10 Best/Worst Nicolas Cage Movie Hairstyles, Ranked

With the recent news that Nicolas Cage has been cast to play Joe Exotic in an upcoming and untitled 8-part miniseries, one can’t help but think about the physical transformation Cage will undergo to play such a wildly colorful character. And given Cage’s follicular film history, all eyes turn to the flowing Joe Exotic hairstyle Cage will don when the series premieres sometime in 2021-22.

In the 100 or so screen credits he’s amassed since 1981, Cage has sported some of the most dubiously awesome hairstyles in cinematic history. Blonde, black, red, brown, short, long, cropped, teased, permed, and primped – Nicolas Cage has left no haircut untried over the course of his four-decade career.

10 Little Junior Brown – Kiss Of Death (1995)

In the same year he turned in his Oscar-winning performance for Leaving Las Vegas, Cage put on roughly 30-pounds of muscle to play the heavy in the box-office bomb Kiss of Death, a remake of the 1947 film-noir of the same name.

In addition to the thinly balding but tight-cropped hairdo that Cage has rarely sported before or after, what really rounds out the style is the heavy goatee and perfectly trimmed soul-patch. It’s a wispy borderline combover that Cage is unaccustomed to wearing.

9 Randy – Valley Girl (1983)

The second theatrical release of Cage’s career belongs to Valley Girl, a teen comedy in which his glorious 19-year-old hairline pops with youthful exuberance. Judging by the picture above, it’s almost as if Cage is sporting a Davey Crocket hat atop his head.

Cage plays Randy in the film, a big-city punk who also sports neon blue and pink hair-dye while constantly changing his style. When Randy meets small-town valley girl Julie (Deborah Foreman), they are forced to confront their own comfortable social circles and accept one another for who they truly are.

8 Johnny Collins – Zandalee (1991)

In a style he wouldn’t duplicate for another 17 years in Bangkok Dangerous, Cage first introduced the flowing jet-black mane in the little-known 1991 film Zandalee. Notice the bohemian painterly goatee Cage accessorizes the hairstyle with.

Cage stars as Johnny Collins in the film, an artist who strikes up an affair with Zandalee (Erika Anderson) in sweaty New Orleans, the wife of his former friend and worn-out poet, Thierry (Judge Reinhold). As the affair escalates, a harrowing love triangle leads to unforeseen consequences.

7 Charlie/Donald Kaufman – Adaptation (2002)

The only thing better, or worse, than living with a frilly ginger perm is having two wear it twice in the same film as twin characters. Such is the case for Cage in Adaptation, in which he plays writer Charlie Kaufman and his fictitious twin brother, Donald.

Despite the haircut, Cage earned his second and most-recent Academy Award nomination for his performance in the acclaimed meta-dramedy.

6 Fu Manchu – Grindhouse (2007)

With all due respect to Cage’s lush hairline in Birdy, it’s a little too similar to the coiffed-cut he wore in Valley Girl. Instead, the next honor goes out to the wild and unwashed style Cage wore as Fu Manchu in the Grindhouse faux-trailer, Werewolf Women of the S.S.

Directed by Rob Zombie, the fake trailer pays homage to series of 70s sexploitation films beginning with Ilsa, She-Wolf of the S.S. in 1975. Cage goes ballistic in the scene wearing a mustache long beard named after his character, Fu Manchu.

5 Johnny Blaze – Ghost Rider (2007)

Although he changed it up for the superhero movie sequel, Cage’s spiky black hair in the first Ghost Rider film is unlike any we’ve seen the actor boast onscreen before or since. Throw in the clean-shaven facade and black leather and Cage has rarely looked cooler.

Ghost Rider tells the origin story of Johnny Blaze, a daring motorcyclist who makes a deal with the Devil following a brutal accident. In exchange for sparing his father’s life, the Devil appoints Blaze as Ghost Rider, a supernatural hunter out to exact revenge on his evil behalf.

4 Acid Yellow – Sonny (2002)

In an obscure indie crime movie that he directed himself called Sonny, Cage outfitted his head with a wig-full of shaggy blonde curls. Even stranger, Cage plays a character named Acid Yellow.

Plot-wise, the story follows Sonny (James Franco), a PTSD-ridden U.S. soldier who returns to a life of limited opportunity in his home time of New Orleans, Louisiana. Reluctant to work in his mother’s brothel, Sonny finds solace in Carol (Mena Suvari), a new recruit at the bordello. With a matching handle-bar mustache, Cage appears in a hallucinatory stupor Sonny experiences while on drugs (hence the blurriness).

3 H.I. McDunnough – Raising Arizona (1987)

Fun fact: Joel and Ethan Coen modeled the appearance of H.I. McDunnough (Cage) in Raising Arizona on the classic cartoon character Woody Woodpecker. The untamable hair often comes with thick mutton chops during and becomes more out of control as the film unfolds. H.I. even wears a Woody Woodpecker-like tattoo on his arm.

Upon learning they cannot bear children, H.I. and his wife Edwina (Holly Hunter) hatch a scheme to steal a newborn baby from a large family brood of infants. When the plot backfires, the two find themselves on the run from the law as well as an apocalyptic biker named Leonard Smalls (Randall “Tex” Cobb).

2 Cameron Poe – Con Air (1997)

The flowing sandy blonde locks Cage decided to wear in Con Air has become the stuff of cinematic legend. Throw in the salt-and-pepper stubble and the strained southern accent and the legend only grows.

In the star-studded action blockbuster, Cage stars as Cameron Poe, a good-hearted Army Ranger forced to join an airplane full of the world’s most dangerous convicts after accidentally killing a man in a bar-fight. When the cons take over the plane with plans to flee the country, Poe takes it upon himself to save the day.

1 Eddie – Deadfall (1993)

The 1993 crime film Deadfall not only features one of Cage’s most alarming hairstyles, but it’s also unanimously hailed as the craziest character Cage has ever played. He reprised the role of Eddie King in the 2017 sequel entitled Arsenal. Aside from the shiny black ducktail, check out the thin pencil-stache Eddie proudly wears.

Directed by Cage’s brother Christopher Coppola, Deadfall traces Joe (Michael Biehn), a small-time hood who tries to carry out his father’s final wish after accidentally killing him during a sting operation. With the help of his father’s twin brother and the insane criminal Eddie, Joe vows to make things right.