Christopher Walken

Name: Christopher Walken
Born: 31 March 1943 (Age: 67)
Where: New York, New York, USA
Height: 6'
Awards: Won 1 Oscar and 1 BAFTA, Nominated for 1 Golden Globe and 1 Emmy.

Most people believe Christopher Walken to be an absolute wacko. It's a reputation he's endured for a quarter of a century, one that was sealed by his two breakthrough roles. First, in 1977's Annie Hall, he weirded the world out as Annie's crazy brother Duane, disturbing Woody Allen with his fantasies of slamming his car into oncoming traffic. Then, one year later, he was Nick in The Deer Hunter, wasted inside and out as he plays Russian Roulette in a Vietnamese hell-hole. Unforgettable appearances, both of them.

 

The reputation has been enhanced by many other extraordinarily wild performances. There was Pulp Fiction, where he presents a young boy with a watch he's been hiding in his arse: True Romance, where he enjoys Dennis Hopper's insults then empties a chamber into him: that mad little dance with Laurence Fishburne and his gang in King Of New York: Batman Returns, where he buddies up to michelle pfeiffer then shoves her through a window: The Comfort Of Strangers, where he suddenly drops his sophisticated front and decks Rupert Everett: his sharp-toothed Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow. He's so weird, so DANGEROUS.

But then there's the other parts, the ones that prove him to be so much more than just a rent-a-psycho. How about Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, when he's DiCaprio's con-man dad, crushed by wife Nathalie Baye's faithlessness? His hilarious exterminator in Mouse Hunt? His show-stealing bar-room dance in Pennies From Heaven? His brilliant cat-man in Puss In Boots? His bewildered alien abductee in Communion? His tortured psychic in The Dead Zone? Walken is certainly one of the best screen villains in history, but he's done it all, and done it fabulously well. After all, reaching 60 is 2003, he'd been working for over 58 years.

He was born Ronald Walken on March 31st, 1943, in Queens, New York City. That's right - Ronald. Nothing sinister or intimidating about that. Unless, of course, you fear clowns, or remorseless multinational conglomerates. His parents were both immigrants. His father, Paul, came from Germany and met and, in 1936, married Rosalie, who'd arrived from Scotland. Ronald was the second of three sons, sandwiched between Ken and Glenn.

Rosalie had had stage ambitions, thwarted by motherhood. But her children gave her another in, and she began by finding them modelling work. Ronald's first major success came with his first job. As a 14-month-old baby, he was photographed naked with 2 cats, appearing in a hugely popular calendar.