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Christopher Walken
I tend to play mostly villains and twisted people. Unsavory guys. I think it’s my face, the way I look.
— Christopher Walken
CHRISTOPHER WALKEN’s sunken eye sockets, prodigious forehead, and thin lips have set his career on a track lined with villainy and psychosis. And while his features have placed him on the spooky-guy A-list, Walken’s theatrical background, and his ability to play sinister types so convincingly, prove that behind the menace lies an actor with exceptional range.Walken began acting and dancing when he was 10; appeared in his first musical on the New York stage at age 15; and made his Broadway debut at age 16. Throughout his teens, he performed on-stage and on live television, and his voluminous body of work on and off Broadway led to his first meaty role in film as an electronics expert in Sidney Lumet’s The Anderson Tapes.
The ’70s brought a string of forgettable roles for Walken until Woody Allen cast him as Diane Keaton’s demented brother Duane in the hugely successful Annie Hall. His was a scene-stealing performance. But Walken’s real breakthrough came in 1978, when he starred opposite Robert De Niro as a suicidal Vietnam veteran in Michael Cimino’s masterpiece The Deer Hunter. The performance earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. He was not so lucky with his next Cimino outing, Heaven’s Gate, one of the most notorious flops in film history. He didn’t fare much better in the ’80s, with roles in such films as the critically berated Dogs of War and the Steve Martin musical bomb Pennies From Heaven.
Walken’s Oscar-winning image was further tainted by his presence at the mysterious drowning of his Brainstorm co-star Natalie Wood, in 1981. Walken and Woods’ husband Robert Wagner had reportedly been arguing on Wagner’s yacht off Catalina Island, and rumors of a tragic love triangle abounded. Although her death was ruled accidental, dark whispers still persist, much to Walken’s annoyance. (”It always sounds so mysterious; there’s nothing mysterious about it. She banged her head and fell in the water, and she floated one way; the boat floated another. It’s so silly. People fall in the bathtub and electrocute themselves all the time, but when you’re very famous . . .”)
Fortunately, Walken emerged from the controversy and made a successful appearance in The Dead Zone, one of the better Stephen King adaptations. In it, he played a man who wakes up after a five-year coma to discover he has psychic powers that can change the future; the role certified him as an eerie film presence. A role as James Bond villain Max Zorin in A View to a Kill followed. He spent the rest of the ’80s taking parts in smaller movies like Homeboy and The Milagro Beanfield War, and even took a comic turn as Sergeant Toomey in Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues.
Lately, Walken’s focus has been on independent flicks like Abel Ferrara’s King of New York and The Addiction. He also turned in memorable performances in True Romance and Pulp Fiction. In the latter, he gave an unforgettable monologue on the strange and stinky history of a gold watch. His twitchy mannerisms and solemn pronouncements have become so commonplace that he’s risked becoming a parody of himself — and this fact is not lost on Walken. He proved he had a sense of humor by spoofing his dark side during an appearance on Saturday Night Live. He also showed off his song-and-dance skills, much to the delight of the crowd.
With his aging features only getting gaunter, fans can expect Walken’s unsettling presence in films to continue uninterrupted. Recent roles in Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat, Last Man Standing (a Hollywood remake of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo), The Funeral, and Touch have made that fact abundantly clear. Walken’s most overtly creepifying turn to date came in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, in which he portrayed a pointy-toothed Headless Horseman. Less intense, but no less enjoyable, were his nutcase-genius father of Brendan Fraser in the 1999 romantic comedy Blast From the Past and his seedy critic in John Turturro’s sophomore directorial effort Illuminata.
Occupation: Actor
Date of Birth: March 31, 1943
Place of Birth: Queens, N.Y., USA
Sign: Sun in Aries, Moon in Aquarius
Relations: Wife: Georgianne Walken (casting agent)
Education: Attended Hoftstra University
Fan Mail: C/O William Morris Agency
151 El Camino Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
USA.
Christopher Walken: Credits
MOVIES
Actor
Sleepy Hollow — 1999
Blast From the Past — 1999
The Prophecy III: The Ascent — 1999
New Rose Hotel — 1999
Antz — 1998
Illuminata — 1999
The Prophecy II — 1998
Mouse Hunt — 1997
Suicide Kings — 1998
Excess Baggage — 1997
Touch — 1997
Last Man Standing — 1996
The Funeral — 1996
Basquiat — 1996
Nick of Time — 1995
The Addiction — 1995
Things To Do in Denver When You’re Dead — 1995
The Prophecy — 1995
Search and Destroy — 1995
Pulp Fiction — 1994
A Business Affair — 1994
Wayne’s World 2 — 1993
True Romance — 1993
Le Grand Pardon II — 1992
Batman Returns — 1992
Mistress — 1992
All-American Murder — 1992
The Comfort of Strangers — 1991
McBain — 1991
Sarah, Plain and Tall — 1991
King of New York — 1989
Communion — 1989
Puss in Boots — 1988
Biloxi Blues — 1988
The Milagro Beanfield War — 1988
Deadline — 1987
War Zone — 1986
At Close Range — 1986
Echo Park — 1986
A View to a Kill — 1985
A View to a Kill — 1985
The Dead Zone — 1983
Brainstorm — 1983
Dead Zone — 1983
Who Am I This Time? — 1982
Pennies From Heaven — 1981
Shoot the Sun Down — 1981
Heaven’s Gate — 1980
The Dogs of War — 1980
Last Embrace — 1979
The Deer Hunter — 1978
Annie Hall — 1977
Roseland — 1977
The Sentinel — 1977
Next Stop, Greenwich Village — 1976
The Happiness Cage — 1972
The Anderson Tapes — 1971
Me and My Brother — 1968
TV
Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter’s End — 1999 (Movie)
Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary — 1999 (Special)
The Wild Side — 1996 (Movie)
Scam — 1993 (Movie)
Skylark — 1993 (Movie)
Defenders of Dynatron City — 1992 (Voice only)
Sarah, Plain and Tall — 1991 (Movie)
Who Am I This Time? — 1981 (Movie)
Photo Gallery:
Topics: Actor, Celebrities
Tags: Actor, Annie Hall, Antz, Basquiat, Batman Returns, Biloxi Blues, Brainstorm, Communion, Dead Zone, Deadline, Excess Baggage, Illuminata, Last Embrace, McBain, Mistress, Mouse Hunt, Pulp Fiction, Roseland, Skylark, Sleepy Hollow, Suicide Kings, Touch, True Romance
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