A hitman usually is an assassin who is hired to assassinate a target via contract killing. Christopher Dale Flannery: Reputed Australian hitman. Charles Harrelson: He had connections to organized crime, but was also freelance. He was the father of actor Woody Harrelson. In a similarly named 1997 film, Bruce Willis also portrays an assassin using the codename The Jackal.
A few portrayals of hit man have earned nominations or awards. In 1985 Jack Nicholson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing a hitman named Charley Partanna in Prizzi's Honor.
Javier Bardem played a ruthless assassin in search of a lost cache of money in the Coen Brothers' 2008 Academy Award-winning film No Country for Old Men.
In the film Collateral, actor Tom Cruise takes his turn as a hitman named Vincent takes a cabbie (Jamie Foxx) hostage and taken five stops to assassinate five witnesses going to trial for a man who hired Vincent....More >< Less