Ronald Walken (born March 31, 1943), known professionally as Christopher Walken, is an American film, television, and theatre actor best known for playing menacing or psychologically damaged characters. He was born in Queens, New York to a German father and Scottish-born mother. Walken has been married to casting director Georgianne Walken since 1969.
Christopher Walken: Career
Walken initially trained as a dancer in musical theatre before moving on to more serious roles in theatre and then film. A select number of his movies include dance moves that he has worked in, reflecting this early background.
He has been in nearly one hundred movies and television shows since 1953, including The Dead Zone (1983), Brainstorm (1983), A View to a Kill (1985), Batman Returns (1992) True Romance (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), Nick of Time (1995), Catch Me If You Can (2002) and Around the Bend (2004). He was George Lucas' second choice for Han Solo after Harrison Ford. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in The Deer Hunter (1978) where he played a disturbed Vietnam vet alongside Robert De Niro. He was nominated again in 2002 for Catch Me if You Can.
He also has a considerable body of work in theatre with over 100 plays to his credit. 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 a number of Shakespeare plays — notably Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Coriolanus.
He tried his hand at writing and directing with the short five minute film Popcorn Shrimp in 2001.
In November 1981, Walken was on a yacht docked off of Catalina Island with Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood (as well as the skipper of the boat), when Wood drowned.
He is also a frequent guest on Saturday Night Live where he has a recurring character and sketch called "The Continental". Another skit for which Walken has become famous was a spoof recording session for Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper." Playing Bruce Dickinson, a music producer, he repeatedly stopped the recording to request "More cowbell!" This sketch has become a huge cult hit.
He has also starred in two music videos. His first video role was as the angel of death in Madonna's 1993 "Bad Girl" video, and the second appearance was in Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice video in 2001.
Christopher Walken: Presidential Candidacy Hoax
As of August 2005, he was the subject of a hoax Presidential campaign. A busy website presented numerous politically-charged quotes from Walken, which his publicist dismissed as "100% not true." The Urban Legends Reference Pages list the site as a fake. Although speculation has mentioned its potential for drawing attention to Walken's role as a Cabinet member in the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers, it and similar sites about him, such as Win With Walken and Walken to Mordor, are being attributed to participants in the Internet message board General Mayhem.
Christopher Walken: Notable Performances
Annie Hall (1977)
This Oscar winning film directed by Woody Allen is often cited by Walken and others as the first film that brought the actor and his unusual qualities to the attention of the mainstream viewing public. In a lightning appearance, he plays the strange and suicidally fixated brother of Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) providing the opportunity for a couple of fine comic reactions from Woody Allen.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Walken won an Oscar for best supporting actor with his performance in this controversial film. He plays Nick Chevotarevich, a young Pittsburgh steelworker with a poetic bent who is emotionally and spiritually destroyed by his combat experience of war in Vietnam. Walken's performance is notable for his transformation from a sensitive, gentle character to a self-destructive, zoned out automaton, high on heroin and gambling with his life at Russian roulette.
Heaven's Gate (1980)
This film is worth mentioning for the immense scandal it caused both during its production and after its release. It led to the financial ruin of United Artists, hastened the end of directorial control of films in Hollywood and offended many in a climate marked by a return to political conservatism with the election of President Reagan. The film received extremely negative reviews in the USA, but was seen in a more favourable light by European critics and a 2004 re-release in selected cinemas in the USA and Australia has attracted a more positive reevaluation of the artistic merits of the film. Although Walken's role does not provide him with the opportunities offered by Michael Cimino's previous film The Deer Hunter, his cold and alien menace as a highly efficient hired gun is unexpectedly offset by a romantic vulnerability and a subtly amusing take on his character, Nat Champion's aspirations to social betterment.
The Dead Zone (1983)
Walken plays schoolteacher Johnny Smith who, after lying in a coma for five years, awakes to find he has psychic powers. The role is currently being reprised by Anthony Michael Hall in a TV series of the same name. Walken later spoofed his role in a sketch in Saturday Night Live in a sketch titled "Trivial Psychic". Walken's otherworldly looks and his ability to play vulnerable damaged characters are put to good effect here.
At Close Range (1986)
Walken stars as Brad Whitewood, a psychotic rural Pennsylvania family crime boss, who tries to bring his two estranged sons, played by real-life brothers Sean Penn and Chris Penn, into his criminal world. Based on a true story about the Bruce Johnston crime family which operated in eastern Pennsylvania during the late 1970s.
The Comfort of Strangers (1990)
This art house film directed by Paul Schrader, who scripted Taxi Driver, has the notable distinction of providing a role for Walken that disturbed even him. He plays a decadent Italian aristocrat, Robert, who lives with his wife (Helen Mirren) in Venice. Robert has extreme sexual tastes and murderous tendencies. Walken, sporting Armani suits, provides an understated performance that combines charm, evil and sudden and shocking violence.
King of New York (1990)
This film by noted independent New York film maker Abel Ferrara has attracted both a cult following and the attention of serious film theorists (for example Nicole Brenez). Walken stars as mysterious but ruthless New York City drug dealer Frank White, recently released from prison and set on reclaiming his criminal territory by any means necessary. White also has moral pretensions, acting as a kind of a Robin Hood figure. In this film Walken has the opportunity and screen time to demonstrate his range and his experimental abilities as an actor.
True Romance (1993)
Walken plays a scene opposite Dennis Hopper in this film. This so-called 'Sicilian scene' has become a cult favourite and is frequently hailed by critics — professional and amateur alike — as the best scene in the film. This scene alone is the subject of four commentaries on the DVD attesting to its cult status. After an exchange of dialogue (penned by Quentin Tarantino) Walken's character, Sicilian gangster Vincenzo Coccotti, summarily executes Hopper's character after deliberate provocation by the latter.
Of this scene, Walken said: "First of all, he made me laugh, and that was very important in the scene. The fact that I was really enjoying this guy, and then I shoot him anyway. And the same is true of him - he really enjoyed telling me that story. And you could see it was delightful, don't you think? It happens to end with me shooting him in the head. But up until then, wasn't it delightful?" -- Christopher Walken, Neon Magazine, 1997.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
This film, which has received many accolades, contains another frequently quoted cult scene with Walken scripted by Tarantino. Here Walken offers a slightly disturbing, but nonetheless amusing turn as a Vietnam veteran, Captain Koons, who in a long speech delivers a watch to a small boy from his dead father. Koons explains just how the watch had been hidden during his long years in a prisoner of war camp.
Wild Side (1995)
This film was made by Donald Cammell who directed the experimental landmark film of sixties counter-culture Performance with Mick Jagger. Cammell removed his name from the 1995 studio cut of Wild Side and a far superior 'director's cut' was only released posthumously in 2000. The film boasts one of Walken's most extreme performance. In one notable and lengthy scene his character, international money launderer Bruno Buckingham, high on drugs, graphically threatens to rape his chauffeur, an undercover cop.
The Prophecy (1995)
In this horror film directed by Gregory Widen, also featuring Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen and Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer, Walken takes on the role of the evil Archangel Gabriel. Gabriel in this account has rebelled against God because God favors humans over angels. The film and its two sequels (1998, 2000) has attracted a cult following. Two further sequels without Walken have been made -one was released on DVD in 2005. Walken's over the top but nuanced performance in these films is a favourite with many fans.
The Addiction (1995)
Another horror film, this one directed by Abel Ferrara and written by Nicholas St. John, deals with modern vampires in New York City. The writer and director use vampirism as a metaphor for the Christian doctrine of original sin, and Walken plays an ancient vampire who has learned to control his addiction for blood - an outward manifestation of the inward hunger - to the degree that he is able to function fairly normally in society.
Weapon of Choice (2001)
Weapon of Choice is a three minute video clip directed by Spike Jonze with music by Fatboy Slim. Spike Jonze has directed numerous other video clips and films such as Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.. 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 virtuoso tap dance around the lobby of the Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles. Walken also helped choreograph the dance.
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 film by Steven Spielberg (one of two released that year, the second being Minority Report) which portrays the true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr. (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), the legendary con artist who managed to pass himself off as several identities and forge millions of dollars worth of checks, with an FBI agent (Carl Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks) hot on his trail. Christopher Walken plays Frank Abagnale, Sr., Frank Jr.'s father, in a difficult and emotionally charged role. His portrayal earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
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