Donald Frank Cheadle Jr. is an American actor, author, director, producer and writer. Following early roles in Hamburger Hill (1987), and as the gangster "Rocket" in the film Colors (1988), he built his career in the 1990s with roles in Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), Rosewood (1997), and Boogie Nights (1997). His collaboration with director Steven Soderbergh resulted in the films Out of Sight (1998), Traffic (2000), and The Ocean's Trilogy (2001–2007).

He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his lead role as Rwandan hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina in the historical genocide drama film Hotel Rwanda (2004). From 2012 to 2016, he starred as Marty Kaan on the Showtime comedy series House of Lies; he won a Golden Globe Award in 2013 for the role. Since 2019, he has starred as Maurice Monroe in the Showtime series Black Monday, a role which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2019. He extended his global recognition with his role as the superhero War Machine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, replacing Terrence Howard, appearing in Iron Man 2 (2010), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).