Willem Dafoe – MovieActors.com

About Willem Dafoe (1955 – ____)

William James Dafoe, known professionally as Willem Dafoe was born in Appleton, Wisconsin. One of eight children of Muriel Isabel (née Sprissler) and Dr. William Alfred Dafoe (1917-2014), he recalled in 2009: "My five sisters raised me because my father was a surgeon, my mother was a nurse and they worked together, so I didn't see either of them much." He has German, English, Irish, Scottish, and French ancestry. In high school, he acquired the nickname Willem, which is the Dutch version of the name William.

Dafoe studied drama at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, but left after a year and a half to join the experimental theater company Theatre X in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, before moving to New York in 1976. There he apprenticed under Richard Schechner, director of the avant-garde theater troupe The Performance Group, where he met and became romantically involved with Elizabeth LeCompte. She, with her one-time romantic partner Spalding Gray and others, edged out Schechner and created the Wooster Group. Within a year Dafoe was part of the company.

Dafoe, who would continue with the Wooster Group into the 2000s, began his film career in 1981, when he was cast in Heaven's Gate only to see his role removed from the film during editing.

In 1982, he starred as the leader of an Outlaw motorcycle club in The Loveless, and then played a similar role in Streets of Fire (1984). In the mid-1980s, he was cast by William Friedkin to star in To Live and Die in L.A., in which Dafoe portrays counterfeiter Rick Masters. He became "very conscious" that he might be typecast as a villain.

Dafoe would go on to gain his widest exposure up to that point playing the compassionate Sergeant Elias in Oliver Stone's Platoon. He enjoyed the opportunity to play a heroic role, and said the film gave him a chance to display his versatility. "I think all characters live in you. You just frame them, give them circumstances, and that character will happen."

In 1988, Dafoe starred in another film set during the Vietnam War, this time as CID Agent Buck McGriff in Off Limits. He has since become a popular character actor. He is often cast as unstable or villainous characters, such as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man and Barillo in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Before that, he was briefly considered for the role of the Joker by Tim Burton and Sam Hamm for 1989's Batman. Hamm recalls "We thought, 'Well, Willem Dafoe looks just like The Joker.'" The role eventually went to Jack Nicholson.

Dafoe starred in the erotic drama Body of Evidence with Madonna. In 1991, he portrayed a Manhattan drug dealer in the Paul Schrader film Light Sleeper. Dafoe played an eccentric FBI agent in The Boondock Saints and a private investigator in American Psycho. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1986 for Platoon and 2000 for Shadow of the Vampire. He played a rare heroic film role when he provided the voice of Gill in the animated film Finding Nemo. Dafoe also played a heroic leading man in Triumph of the Spirit, Salamo Arouch, a Greek Jew who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp through his prowess as a boxer. In 1998 he played the brother of Nick Nolte and son of James Coburn in another Schrader film, Affliction.

In 2004, Dafoe lent his likeness and voice for the James Bond video game Everything or Nothing as the villain Nikolai Diavolo, and starred as NYPD detective Stan Aubray in the thriller Anamorph. From 2002 to 2007, he played the villain Green Goblin in the Spider-Man trilogy.

Dafoe starred alongside Marina Abramović and his A Family Man co-star Gretchen Mol in the 2011 Manchester International Festival premiere of the play The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, and played the role again in the 2013 Luminato Festival North American premiere of the play The Life and Death of Marina Abramović.

Dafoe played fictional author Peter Van Houten in the film adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars. In 2017, he played and voiced Ryuk in Death Note, the American adaptation of the Japanese manga of the same name. Also that year, he played scientist Nuidis Vulko in Zack Snyder's Justice League; co-starred as Gerhard Hardman in a film adaptation of Agatha Christie's detective novel Murder on the Orient Express, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh; and played Bobby Hicks in the drama The Florida Project, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his performance.

Dafoe met director Elizabeth LeCompte at The Performance Group, and the two began a professional and personal relationship there and at its successor company, The Wooster Group. Their son, Jack, was born in 1982.

Dafoe married Italian actress, director and screenwriter Giada Colagrande on March 25, 2005, a year after the two had met in Rome at the premiere of one of her films. Dafoe said in 2010, "We were having lunch and I said: 'Do you want to get married tomorrow?'" They did so the following afternoon at a small ceremony with two friends as witnesses. The two worked together on the film Before It Had a Name. The couple divide their time among Rome, New York City, and Los Angeles. He now holds both Italian and American citizenship.

Dafoe said in 2008 that he is no longer practicing vegetarianism. His brother, Donald Dafoe, is a transplant surgeon and researcher.

In June 2016, he stirred up controversy in Italy while visiting The Floating Piers on Lake Iseo. Dafoe was photographed on a section while thousands of people were denied access. The local press suggested the closure might have been orchestrated to allow Dafoe to enjoy the installation without the crowds.

Willem Dafoe's movie credits include...

Year	Movie	Role
1980	Heaven's Gate	Willy
1982	The Loveless	Vance
1983	The Hunger	Youth in Phone Booth
1984	New York Nights	Punk Boyfriend[35]
1984	Streets of Fire	Raven Shaddock
1985	Roadhouse 66	Johnny Harte
1985	To Live and Die in L.A.	Erick "Rick" Masters
1986	Platoon	Sergeant Gordon Elias
1987	Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam	Elephant Grass
1988	Off Limits	Buck McGriff
1988	The Last Temptation of Christ	Jesus of Nazareth
1988	Mississippi Burning	Agent Alan Ward
1989	Triumph of the Spirit	Salamo Arouch
1989	Born on the Fourth of July	Charlie
1990	Cry-Baby	Hateful Guard
1990	Wild at Heart	Bobby Peru
1991	Flight of the Intruder	Lt. Cmdr. Virgil "Tiger" Cole
1992	Light Sleeper	John LeTour
1992	White Sands	Deputy Sheriff Ray Dolezal
1993	Body of Evidence	Frank Dulaney
1993	Faraway, So Close!	Emit Flesti
1994	Tom & Viv	T. S. Eliot
1994	Clear and Present Danger	John Clark
1994	The Night and the Moment	The Writer
1996	Victory	Axel Heyst
1996	Basquiat	The Electrician
1996	The English Patient	David Caravaggio
1997	Speed 2: Cruise Control	John Geiger
1997	Affliction	Rolfe Whitehouse
1998	Lulu on the Bridge	Dr. Van Horn
1998	New Rose Hotel	X
1999	Existenz	Gas
1999	The Boondock Saints	Agent Paul Smecker
2000	American Psycho	Donald Kimball
2000	Animal Factory	Earl Copen
2000	Shadow of the Vampire	Max Schreck
2000	Bullfighter	Father Ramirez
2001	Pavilion of Women	Father Andre
2001	Edges of the Lord	Priest
2002	Spider-Man	Norman Osborn/Green Goblin
2002	Auto Focus	John Henry Carpenter
2003	Finding Nemo	Gill
2003	Once Upon a Time in Mexico	Armando Barillo
2003	The Reckoning	Martin
2004	The Clearing	Arnold Mack
2004	Spider-Man 2	Norman Osborn
2004	The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou	Klaus Daimler
2004	Control	Dr. Michael Copeland
2004	Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate	Narrator
2004	The Aviator	Roland Sweet
2005	XXX: State of the Union	General George Deckert
2005	Manderlay	Mr. Mulligan
2005	Before It Had a Name	Leslie
2005	Ripley Under Ground	Neil Murchison
2006	American Dreamz	Chief of Staff
2006	Inside Man	Captain John Darius
2006	Paris, je t'aime	The Cowboy
2007	The Walker	Larry Lockner
2007	Mr. Bean's Holiday	Carson Clay
2007	Spider-Man 3	Norman Osborn
2007	Tales from Earthsea	Cob
2007	Go Go Tales	Ray Ruby
2007	The Procedure	Christopher
2007	Anamorph	Stan Aubrey
2008	Fireflies in the Garden	Charles Waechter
2008	Adam Resurrected	Commandant Klein
2008	The Dust of Time	A
2009	Antichrist	He
2009	Affaire Farewell	Feeney
2009	My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?	Detective Havenhurst
2009	Daybreakers	Lionel "Elvis" Cormac
2009	Fantastic Mr. Fox	Rat
2009	The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day	Paul Smecker
2009	Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant	Gavner Purl
2010	Miral	Eddie
2010	A Woman	Max Oliver
2011	4:44 Last Day on Earth	Cisco
2011	The Hunter	Martin David
2012	John Carter	Tars Tarkas
2012	Tomorrow You're Gone	The Buddha
2013	Odd Thomas	Wyatt Porter
2013	Out of the Furnace	John Petty
2013	Nymphomaniac	L
2014	A Most Wanted Man	Tommy Brue
2014	The Grand Budapest Hotel	J.G. Jopling
2014	Bad Country	Bud Carter
2014	The Fault in Our Stars	Peter Van Houten
2014	Pasolini	Pier Paolo Pasolini
2014	John Wick	Marcus
2016	My Hindu Friend	Diego Fairman
2016	Dog Eat Dog	Mad Dog
2016	Finding Dory	Gill
2016	The Headhunter's Calling	Ed Blackridge
2016	Sculpt
2016	The Great Wall	Ballard
2017	Do Donkeys Act?	Narrator
2017	The Florida Project	Bobby Hicks
2017	What Happened to Monday	Terrence Settman
2017	Mountain	Narrator
2017	Death Note	Ryuk
2017	Justice League	Nuidis Vulko
2017	Murder on the Orient Express	Gerhard Hardman
2017	Opus Zero	Paul
2018	Aquaman	Nuidis Vulko
2018	At Eternity's Gate	Vincent Van Gogh
2019	Motherless Brooklyn	Paul Randolph

Willem Dafoe's television credits include...

Year	Show/Series	Role
1986	The Hitchhiker	Jeffrey Hunt
1991	Fishing with John	Himself
1997	The Simpsons	The Commandant (voice)
2010	American Experience	Narrator (voice)
2014	The Simpsons	Mr. Lassen (voice)
2017	Piigs	Narrator

Academy Nominations/Awards won by Willem Dafoe include...

Year	Movie	Award
1986	Platoon	Best Supporting Actor (nominated)
2000	Shadow of the Vampire	Best Supporting Actor (nominated)
2017	The Florida Project	Best Supporting Actor (nominated)

Memorable Quotes by Willem Dafoe

[on his role in The Last Temptation of Christ] “ To this day, I can't believe I was so brazen to think I could pull off the Jesus role. ”

“ I don't think people want to see me as a regular guy, besides, I'm a regular guy in real life. I guess I just want to be reckless in my work. ”

“ I'm one of those people who when I go over a bridge, I want to jump. It's just this intense tickle in the back of my throat. It's like I'm on the verge the whole time I'm walking over that bridge, and I'm not going to get a release until I jump. ”

“ I never act. I simply bring out the real animal that's in me. ”

“ When you look back at your experiences, it's true that sometimes the most horrendous experiences can translate into being your best work. ”

“ All the time, as an actor, you want to be asking what's next and where things are going. If you're not asking those questions you're not growing. ”

Things You May Not Know About Willem Dafoe

His high school nickname, Willem, stuck with him.

Says he feels like he's missed out on more conventional roles because he's perceived as an eccentric actor in dark little films, kind of the boy-next-door type - if you lived next door to a mausoleum.

He was delirious for 24 hours after coming down with yellow fever on the set of Platoon.

The only actor to ever be nominated for an Oscar for playing a vampire, for his role as Max Schrek in Shadow of the Vampire.

He practices Yoga regularly.

He has German, English, Irish, Northern Irish, Scottish, Swiss-French, and French ancestry. Many of his antecedents lived in Canada.