--- name: "Ellar Coltrane" canonical: "https://film.one/person/ellar-coltrane" fi1m_id: "ellar-coltrane" imdb_id: "nm1294664" tmdb_id: 931944 wikidata_id: "Q16728806" roles: ["Actor"] born: "27 August 1994" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-17T23:52:57.929982+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Ellar Coltrane ## Identity Ellar Coltrane - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/ellar-coltrane - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** ellar-coltrane - **IMDb ID:** nm1294664 - **TMDB ID:** 931944 - **Wikidata ID:** Q16728806 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellar_Coltrane, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16728806, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1294664/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/931944 Actor. Born 27 August 1994 in Austin, Texas, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 27 August 1994, Austin, Texas, USA - **Also known as:** Ellar Coltrane Kinney Salmon, Ellar Salmon - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellar_Coltrane, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16728806, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1294664/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/931944 ## Streaming the US now - **AMC+:** [*Boyhood*](https://film.one/film/boyhood.md) (88) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Ellar Coltrane > Ellar Coltrane gives *Boyhood* a watchfulness that keeps Mason’s childhood from feeling too neatly explained. We rate the performance highly, while recognising how much it owes to Richard Linklater’s patience and Sandra Adair’s editing. In *Boyhood* (2014), Ellar Coltrane watches the adults around Mason without always letting us know what he thinks of them. Richard Linklater gives him room to keep something to himself, even when he is the person we have come to see. We can watch the child without being told exactly what to make of him. The unusual shape of his career begins with a role that occupied much of his childhood. Linklater cast him at six, and filming continued intermittently from 2002 to 2013. Coltrane also had a small part in Linklater’s *Fast Food Nation* (2006) during that span. It is difficult to assess *Boyhood* as an ordinary early performance when the actor is changing physically alongside the character, and those changes account for so much of its effect. Adair’s editing matters as much to our response as Coltrane’s reserve. She lets years pass without turning each episode into an explanation of what Mason has learnt. We found his changing face unexpectedly painful, because recognising him after another jump in time also meant knowing that we would not see that younger child again. Linklater gets that feeling from ordinary ageing, without needing a catastrophe to make us care. Coltrane contributed ideas and material from his own life to Mason, which is worth remembering before treating the performance as simply a record of growing up. He is not always the most compelling person on screen beside Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke. A more forceful performance might hold our attention more reliably, but it would also make Mason easier to read than he needs to be. The later supporting parts in *Barry* (2016) and *The Circle* (2017), followed by a recurring television role in *The Good Lord Bird* (2020), have not displaced *Boyhood* as the centre of his reputation. We have less reason to make large claims for the rest of his work than to value what he and Linklater achieved together. Start with *Boyhood*, and give its quieter stretches time. ## Biography Ellar Coltrane is an American actor, born Ellar Coltrane Kinney Salmon on 27 August 1994 in Austin, Texas. He is best known for portraying Mason Evans Jr. in Richard Linklater's *Boyhood* (2014), a role filmed intermittently over twelve years from 2002 to 2013. Coltrane began acting as a child, appearing in *Lone Star State of Mind* (2002) and *Fast Food Nation* (2006). Subsequent credits include *Barry* (2016), *The Circle* (2017) and *The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot* (2018). He was primarily homeschooled and received a GED. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Boyhood* (2014), Fi1m 88, as Mason — [page](https://film.one/film/boyhood.md) ## Complete filmography (20) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Weird Kidz* (2026), as Wyatt (Voice) - *El Fantasma* (2021), as Lee Harvey Oswald - *With Pleasure* (2021), as The Bar Fly - *Shoplifters of the World* (2021), as Ryan - *The Get Together* (2020), as Face Tattoo - *The Good Lord Bird* (2020), series, as Salmon Brown - *Summer Night* (2019), as Jameson - *The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot* (2019), as The Clerk - *The Last Movie Star* (2018), as Shane McAvoy - *Bodies of Water* (2018), as Marsh · Associate Producer - *Drowned* (2017), as Boy - *Blood Money* (2017), as Victor - *The Circle* (2017), as Mercer Regalado - *The End of Decay* (2017), as Ben - *Barry* (2016), as Will - *Boyhood* (2014), as Mason — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/boyhood.md) - *Hallettsville* (2009), as Young Tyler - *Fast Food Nation* (2006), as Jay Anderson - *Faith & Bullets* (2005), as Thomas Chaney Jr. - *Lone Star State of Mind* (2002), as Young Earl ## Gallery - ![Director Richard Linklater and actor Ellar Coltrane shared their experiences in the making of Boyhood at the LBJ Presidential Library on April 27, 2015.](https://film.one/media/person/121075/gallery-4a8f010c25c0.jpg) Director Richard Linklater and actor Ellar Coltrane shared their experiences in the making of Boyhood at the LBJ Presidential Library on April 27, 2015. — Lauren Gerson, LBJ Library Photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/DIG13743-127_%2816684742103%29.jpg/1280px-DIG13743-127_%2816684742103%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Director Richard Linklater and actor Ellar Coltrane shared their experiences in the making of the groundbreaking film, "Boyhood", with Friends of the LBJ Librar (2015)](https://film.one/media/person/121075/gallery-e94aa4295718.jpg) Director Richard Linklater and actor Ellar Coltrane shared their experiences in the making of the groundbreaking film, "Boyhood", with Friends of the LBJ Librar (2015) — LBJ Library, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Ellar_Coltrane_13743-109.jpg/1280px-Ellar_Coltrane_13743-109.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Ellar Coltrane](https://film.one/media/person/121075/gallery-94efd1839fd6.jpg) Ellar Coltrane — LBJ Foundation, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Ellar_Coltrane_2015.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Ellar Coltrane nel 2013](https://film.one/media/person/121075/gallery-2487e19f6bcc.jpg) Ellar Coltrane nel 2013 — Katie Baldock: Red shoes by the drugstore., CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Ellar_Coltrane_in_2013.jpg/1280px-Ellar_Coltrane_in_2013.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Ellar Coltrane](https://film.one/media/person/121075/gallery-896843c5da50.jpg) Ellar Coltrane — Image via TMDB - ![Ellar Coltrane](https://film.one/media/person/121075/gallery-8b2d85d18348.jpg) Ellar Coltrane — Image via TMDB - ![Richard Linklater e Ellar Coltrane nel 2013](https://film.one/media/person/121075/gallery-1b414061fb85.jpg) Richard Linklater e Ellar Coltrane nel 2013 — Red shoes by the drugstore., CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Richard_Linklater_and_Ellar_Coltrane_in_2013.jpg/1280px-Richard_Linklater_and_Ellar_Coltrane_in_2013.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ellar-coltrane