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Christopher Walken (born March 31, 1943) is an Academy Award winning American actor of stage and screen, on which he has spent more than 50 years. A prolific actor, he has appeared in over 100 movie and television roles, notably including A View to a Kill, At Close Range, The Deer Hunter, King of New York, Batman Returns and Pulp Fiction, as well as music videos by recording artists such as Madonna and Fat Boy Slim.
Walken, an outspoken atheist, 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 his most notable being Bruce Dickinson in the "More Cowbell" sketch.
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Quotations
If she tries to blackmail me, I'll throw her out a higher window.
So he hid the watch in the one place he knew he could hide something—his ass.
I put my pants on just like the rest of you - one leg at a time. Except, once my pants are on, I make gold records.
I pranked him! To death with a tire iron! Whammy! Blammy wowie zowie!
Saturday Night Live, as a guest on the television show "Pranksters", talking about how he beat a co-worker to death as a prank.
…You got me in a vendetta kinda mood. You tell the angels in heaven you've never seen an evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you.
You're talkin' to my man all wrong. It's the wrong tone. You do it again, I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron.
Encyclopedia
Christopher Walken (born March 31, 1943) is an Academy Award winning American actor of stage and screen, on which he has spent more than 50 years. A prolific actor, he has appeared in over 100 movie and television roles, notably including A View to a Kill, At Close Range, The Deer Hunter, King of New York, Batman Returns and Pulp Fiction, as well as music videos by recording artists such as Madonna and Fat Boy Slim.
Walken, an outspoken atheist, 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 his most notable being Bruce Dickinson in the "More Cowbell" sketch. In the United States, films featuring Walken have grossed over $1.8 billion. He has also played the main role in the Shakespeare plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Coriolanus. His most famous film roles were Nikanor "Nick" Chevotarevich in The Deer Hunter and in Pulp Fiction, as Captain Koons, a Vietnam War veteran, which has since become a pop culture icon, despite his appearance being less than ten minutes in length.
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) into a Methodist family in Astoria, Queens, New York. His mother, Rosalie, was a Scottish immigrant, and his father, Paul Walken, emigrated from Germany. Both of his parents were bakers. Restaurateur and TV cooking show host Lidia Bastianich worked at the Walkens' bakery as a young girl.
Influenced by their mother's own dreams of stardom, he and his brothers Kenneth and Glenn were child actors on television in the 1950s. Walken studied at Hofstra University on Long Island, but did not graduate. Walken initially trained as a dancer in musical theater before moving on to dramatic roles in theater 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 theater. In 1964, he changed his name to "Christopher" at the suggestion of a friend who believed the name suited him better. Coincidentally, Walken's last credited role under the name "Ronnie" was a character with the name of "Chris". Nowadays, he prefers to be known informally as "Chris" instead of "Christopher".
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's The Mind Snatchers a.k.a The Happiness Cage, Walken played his first starring role. In this science fiction film, which deals with mind control and normalization, he plays a sociopathic American soldier stationed in Germany.
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 that costarred Margot Kidder. Along with Nick Nolte, Walken was considered by George Lucas for the part of Han Solo in Star Wars; the part ultimately went to Harrison Ford.
Walken won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the 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 John Irvin. 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 1989's Communion, an autobiographical film written by Streiber that was 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. His character mostly based on Bruce Johnston.
In Biloxi Blues, Walken convincingly played an eccentric drill sergeant known for his stinging sarcasm and sharp wit, not dissimilar to his real life talents.
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 with extreme sexual tastes and murderous tendencies who lives with his wife (Helen Mirren) in Venice.
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 a supporting 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 rectum, after the boy's father, in whose rectum the watch had previously been concealed, had died of dysentery. Also in 1992, Walken played Bobby, Cassandras manager in Waynes World 2.
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, which was his second collaboration with director Abel Ferrara and writer Nicholas St. John. He also appeared in Nick of Time, which also stars Johnny Depp.
In the 1996 film Last Man Standing, Walken plays a sadistic gangster. That year, he played a prominent 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 1997, Walken starred in the comedy films Touch, Excess Baggage and had a minor role in the film Mousehunt. He also appeared in the drama/thriller film Suicide Kings which also filled with suspense and humor.
In 1998, Walken played an influential gay New York theater critic in John Turturro's film Illuminata.
In 1999, Walken played Calvin Webber in the romantic comedy Blast from the Past. Webber is a brilliant but eccentric Caltech 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 three music videos in the 1990s. His first video role was as the Angel of Death in Madonna's 1993 "Bad Girl"; the second appearance was in Skid Row's "Breakin' Down" video and his third was in Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice 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 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—in a list of the top 100 videos of all time compiled from a survey of musicians, directors, and music industry figures conducted by UK music TV channel VH1—won Best Video of All Time in April 2002. 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 who was 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. It is inspired by the story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a con artist who passed himself off as several identities and forged millions of dollars worth of checks. 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. He was nominated for a Razzie (Worst Supporting Actor) in 2002's The Country Bears
and in two 2003 movies, Gigli and Kangaroo Jack.
Walken also starred in the Ben Stiller/Jack Black film, "Envy" in which he plays J-Man, a crazy guy who helps Ben Stiller's character.
Most recently, he played the role of Morty, a sympathetic inventor who's more than meets the eye in the comedy Click, and he 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—and he portrayed the 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 $5 a day. He recently completed filming on The Lonely Maiden, a comedy costarring Morgan Freeman, about security guards in an art museum.
Walken can now be found in Universal Studios' "Disaster" attraction (formerly "Earthquake and the Magic of Effects"). Walken portrays the owner of "Disaster Studios" and encourages guests to be extras in his latest film, "Mutha Nature." Walken is projected on a clear screen, much like a life-size hologram, and interacts with the live-action talent.
Cult status
Walken has attracted a strong cult following as an actor. He is often imitated for his deadpan effect, sudden off-beat pauses, and strange speech rhythm. He is revered for his quality of danger and menace, but his unpredictable deliveries and expressions make him invaluable in comedy as well. He has been parodied on Dave the Barbarian by an unusual unicorn named Twinkle (his dog is named Twinkle). Walken is also noted for turning down movie roles only rarely, having stated in interviews that he will decline a role only if he is simply too busy on other projects to take it. He regards each role as a learning experience. In the long-running media franchises of both Batman and James Bond he is the only man to play a villain in both of them (with the exception of voice actors).
He is one of the most frequently impersonated actors in Hollywood. Notable Walken impressionists include Johnny Depp, Jake Gyllenhaal, Eddie Izzard, Jay Mohr, Kevin Pollak, Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Davis. He is also frequently referenced in various other works of pop culture, such as in the Fountains of Wayne song "Hackensack." Walken remains one of the most popular portrayers of villains among film fans, with a page dedicated entirely to him on the movievillains.com website. MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch aired a match between Walken and Gary Oldman to determine who was the greatest cinematic villain. On February 15, 2008, he accepted Harvard's award as Hasty Pudding Man of the Year.
Appearances on Saturday Night Live
Walken has hosted the comedy sketch and satire TV series Saturday Night Live seven times, and has a standing offer from Lorne Michaels to host the show whenever 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, 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. He is also known for his part in one of Will Ferrell and Rachel Dratch's "The Lovers" skits. His character brought a lady friend to meet The Lovers, and she is instead subjected to learning the past history that Walken's character shares with The Lovers. He also divulges private information about his sex life with his girlfriend, much to her horror ("She ventured places no lover had dared go before...specifically, the ear canal").
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 didn't fit; and his shark tank lacked sharks, having a giant sea sponge instead. 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, there was the "Colonel Angus" sketch, laden with ribald double entendres, in which Walken played a dishonored Confederate officer. Walken's SNL appearances have proved so popular that he is one of the few SNL hosts for whom a Best of... SNL DVD is available (other celebrity hosts who have a Best of... SNL DVD are Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, and Alec Baldwin), an honor usually reserved only for SNL cast members.
Up until 2003, Walken had a recurring SNL sketch called "The Continental," in which Walken played a "suave ladies' man" who in reality can't say or do anything to keep women from giving him the cold shoulder. Though he is outwardly chivalrous, his more perverted tendencies inevitably drive away his date over his pleading objections. For instance, he invites a woman to wash up in his bathroom; once she is inside, it becomes obvious that the bathroom mirror is a two-way mirror when the "Continental" is seen lighting up a cigarette. What distinguishes "The Continental" is that various ladies are never seen; the camera represents their point of view.
Walken most recently hosted Saturday Night Live on April 5, 2008, which was the first (and so far, only) time an episode hosted by Walken didn't have a "Continental" sketch or a monologue where he sings and dances.
Presidential candidacy hoax
Walken became the subject of a hoax controversy in October 2006 when a fake website started in August of that year by members of internet forum General Mayhem announced that 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, he replied, "What the Heck?" and "No More Zoos!"
The site, , remains online.
Emails sent to the campaign are posted at .
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 and have no children. In regard to his villainous roles preceding him when meeting new people, Walken says, "When they see me in a movie, they expect me to be something nasty... That's why it's good to defy expectations sometimes."
Walken has a genetic condition called heterochromia, which is a difference in the color of each eye (one of his is blue and the other is brown).
Filmography
Awards
External links
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