In addition to his work as musician, Helm also acted in several dramatic films. He was cast as Loretta Lynn's father in the 1980 film "Coal Miner's Daughter", followed three years later by a role as U.S. Air Force test pilot and engineer Capt. Jack Ridley, in "The Right Stuff". Helm was also the latter film's narrator. 1987's under-appreciated "End of the Line" featured Levon as a small-town railroad employee alongside Wilford Brimley and Kevin Bacon. He played a Kentucky backwoods preacher in "Fire Down Below". He played an eccentric old man in the 2005 film "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" and appeared as Gen. John Bell Hood in the 2009 film "In the Electric Mist". He also had a brief cameo as a weapons expert in the film "Shooter" with Mark Wahlberg.