Christopher Walken Biography
Summary
"Christopher Walken" (born March 31, 1943) is an Academy Award-winning American film and theatre actor.
Walken is a prolific actor who has spent more than 50 years on stage and screen. He has appeared in over 100 movie and television roles, including "The Deer Hunter", "The Dead Zone", "A View to a Kill", "At Close Range", "King of New York", "Batman Returns", "True Romance", "Pulp Fiction", "The Funeral" and "Catch Me If You Can", and in TV's "Kojak" and "The Naked City". Walken gained a cult following in the 1990s as the Archangel Gabriel in the first three "The Prophecy" movies, as well as his frequent guest host appearances on "Saturday Night Live". In the United States, his films have grossed over $1.8 billion. In 1979, Walken won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for "The Deer Hunter", where he played a disturbed Vietnam veteran alongside Robert De Niro. Walken was nominated again in 2002 for "Catch Me if You Can". He won the Clarence Derwent Award for his performance in "The Lion in Winter" in 1966 and an Obie for his 1975 performance in "Kid Champion". He has played the main role in the Shakespeare plays "Hamlet", "Macbeth", "Romeo and Juliet", and "Coriolanus".
Walken debuted as a film director and script writer with the short five-minute film "Popcorn Shrimp" in 2001. He also wrote and acted the main role in a play about Elvis Presley titled "Him" in 1995.
Early life
Walken was born "Ronald Walken" (named after actor Ronald Colman) in Queens, New York. His mother, Rosalie, was a Scottish immigrant, and his father, Paul Walken, was a German immigrant. Both of his parents were bakers. Walken worked in the family bakery, Walken's Bakery, which was situated on Broadway and 30th Street in the Astoria Section of Queens, NY after school. He was raised in the Methodist religion. Influenced by their mother's own dreams of stardom, he and his brothers Ken and Glenn were child actors on television in the 1950s. He studied at Hofstra University in Long Island but did not graduate. Walken initially trained as a dancer in musical theatre before moving on to dramatic roles in theatre and then film.
Career
Early roles
Walken first appeared on the screen as a child extra in numerous anthology series and variety shows during the Golden Age of Television. After appearing in a sketch with Martin and Lewis on "The Colgate Comedy Hour", Walken decided to become an actor. He landed a regular role in the 1953 television show "The Wonderful John Acton" as the show's narrator. During this time, he was credited as 'Ronnie Walken'.
Over the next 20 years, he appeared frequently on television, landed an experimental film role in "Me and My Brother", and had a thriving career in theatre. In 1964, he changed his name to 'Christopher' at the suggestion of a friend who believed the name suited him better. He nowadays prefers to be known informally as 'Chris Walken'.
1970s
Walken made his feature film debut with a small role opposite Sean Connery in Sidney Lumet's "The Anderson Tapes" in 1971. In 1972, Walken played his first starring role in "The Mind Snatchers". He plays a sociopathic American soldier stationed in Germany, in a science fiction film which deals with mind control and normalization.
Woody Allen's 1977 film "Annie Hall" has Walken playing the suicidal brother of Annie Hall (Diane Keaton); In 1978, he appeared in "Shoot the Sun Down", a western filmed in 1976 and co-starring Margot Kidder. Along with Nick Nolte, Walken was considered by George Lucas for the part of Han Solo in "Star Wars". The part eventually went to Harrison Ford.
Walken won an Academy Award for best supporting actor in the controversial 1978 film, "The Deer Hunter". He plays a young Pennsylvania steelworker who is emotionally destroyed by the Vietnam War. To help achieve a gaunt appearance for the role, Walken ate nothing but bananas and rice for a week.
1980s
Walken's first film of the 1980s was the controversial "Heaven's Gate", helmed by "Deer Hunter" director Michael Cimino. Walken also starred in the 1981 action-adventure "The Dogs of War" directed by Jack Cardiff. Walken then played schoolteacher-turned-psychic Johnny Smith in David Cronenberg's 1983 adaptation of Stephen King's "The Dead Zone". That same year, Walken also starred in "Brainstorm" alongside Natalie Wood and, in a minor role, his wife Georgianne.
In 1985, Walken played a James Bond villain, Max Zorin, in "A View to a Kill". Walken dyed his hair blond to befit Zorin's origins as a Nazi experiment. He also played the leading role of Whitley Strieber in 1989s "Communion", an autobiographical film written by Streiber and based on his claims that he and his family were subject to alien abductions.
"At Close Range" starred Walken as Brad Whitewood, a rural Pennsylvania crime boss who tries to bring his two sons into his empire.
1990s
"The Comfort of Strangers", an art house film directed by Paul Schrader, had the distinction of providing a role for Walken that disturbed even him. He plays Robert, a decadent Italian aristocrat who lives with his wife (Helen Mirren) in Venice, in addition to having extreme sexual tastes and murderous tendencies.
"King of New York", directed by Abel Ferrara, stars Walken as ruthless New York City drug dealer Frank White, recently released from prison and set on reclaiming his criminal territory. In 1992, Walken again played the leading villain in "Batman Returns" as millionaire industrialist Max Shreck. Walken's next major film role was opposite Dennis Hopper in "True Romance", scripted by Quentin Tarantino. His so-called 'Sicilian scene' has been hailed by critics as the best scene in the film, and is the subject of four commentaries on the DVD. Walken has a supporting role in Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction", as a Vietnam veteran giving his dead comrade's son the family's prized possession, a gold watch, while explaining in graphic detail how he had hidden it from the Vietcong by smuggling it in his own rectum.
Later in 1994, Walken starred in "A Business Affair", a rare leading role for him in a romantic comedy. Walken manages to once again feature his trademark dancing scene, as he performs the tango. In 1995, he appeared in "Wild Side", "The Prophecy", and the modern vampire flick "The Addiction" (his second collaboration with director Abel Ferrara and writer Nicholas St. John).
In the 1996 film "Last Man Standing", Walken plays a sadistic gangster. That year, he played a predominant role in the video game "Ripper", portraying Detective Vince Magnotta. "Ripper" made extensive use of real-time recorded scenes and a wide cast of celebrities in an interactive movie.
In 1999, Walken played Calvin Webber in the romantic comedy "Blast from the Past". Webber is a brilliant but eccentric Cal Tech nuclear physicist whose fears of a nuclear war lead him to build an enormous fallout shelter beneath his suburban home. The same year, he appeared as The Headless Horseman in Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow "starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.
Walken also starred in two music videos in the 1990s. His first video role was as the Angel of Death in Madonna's 1993 'Bad Girl' video, the second appearance was in Skid Row's 'Breakin' Down' video.
2000s
In 2000, Walken was cast as the lead, along with Faith Prince, in "James Joyce's The Dead" on Broadway. A 'play with music', "The Dead" was directed by Richard Nelson. The show featured music by Shaun Davey, conducted by Charles Prince with music coordination and percussion by Tom Partington. "James Joyce's The Dead" won a Tony Award that year for Best Book for a Musical.
Walken had a notable music video performance in 2001 with Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice". Directed by Spike Jonze, it won six MTV awards in 2001 and also won best video of all time in April 2002, in a list of the top 100 videos of all time, compiled from a survey of musicians, directors, and music industry figures conducted by a UK music TV channel VH1. In this video, Walken performs a tap dance around the lobby of the Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles. Walken also helped choreograph the dance. Also in 2001 Walken played a gangster in the witness protection program in the David Spade comedy "Joe Dirt" and an eccentric film director in "America's Sweethearts".
Walken played Frank Abagnale, Sr. in "Catch Me If You Can", a film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is inspired by the story of Frank Abagnale, Jr. (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), a con artist who passed himself off as several identities and forged millions of dollars worth of checks, with an FBI agent (played by Tom Hanks) hot on his trail. Walken plays Frank Jr.'s father. His portrayal earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Walken also had a part in the 2003 action comedy film "The Rundown" starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Seann William Scott, in which he plays a ruthless despot.
Most recently, he played the role of Morty, a sympathetic inventor who's more than meets the eye, in the comedy "Click" and also appeared in "Man of the Year" with Robin Williams and Lewis Black. He costarred in the 2007 film adaptation "Hairspray" where he is seen singing and dancing in a romantic duet with John Travolta, as well as an eccentric but cruel crime lord and ping-pong enthusiast Feng, in the 2007 comedy "Balls of Fury" opposite Dan Fogler.
Walken is currently in the movie "Five Dollars a Day", in which he plays a con man proud of living like a king on five dollars a day.
The death of Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood's death occurred after an evening onboard a yacht with her husband Robert Wagner and Walken. There were reports Wagner and Walken had an argument about Walken's behavior towards Wood, and she apparently tried to either leave the yacht or to secure a dinghy that was banging against the hull when she accidentally slipped and fell overboard. A woman on shore said she heard cries for help from the water that night, along with voices replying 'we're coming.' Wagner, Walken, and the pilot of the "Splendor" said they heard nothing. Los Angeles Medical Examiner Thomas Noguchi revealed that Wood was legally intoxicated when she died and there were marks and bruises on her body, which could have been received as a result of her fall. In Noguchi's memoir, "Coroner", he stated that had Wood not been intoxicated, she would likely have realized that her heavy down-filled coat and wool sweater were pulling her underwater, and would have removed them. Noguchi said he found her fingernails still embedded in the rubber boat's side.
Cult status
Walken has attracted a strong cult following as an actor. He is often imitated for his deadpan affect, sudden off-beat pauses, and strange speech rhythm. He has been parodied on Dave the Barbarian by an unusual unicorn named Twinkle. He is one of the most frequently impersonated actors in Hollywood; notable Walken impressionists include Eddie Izzard, Kevin Spacey, Kevin Pollak, Jay Mohr, Phil Mondiello, Johnny Depp and Jake Gyllenhaal. He is also frequently referenced in various other works of pop culture, such as in the Fountains of Wayne song 'Hackensack'.
Appearances on "Saturday Night Live"
Walken has hosted the comedy sketch and satire TV series "Saturday Night Live" on six occasions, and has a standing offer from Lorne Michaels to host the show when Walken's schedule permits. One of his more famous "SNL" performances was a spoof of 'Behind the Music' featuring a recording session of Blue Öyster Cult's '(Don't Fear) The Reaper.' In the guise of record producer Bruce Dickinson (not to be confused with Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer for Iron Maiden), Walken makes passionate and slightly unhinged speeches to the band, and is obsessed with getting 'more cowbell' into the song.
Walken also spoofed his role from "The Dead Zone" in a sketch titled 'Ed Glosser: Trivial Psychic', in which the title character had the ability to accurately predict meaningless, trivial future events ('You're going to get an ice cream headache. It's going to hurt real bad...right here for eight, nine seconds.')
He also spoofed his role from "A View to a Kill" in a sketch titled 'Lease with an Option to Kill', in which he reprised his role as Max Zorin. Zorin, who had taken on some qualities of other notable Bond villains (Blofeld's cat and suit, Emilio Largo's eye patch), was upset that everything was going wrong for him: his lair was still under construction, his henchmen had jump suits that did not fit, and his shark tank lacked sharks, instead having a giant sea sponge. A captive James Bond, portrayed by Phil Hartman, offered to get Zorin 'a good deal' on the abandoned Blofeld volcanic lair if Zorin let him go, to which he reluctantly agreed.
In another appearance, he performed a song and dance rendition of the Irving Berlin standard 'Let's Face the Music and Dance'. Finally, the 'Colonel Angus' sketch, in which Walken played a dishonored Confederate officer, laden with ribald double entendres. Walken's SNL appearances proved so popular that he is one of the few "SNL" hosts for whom a "Best of...SNL" DVD is available (an honor usually reserved only for "SNL" cast members).
Presidential candidacy hoax
Walken was the subject of a hoax controversy in October 2006 from a fake website started that August, which announced he was running for President of the United States. Some fans believed it was authentic until Walken's publicist dismissed the claims. When asked about the hoax in a September 2006 interview with Conan O'Brien, Walken was amused by the hoax, and when asked to come up with a campaign slogan, replied 'What the Heck?' and 'No More Zoos!'
The site, (Walken2008.com) , remains online.
Personal life
Walken has been married to Georgianne Walken (née Thon) since 1969. She is a casting director, most notably for "The Sopranos". They live in rural Connecticut. In regards to his villainous roles preceding him when meeting new people, Walken says that 'when they see me in a movie they expect me to be something nasty... that's why it's good to defy expectations some times.'
External links
(Christopher Walken Would Rather Have a Tail)
(Weapon Of Choice music video, Windows Media Player)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Christopher Walken.
