25 Fictional Architects In Movies

Updated on January 11, 2022 in Architecture Humour

Image and source via DanStewart, Ajolote Boletin, Archinect, ArchiExplotion, and more. I’ve managed to add a few more based on original list, anymore? Barack Obama wanted to be an architect, so did Brat Pitt. You got to read this article – And now let us praise hot architects. Hollywood can’t get enough of them.

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“Architects once were portrayed as sophisticates and what has happened to them both in reality and on film is that they are now seen as just ordinary folk, kind of a hack or bumbler,” says one longtime San Francisco architect, who has observed that the field no longer attracts the best and the brightest because there are so many other avenues to be creative that are far more lucrative. Why is there always a drafting table and a t-square in most of these movies?

Fictional Architects In Movies
Paul Neuman in “The Towering Inferno”

Fictional Architects Master builders on the big screen
Keanu Reeves in “The Lake”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Steve Martin in “HouseSitter”

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Fictional Architects In Movies
Woody Harrelson in “Indecent Proposal”

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Michael Keaton in “White Noise”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Frank Gehry (Voice) in “The Simpsons”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Gary Cooper in “Fountainhead”

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Jude Law (Landscape Architect) in “Breaking and Entering”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Adam Sandler in “Click”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Liam Neeson in “Love Actually”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Wesley Sinipes in “Jungle Fever”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Luke Wilson in “My super Ex-Girlfriend”

Ashton Kutcher Butterfly Effect
Ashton Kutcher (Archi Student) in the “Butterfly Effect”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Matt Dillon in “You, Me and Drupree”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Tom Hanks in “Sleepless in Seattle”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Charles Bronson in “Death Wish”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Michelle Pfeiffer in “One fine Day”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Matt Dillon in “Something about Mary”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Tom Selleck in “Three man and a Baby”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Henry Fonda in “12 Angry Men”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Zach Braff in “The Last Kiss”

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Virginia Madsen in “Firewall”

Fictional Architects In Movies
Matthew Broderick in “The Cable Guy”

The author is not a CAD expert nor a web genius. Just another guy spending too much time online. The tutorials featured here are meant for basic level understanding.

43 Comments

  1. Richard Gere interpreted a successful architect in “Intersection” with Sharon Stone, a remake of the French film LES CHOSES DE LA VIE.

  2. Hi,

    two more: Kevin Kline in “House As A Life” and Ewan McGregor in “The Serpent’s Kiss”.

    It’s a really nice post anyway, thanks.

    • “Life As A House” :-)

      I love this movie. I’ll admit mostly because Hayden Christensen as a “neo”-goth is super hot but the story is great. Also the Architecture + Site = Amazing!

  3. Also –

    Jeff Bridges as Max Klein – “Fearless” (1993)
    Albert Finney as Mark Wallace – “Two For The Road” (1967)
    Kirk Douglas as Larry Coe – “Strangers When We Meet” (1960)
    Richard Gere as Vincent Eastman – “Intersection” (1994)

    Helmut Bakaitis as The Architect – “The Matrix Reloaded” (2003) – I know it doesn’t fit the ‘celluloid architect’ type since he isn’t really an architect but still worth a mention.

    • A smile like yours….1997—With Greg Kinnear, Lauren Holly, Joan Cusack, Jay Thomas. Greg Kinnear
      Return to Me…..2000——David Duchovny and Minnie Driver

  4. Mat Dillon played a fake architect in that movie, he just pretended to be one!

    Anyway this was an interesting post.

  5. not to forget Jason Alexander as George from ‘Seinfeld’ who “always wanted to pretend that he’s an architect”

  6. …. and most recently Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom in (500) Days of Summer. Tom studied architecture but didn’t realize his dream of practicing til Summer (or Autumn.)

  7. I seem to remember that Billy Crystal was an architect in “Sleepless in Seattle”? Or is old age just getting to me.

  8. Wilbur Post in Mr. Ed. He had the drafting board right there in Mr. Ed’s stable! Would you hire an architect who talked to his horse?

  9. Inception (2010) – Ellen Page, and pretty much every one else in that movie was an architect
    ex. Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon Levitt

  10. let’s not forget the latest additions Ellen Page and Lukas Haas as Ariadne and Nash, respectively as “Architects” from INCEPTION.

  11. John Cassavetes in “Tempest” (1982) is a New York architect going through a mid-life crisis. He drops out, moves to a Greek island and starts building a Greek theater, along with the help of his teenage daughter (Molly Ringwald in her film debut). The movie is loosely based on the Shakespeare play so there are many subplots, but the portrait of an architect and the beautiful Greek scenery in this movie are part of why I became an architect.

  12. i have installed archicad 12. running on demo mode i can’t save a project.Please send me only save file of archi cad 12.

  13. How about that – Steve Martin has played an architect twice, more recently in “It’s Complicated” with Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep. I think Steve Martin played an architect very well in this movie.

  14. As a graduate of architecture school, I don’t think it’s about other outlets of creativity being more “lucrative”. I became a graphic designer because it’s so much more creatively fulfilling. The truth about architecture that the schools don’t teach you until 4th year is that the profession is 5% designing, and 95% construction documents and paper work. There are so many other professions that are not only more lucrative, but so much more creatively fulfilling. Not only that, but I apply the same design strategies that I learned in architectural design to graphic design, and let me tell you, without the stress of the architecture position, I started having some real fun.

    • Jake – Yup, I think architecture has too many rules, regulation, restriction whereas other creative industry doesn’t. Maybe it is because architecture involves lives, comfort and the occupants are stuck with it for many many many years.

  15. Thanks for this collection…I have seen most of them. Also there was one obscure one, ‘Til There Was You (1997), with Dylan McDermott and Sarah Jessica Parker and Jeanne Tripplehorn.

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