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, films featuring Walken 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.
Nervous-looking lead and supporting actor of the American stage and films. He won an Oscar as best supporting actor for his performance in Deer Hunter, The (1978). Seen in mostly supporting roles throughout the 80s and early 90s, often portraying psychologically unstable characters.
Amazingly versatile stage & screen actor with sandy colored hair, pale complexion and a somewhat nervous disposition. Has a reputation for playing mentally unbalanced characters on-screen, however that generalisation would not do justice to Walken's depth and breadth of performances. He learnt his stage craft, including dancing, at Hofstra University & ANTA, and picked up a Theatre World award for his performance in the revival of the Tennessee Williams play "The Rose Tattoo". Walken then first broke through into cinema in 1969 appearing in Me and My Brother (1969), before appearing alongside Sean Connery in the sleeper heist movie Anderson Tapes, The (1971). His eclectic work really came to the attention of critics in 1977 with his intense portrayal of Diane Keaton suicidal younger brother in Annie Hall (1977), and then he scooped the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award in 1977 for his role as Nick in the electrifying Deer Hunter, The (1978). Walken was lured back by Deer Hunter, The (1978) director Michael Cimino (I) for a role in the financially disastrous western Heaven's Gate (1980), before moving onto surprise audiences with his wonderful dance skills in Pennies from Heaven (1981), taking the lead as a school teacher with telepathic abilities in the Stephen King (I) inspired Dead Zone, The (1983) and then as billionaire industrialist Max Zorin trying to blow up Silicon Valley in the 007 adventure View to a Kill, A (1985). Looking at many of Walken's other captivating screen roles, it is easy to see the diversity of his range and even his droll comedic talents with humorous appearances in Biloxi Blues (1988), Wayne's World 2 (1993), Joe Dirt (2001), Mousehunt (1997) and America's Sweethearts (2001). Most recently, he continued to surprise audiences again with his work as a heart broken and apologetic father to Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can (2002). Christopher Walken's talents continue to remain in high demand and movie audiences relish watching how capably he re-invents himself for each new challenging role.
