Viggo Mortensen | |||||||||||
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![]() Mortensen at the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, December 1, 2003. |
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Born | Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. October 20, 1958 New York City, NY, USA |
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Years active | 1984 - present | ||||||||||
Spouse(s) | Exene Cervenka (1987-1998) | ||||||||||
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Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. (born October 20, 1958) is a Golden Globe- and Academy Award-nominated American theater and movie actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter.
He is perhaps best known for his roles as Aragorn in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Frank T. Hopkins in Hidalgo, David Shaw in A Perfect Murder, Tom Stall in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence and his Academy Award nominated role as Nikolai Luzhin in Cronenberg's Eastern Promises. He is to star in the upcoming film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, as "The Man".
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Mortensen was born in New York City, New York. His American mother, Grace Gamble (née Atkinson), and Danish father, Viggo Peter Mortensen, Sr., met in Norway.[1][2] His maternal grandfather was from Canada.[3] His family moved to Venezuela, Argentina and Denmark, settling in Argentina, where he learned Spanish and became a fan of Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro (one of the biggest soccer teams in Argentina). His father managed chicken farms and ranches in Argentina.[4] They remained there until Mortensen was age eleven, when his parents divorced and his mother moved back to New York. He moved with his father to Copenhagen, Denmark. Mortensen and his father eventually went back to the United States where Mortensen graduated from Watertown High School, Watertown, New York. After high school, he returned to Denmark, and became a truckdriver in Esbjerg, Denmark, before, again, returning to the United States to pursue an acting career. He attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, earning a bachelor's degree in Spanish. He chose that subject because he could get good grades without a lot of study, leaving him free to be in a lot of plays. At his commencement, he refused to wear an academic gown because they were made by sweatshop workers. However, after the Lord of the Rings trilogy, when he was granted an honorary doctorate by his alma mater, he did appear in the appropriate robes.
After several years of experience in live theater, Mortensen made his first movie appearance playing an Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness. (Mortensen had actually acted in two prior films—Swing Shift and The Purple Rose of Cairo—but his scenes in both of these films were deleted from the final cuts.) Also in 1985, he was cast in the role of Bragg on Search For Tomorrow. Mortensen's 1987 performance in Bent at the Coast Playhouse, Los Angeles, won him a Dramalogue Critics' Award. Coincidentally, the play, about homosexual concentration camp prisoners, was originally brought to prominence by Sir Ian McKellen, with whom Mortensen later co-starred in The Lord of the Rings.
During the 1990s Mortensen appeared in supporting roles in a variety of films, including Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady, Young Guns II, Prison, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Sean Penn's The Indian Runner, Brian DePalma's Carlito's Way, Tony Scott's Crimson Tide, Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane, Rob Cohen's Daylight, Tony Goldwyn's A Walk on the Moon, Frank A. Cappello's American Yakuza, Charles Robert Carner's Vanishing Point (remake), Philip Ridley's two films The Reflecting Skin and The Passion of Darkly Noon, Andrew Davis's A Perfect Murder, Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake of Psycho, Betty Thomas's 28 Days and The Prophecy with Christopher Walken. Of these roles, Mortensen was probably best known for playing Master Chief John Urgayle in G.I. Jane.[5]
Mortensen's major breakthrough came in 1999 with his casting as Aragorn in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (released in 2001, 2002 and 2003). According to the Special Extended Edition DVD of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Mortensen was a last-minute replacement for Stuart Townsend, and wouldn't have taken the part of Aragorn had it not been for his son's enthusiasm for the J. R. R. Tolkien trilogy. In the Two Towers DVD extras, the film's swordmaster Bob Anderson described Mortensen as "the best swordsman I've ever trained". Mortensen performed all of his own stunts, insisting it would look more authentic, and even injuries suffered on several stunts did not dampen his enthusiasm. At one point during shooting of the Two Towers, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies's stunt double and Mortensen all had fairly serious injuries, and during a shoot of them running in the mountains Peter Jackson referred to the three as "The walking wounded".
In 2004, Mortensen starred as Frank Hopkins in Hidalgo, the story of an ex-army courier who travels to Arabia to compete with his horse, Hidalgo, in a dangerous race for a massive contest prize.
In 2005, Mortensen starred in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence. He was nominated for a Satellite Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for this role. In the DVD extras for A History of Violence, David Cronenberg relates that Mortensen is the only actor he'd come across who would come back from weekends with his family having bought items to use as props on the set.
In 2006, he starred as Captain Diego Alatriste in Alatriste, the most expensive Spanish-language film ever made, based on the series of novels The Adventures of Captain Alatriste written by the Spanish writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte.
In September 2007 the film Eastern Promises, directed by David Cronenberg, was released to critical acclaim for the film itself and for Mortensen's performance as a Russian gangster on the rise in London. His nude fight scene in a steam room was applauded by Roger Ebert: "Years from now, it will be referred to as a benchmark."[6] Mortensen's performance in Eastern Promises resulted in him winning the Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film award from the British Independent Film Awards.[7] He also received an Academy Award nomination in the Best Actor category.[8]
With part of his earnings from The Lord of the Rings, Mortensen founded the Perceval Press publishing house — named for the knight from the legend of King Arthur — to help other artists by publishing works that might not find a home in more traditional publishing venues.[9]
Perceval Press is also the home of Viggo's many personal artistic projects in the area of fine arts, photography, poetry, song and literature (see below).
Mortensen is also an author, with various books of poetry, photography and painting published. His bibliography includes:
Mortensen is a painter and photographer. His paintings are frequently abstract, and often contain fragments of his poetry in them. His paintings have been featured in galleries worldwide, and the paintings of the artist he portrayed in A Perfect Murder are all his own.
Mortensen experiments with his poetry and music by mixing the two art forms. He has collaborated with guitarist Buckethead on several albums, mostly released on his own label or "Perceval Press" or TDRS Music. Viggo was first introduced to Buckethead's work while working on sounds for an educational CD on Greek Mythology. The finished product included a guitar part by Buckethead which caught Viggo's ear and led him to initiate contact with the guitarist. The collaboration grew from there.[10]
Viggo's discography includes:
Mortensen's singing is featured on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King soundtrack — he sings "Aragorn's Coronation," the words by Tolkien but the music composed by Mortensen himself. In the extended DVD edition of the first Lord of the Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring he sings the song "The Lay of Beren and Lúthien". His poems are written in English, Danish and Spanish.
Mortensen has a son, Henry Mortensen, with ex-wife Exene Cervenka, singer of the punk band X. Henry and Viggo have done public father/son poetry reading together as recently as April 2006. Mortensen is fluent in English, Danish and Spanish, and conversant in Norwegian. He also speaks French, Italian and Swedish reasonably well.
Mortensen is an ice hockey fan, particularly of the Montreal Canadiens. He also loves soccer, and is a big fan of Argentine star Diego Maradona, Héctor "Bambino" Veira and both the Argentine and Danish national teams, as well as Argentine club San Lorenzo de Almagro.[11] In 1993, Mortensen went to Ireland during a break in shooting without the consent of the production company, to watch Denmark play in a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification match. He is also a fan of the New York Mets.
He has spoken out against militarism and U.S. foreign policy. In continuing with his opposition to the Bush administration's foreign policy he participated in a series of fundraisers for the Northern New York Congressional candidate from the Watertown, New York area, Bob Johnson, in September 2006. In January 2008, he publicly supported Dennis Kucinich for U.S. president, speaking alongside him in a number of public appearances. In Denmark, Mortensen is known for his support for the Freetown Christiania and criticism against the Danish participation in the Iraq war.
In Argentina he is known as "Guido" Mortensen, after San Lorenzo de Almagro's retired player and former coach, Héctor "Bambino" Veira refers to him.
Mortensen has owned property near Sandpoint, Idaho, since the mid-1980s and spends time there when not filming movies.[12]
Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
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1985 | Witness | Moses Hochleitner | |
The Purple Rose of Cairo | (scenes deleted) | ||
1987 | Salvation! | Jerome Stample | |
1988 | Prison | Burke/Forsythe Electrocution | |
Fresh Horses | Green | ||
1990 | Once in a Blue Moon | TV | |
Tripwire | Hans | ||
Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III | Tex | ||
Young Guns II | John W. Poe | ||
The Reflecting Skin | Cameron Dove | ||
1991 | The Indian Runner | Frank Roberts | |
1993 | Boiling Point | Ronnie | |
Ruby Cairo | John E. 'Johnny' Faro | ||
Carlito's Way | Lalin | ||
The Young Americans | Carl Frazer | ||
American Yakuza | Nick Davis/David Brandt | ||
1994 | The Crew | Phillip | |
Floundering | Homeless Man | ||
Ewangelia wedlug Harry'ego | Wes | ||
1995 | Gimlet | Hombre | |
Crimson Tide | Lt. Peter 'WEAPS' Ince | ||
The Passion of Darkly Noon | Clay | ||
Black Velvet Pantsuit | Worthless Junkie | ||
The Prophecy | Lucifer | ||
1996 | Albino Alligator | Guy Foucard | |
Daylight | Roy Nord | ||
The Portrait of a Lady | Caspar Goodwood | ||
1997 | Vanishing Point | Jimmy Kowalski | TV |
G.I. Jane | Master Chief John James 'Jack' Urgayle | ||
Pistola de mi hermano, La | Juanito | ||
1998 | A Perfect Murder | David Shaw | |
Psycho | Samuel 'Sam' Loomis | ||
1999 | A Walk on the Moon | Walker Jerome | |
2000 | 28 Days | Eddie Boone | |
2001 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | Aragorn | |
2002 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | ||
2003 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | ||
2004 | Hidalgo | Frank Hopkins | |
2005 | A History of Violence | Tom Stall/Joey Cusack | |
2006 | Alatriste | Diego Alatriste y Tenorio | Nominated- Best Lead Actor (Goya Awards) |
2007 | Eastern Promises | Nikolai Luzhin | Won - Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film (British Independent Film Awards) Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama |
2008 | Slacker Uprising | (self) | Mortensen speaks at a 2004 "Slacker Uprising" rally in Columbus, Ohio. |
Appaloosa | Everett Hitch | ||
Good | Halder | awaiting release | |
The Road | The Man | post-production |
Persondata | |
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NAME | Mortensen, Viggo |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mortensen, Viggo Peter, Jr. |
SHORT DESCRIPTION | Golden Globe-award nominated American theater and movie actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter |
DATE OF BIRTH | October 20, 1958 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City, New York, USA |
DATE OF DEATH | |
PLACE OF DEATH |