredibly well, and he manages to stand out even in a cast that includes voice-acting legends like Alan Tudyk.

7 Gran Turismo (2023)

David Harbour Plays Jack Salter

The 2023 video game adaptation Gran Turismo - based on a true story which saw top players of the racing game franchise have the chance to become real-life drivers on the professional circuit - wasn’t as well received as Sony Pictures perhaps expected. However, it did feature some incredible performances from the cast, among them David Harbour as the GT Academy instructor Jack Salter.

While not the most acclaimed project the Stranger Things star has appeared in, his performance ensures that Gran Turismo is inarguably worthy of being counted among the best David Harbour movies. Of particular note is his chemistry with co-star Archie Madekwe, who plays GT Academy graduate Jann Mardenborough. While the movie itself was considered underwhelming by many critics, the performances of Harbour and Madekwe in their scenes together were undeniable highlights. What’s more, his role in Gran Turismo displayed a side of David Harbour’s range as an actor that few other entries among his best movies and TV shows allowed.

6 End Of Watch (2012)

David Harbour Plays Van Ha

While David Harbour doesn’t lead the cast of director David Ayer’s 2012 action thriller End of Watch, he does give one of the strongest performances among the cast. This was no easy feat either, since he was sharing a screen with the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal and Michale Pena. David Harbour plays LAPD Office Van Ha in End of Watch, a tireless veteran cop who finds himself murdered by one of the criminals he and his rookie partner, Officer Sook (Kristy Wu) are pursuing.

David Harbour's performance stands out due to the fact that the script of End of Watch assigned Van Ha some incredibly meaningful monologues. These include a moment when he has to give a speech to his fellow officers, and in doing so manages to perfectly capture the emotional toll the job takes on them all. While his screen time may have been limited in End of Watch, David Harbour ensured every minute he appeared counted, easily securing it as one of the best movie performances of his career.

5 The Equalizer (2014)

David Harbour Plays Frank Masters

The Equalizer is regarded by many as being one of the best action movies of the 2010s, and one of the highlights of the career of both leading man Denzel Washington and co-star Chloë Grace Moretz. However, it was also one of the best pre-Stranger Things performances for David Harbour, who appears as antagonist and corrupt cop Frank Masters.

However, while The Equalizer is one of the best David Harbour movies, it’s also something of a double-edged sword when it comes to his career. He delivered an amazing performance as Frank Masters. Yet, when it comes to the movie’s legacy, he was somewhat overshadowed by Denzel Washington, Chloe Grace Moretz, and the action sequences conceived by director Antoine Fuqua. Still, fans of his work after discovering David Harbour in the likes of Stranger Things and Black Widow will find his appearance in The Equalizer incredibly satisfying on a re-watch.

4 No Sudden Move (2021)

David Harbour Plays Matt Wertz

In 2021, David Harbour appeared as one member of the phenomenal ensemble cast of director Steven Soderbergh’s crime thriller No Sudden Move. Harbour co-stars alongside the likes of Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, Jon Hamm, Brendan Fraser, Ray Liotta, and Kieran Culkin, to name a few. It’s a true testament to his skills as an actor that Harbour wasn’t overshadowed by any of them, and his performance as Matt Wertz is one of the most memorable in the entirety of No Sudden Move’s 115-minute runtime.

In No Sudden Move, David Harbour’s character, Matt Wertz, is an ant and family man who finds himself suddenly caught in a nightmare scenario. He and his family are taken hostage as part of a blackmailing scheme. Don Cheadle’s chilling antagonist, Curt Goynes, makes it painfully clear that if Wertz doesn’t comply, his family will be executed. The terror in David Harbour’s performance is palpable, and he commits to the role with an incredible level of authenticity that elevates the tension of the entire movie.

3 Violent Night (2022)

David Harbour Plays Santa Claus (AKA Nikamund the Red)

Directed by Tommy Wirkola, Violent Light represents one of the strangest films among the best David Harbour movies, though it’s also inarguably one of the funniest. The Christmas action comedy stars David Harbour as one of the best cinematic versions of Santa Claus in recent memory - and one of the most unique. Instead of being portrayed as a jolly and benevolent figure, Violent Night is a certified action hero who’s completely unafraid to spill blood, cause mayhem, and directly punish a group of adult criminals who find their way to his naughty list.

Despite the premise sounding somewhat gimmicky, Violent Night is an incredibly solid action movie that sured the expectations of critics and viewers alike. While this was in part down to the incredible action sequence involving many Home Alone-style traps, it was also directly due to the performance of David Harbour as the unique interpretation of Santa (as the film reveals, he was previously a Viking warrior).

2 Black Widow (2021)

David Harbour Plays Red Guardian

By the time Black Widow was released, dozens of actors and actresses had portrayed characters in the wide roster of heroes and villains in the MCU - with mixed results. However, David Harbour’s debut as Russian hero Red Guardian in 2021 can be counted among the success stories of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Set directly after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Black Widow focuses on Scarlet Johansson’s titular super-spy, Natasha Romanoff (AKA Black Widow) finally reconciling her pre-Avengers past.

This involves her meeting several Russian superheroes and Red Room agents, and among them is David Harbour’s Red Guardian, also known as Alexei Shostakov. The product of Soviet attempts to recreate the super-soldier science that created Captain America, Red Guardian is just as much comic relief as he is a source of fatherly for Black Widow. This balance and nuance ensured that he’d become an instant fan-favourite character, and the positive response to his introduction to the MCU wouldn’t have been possible with anyone else but David Harbour in the role.

1 Stranger Things (2016-Present)

David Harbour Plays Jim Hopper

Of all the best David Harbour movies and TV shows, none feature a performance as strong as his portrayal of Hawkins’ police chief David Hopper in Stranger Things. While it came relatively late in his career, the Netflix mystery show Stranger Things is inarguably Harbour’s defining role, and alongside Millie Bobby-Brown he’s considered one of the breakout stars of the show.

What’s more, it’s playing Stranger Things that landed the majority of the accolades and awards David Harbour has received in his career so far. These include winning a Critics Choice award for Best ing Actor in a Drama series in 2018, alongside a Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy, and Screen Actors Guild nomination in the same or similar categories the same year. While it may seem like the obvious choice for the best David Harbour movie or TV show given that it’s his most widely-known performance, it’s still undisputed that Stranger Things is the only logical choice for the top spot.