What followed was a sequence of brilliant performances in films such as Everyone Says I Love You (1996), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), American History X (1998), Rounders (1998), and Fight Club (1999). It is one of Hollywood’s most remarkable strings of performances by an actor in such a short period.

Norton’s pace of film appearances dropped off in the years that followed, but the controversy about his presence increased. He was frequently unhappy with his scripts and would often rewrite them while the film was in production. This was particularly true of The Incredible Hulk (2008), in which he rewrote almost the entire movie while it was in production. Needless to say, while he may have improved the script, this didn’t endear him to the screenwriter, Zak Penn. Norton is always, always a compelling screen presence.