Willem Dafoe

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Willem Dafoe

Table of Free Voices, Berlin, September 9, 2006
Birth name William J. Dafoe
Born July 22, 1955 (1955-07-22) (age 52)
Appleton, Wisconsin
Spouse(s) Giada Colagrande (2005-)

Willem Dafoe (born July 22, 1955) is a two-time Academy Award-nominated American film and stage actor and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group. He is best known for his roles in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) as Jesus, Platoon (1986) as Sergeant Elias K. Grodin , Shadow of the Vampire (2000) as Max Schreck and the Spider-Man films (2002-2007) as Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin.

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Dafoe, the seventh of eight children, was born William J. Dafoe in Appleton, Wisconsin, the son of Muriel Isabel (née Sprissler), a nurse and Boston native, and Dr. William Alfred Dafoe, a surgeon.[1] His paternal grandfather was from Ontario, Canada.[2] His birth name is William Dafoe; he changed it to "Willem" (Dutch for "William") so people wouldn't call him "Billy". After graduating from Appleton East High School, he studied drama at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, but left before graduation in order to join the newly formed avant-garde group Theatre X.

After touring with Theatre X for four years in the United States and Europe, he moved to New York City and joined the Performance Group. Dafoe's film career began in 1981, when he was cast in Heaven's Gate, but his role was removed from the film during editing. A year later he starred as the leader of a motorcycle gang in The Loveless (and later played a similar role in Streets of Fire), but his first breakthrough film role was as the compassionate Sergeant Elias in Platoon (1986). In 1988 Dafoe starred in another movie set in Vietnam, this time as CID Agent Buck McGriff in Off Limits. He has since become a popular character actor; due to his harsh facial features, he is often typecast as unstable or villainous characters, such as the psychotic Green Goblin in the Spider-Man film series 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 the Batman film in 1989. Hamm recalls "We thought, 'Well, Willem Dafoe looks just like The Joker.'" The role ended up going to Jack Nicholson.[3] He also played Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). He once remarked "To this day, I can't believe I was so brazen to think I could pull off the Jesus role," though Dafoe received acclaim despite the controversy surrounding the film.

Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin in the Spider-Man film.
Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin in the Spider-Man film.

He starred in the erotic drama Body of Evidence with Madonna. In this film, he appeared totally nude, as well as giving Madonna cunnilingus in a famous scene in a carpark. Dafoe played peculiar detectives in The Boondock Saints (1999) and in American Psycho (2000). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1986 for Platoon and 2000 for Shadow of the Vampire. After Spider-Man, Dafoe had a rare opportunity to play a heroic film role when he provided the voice of Gill in the animated movie Finding Nemo.

He worked briefly as a model in a 1990 Prada campaign. In 2004, Dafoe lent his likeness and voice for the highly successful James Bond video game Everything or Nothing as villain Nikolai Diavolo. In 2006, he played NYPD detective Stan Aubray on the hunt for a serial killer, the lead in New York-set thriller Anamorph, opposite Scott Speedman and Peter Stormare. In his most recent film he stars alongside Rowan Atkinson in the sequel to 1997's Bean, Mr. Bean's Holiday which was released worldwide 30th March 2007.

Dafoe met director Elizabeth LeCompte at the Performance Group. LeCompte and Dafoe were part of the restructuring of The Performance Group and became professional collaborators and founding members of The Wooster Group, and began a relationship. Their son, Jack, was born in 1982.

Dafoe married Italian director and actress Giada Colagrande on March 25, 2005.

Dafoe is also part-owner of a restaurant with friend and fellow actor John C. McGinley.

  1. ^ http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/biographies/willem_dafoe_biog.html
  2. ^ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/celeb/dafoe.htm
  3. ^ http://www.batmanmovieonline.com/behindthescenes/articles/samhamm.htm

Persondata
NAME Dafoe, Willem
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American actor
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Appleton, Wisconsin, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Dafoe"
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