Hall had supporting roles in many films, including Midnight Run (1988), Say Anything... (1989), The Truman Show (1998), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), The Insider (1999), The Contender (2000), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), Zodiac (2007), 50/50 (2011), and Argo (2012).

He received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead for his role in Hard Eight and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture for Boogie Nights and Magnolia.

[2] He had recurring roles in The Practice, The West Wing, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Modern Family, and BoJack Horseman.

[3][4] His mother was Alice Birdene (née McDonald), and his father, William Alexander Hall, was a factory worker from Montgomery, Alabama.

"[13] Vincent Canby of The New York Times also praised Hall's "immense performance, which is as astonishing and risky ― for the chances the actor takes and survives ― as that of the Oscar-winning F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus.

"[14] In the 1980s, Hall co-starred in various films in supporting roles, including Nothing in Common (1986), Midnight Run (1988), Say Anything... and Ghostbusters II (both 1989).

For the film, Hall played a senior gambler who mentors a homeless man (John C. Reilly).

He is a man who has been around, who knows casinos and gambling, who finds himself attached to three people he could easily have avoided, who thinks before he acts.

He was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

[17] Hall had turns in a variety of films in the 1990s, including The Rock, The Truman Show, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and The Insider.