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Viggo Mortensen

, Actor/Artist
Viggo Mortensen
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  • Born: 20 October 1958
  • Birthplace: New York, New York
  • Best Known As: Aragorn in the movie series The Lord of the Rings

An actor, poet, painter and photographer, Viggo Mortensen got into the movies in the mid-1980s, starting with small roles in big movies and big roles in small movies. His big-budget breakthrough was with Gwyneth Paltrow and Michael Douglas in The Perfect Murder (1998). The same year he co-starred in the Gus Van Sant re-make of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (starring Vince Vaughn). Mortensen became a major star after being cast as the rugged, royal-blooded Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings movies, director Peter Jackson's ambitious trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classic. A bankable leading man, he has since starred in Hidalgo (2004) and the David Cronenberg films A History of Violence (2005, with William Hurt) and Eastern Promises (2007, co-starring Naomi Watts).

The three LOTR films were The Fellowship of the Ring (released in 2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003)... Mortensen was once married to punk rock singer Exene Cervenka of the band X (1987-98).

 
 
Actor:

Viggo Mortensen

  • Born: Oct 20, 1958
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '90s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Thriller
  • Career Highlights: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, A Walk on the Moon, The Indian Runner
  • First Major Screen Credit: Salvation! (1987)

Biography

Critically acclaimed actor Viggo Mortensen made his feature-film debut playing Alexander Godunov's Amish brother in Witness (1985). The suave, handsome actor has subsequently portrayed a wide variety of characters, often unapologetic bad boys, opposite some of Hollywood's most popular actors, including Sylvester Stallone, Demi Moore, and Nicole Kidman.

Born in New York City, on October 20, 1958, to an American mother and a Danish father, Mortensen spent his first years in Manhattan and the rest of his youth living in Argentina, Venezuela, and Denmark. Returning to Manhattan in the early '80s, he studied acting at Warren Robertson's Theatre Workshop and then embarked upon a stage career before moving to Los Angeles. There, he earned a Dramalogue Critics Award for his performance in a Coast Playhouse production of Bent and became a familiar figure on the L.A. punk scene (something that was aided by his brief marriage to Exene Cervenka, lead singer of the punk band X). Following his debut in Witness, Mortensen began working steadily in a number of diverse films, becoming a familiar but not instantly recognizable face to filmgoers. He did some of his more memorable work as a series of louts and villains, in such films as The Indian Runner (1991, written and directed by Sean Penn), which cast him as David Morse's morally questionable brother; Carlito's Way (1993), in which he played a paraplegic ex-con who tries to snitch on Al Pacino; and The Prophecy (aka God's Army) (1995), which required the actor, in the role of Lucifer, to rip out Christopher Walken's heart and then eat it.

Mortensen finally attained a greater measure of recognition with his smoldering portrayal of one of Isabel Archer's (Nicole Kidman) suitors in Jane Campion's 1996 adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady. He then made another strong impression as Demi Moore's rough, tough, and buff training instructor in G.I. Jane (1997) and, the following year, he was one of the few redeeming features of A Perfect Murder, in which he supplied sexy menace (as well as his own art work) as Gwyneth Paltrow's murderous artist lover. He allowed his softer side to come through in Tony Goldwyn's acclaimed A Walk on the Moon (1999), which cast him as the hippie lover of a dissatisfied housewife (Diane Lane) in Woodstock-era upstate New York. His more romantic side was again in evidence in the romantic drama 28 Days (2000), in which he played recovering party girl Sandra Bullock's rehab honey.

Replacing Irish actor Stuart Townsend in the role of Aragorn shortly after production had begun on director Peter Jackson's eagerly anticipated film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Mortensen secured a strong screen presence through 2003, with the release of the trilogy's final installment, The Return of the King. In 2004, he proved that he could carry a film on his own when he starred as Wild West adventurer Frank T. Hopkins in the horse-racing period film Hidalgo. In 2005, the actor won critical raves when he headlined the visceral David Cronenberg crime thriller A History of Violence, vis-a-vis Ed Harris and William Hurt; as Tom Stall, a seemingly open-faced small-town Hoosier whose dark and brutal past comes to light during a diner robbery, Mortensen lent the film a great deal of momentum and held audiences rapt. History received two Academy Award nominations, though Mortensen failed to net one for Best Actor.

Mortensen returned to period adventures in 2006 when he played the titular solider-turned-mercenary in Agustín Díaz Yanes' Spanish-language film Alatriste, set during Spain's 16th century imperial wars.

~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

 
Wikipedia: Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen
ViggoMortensen.jpg
Viggo Mortensen at a premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, December 1, 2003
Birth name Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr.
Born October 20 1958 (1958--) (age 49)
New York City, New York, Flag of the United States United States
Years active 1984 - present
Spouse(s) Exene Cervenka (1987 - 1998)

Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. (born October 20, 1958) is an American-Danish theater and movie actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter. He is known for his role as Aragorn in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Biography

Personal life

Mortensen was born in New York City. His Danish father, Viggo Peter Mortensen, Sr. (a farm manager who worked in business), and American mother, Grace Gamble (née Atkinson), met in Norway.[1][2] His maternal grandfather was Canadian.[3] His family moved to Venezuela, Argentina and Denmark, settling in Argentina, where his father managed chicken farms and ranches.[4] They remained there until Viggo was age eleven, when his parents divorced and his mother moved back to New York. He moved with his father to Copenhagen, Denmark. Viggo and his father eventually went back to the United States where Viggo graduated from Watertown High School. 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.

Mortensen has a son, Henry Mortensen, with ex-wife Exene Cervenka of the 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 has dual citizenship in the US and Denmark.

Mortensen is an ice hockey fan, particularly of the Montreal Canadiens. He also loves football, and is a big fan of all time Argentinean star Diego Maradona and both the Argentine and Danish national teams, as well as Argentine club San Lorenzo de Almagro.[5] In 1993, Mortensen went to Ireland during a break in shooting without the consent of the production company, to watch Denmark play in an important 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 Denmark Mortensen is known for his support for the Freetown Christiania and criticism against the Danish participation in the Iraq war.

Acting career

After several years of experience in live theater, he made his first movie appearance playing an Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness. (Mortensen had actually been cast 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.

Prior to his casting in The Lord of the Rings, Mortensen appeared in 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, Betty Thomas's 28 Days and The Prophecy with Christopher Walken.

Prior to playing Aragorn, Mortensen was probably best known for playing Master Chief John Urgayle in G.I. Jane.[6]

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. 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 interviewed by eTalk Daily, 2005 Toronto Film Festival for A History of Violence, photo by Tony Shek
Enlarge
Mortensen interviewed by eTalk Daily, 2005 Toronto Film Festival for A History of Violence, photo by Tony Shek

In 2004, he 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 (see Roger Ebert's review among others). Viggo plays a Russian gangster on the rise in London. His nude fight scene in a steam room brought this comment by Roger Ebert: "Years from now, it will be referred to as a benchmark."[citation needed] Also in September 2007, either Mortensen himself or a like-alike appeared on an episode of The Colbert Report wherein Stephen considers running for President. As Colbert asks for a sign, Viggo appears in costume, offering Stephen his sword as would a knight.

Bibliography

Mortensen is also an author, with various books of poetry, photography, and painting published. His bibliography includes:

  • Ten Last Night - (1993), his first collection of poetry.
  • Recent Forgeries - (1998), ISBN, 5th Edition, documents Viggo's first solo exhibition and includes a CD with music and spoken-word poetry. Introduction by Dennis Hopper.
  • Errant Vine - (2000), limited edition booklet of an exhibit at the Robert Mann Gallery. Only about 300 were published at the time of the exhibition so it is a very rare book.
  • Hole in the Sun - (2002, ISBN), color and black and white photographs of a back yard swimming pool.
  • Coincidence of Memory - (2002, ISBN Third Edition, in this book, the artist combines photographs, paintings, and poems that cover his artistic output from 1978 to 2002.
  • 45301 - (2003), ISBN, Abstract images, fragments and phrases from poems create this photography book. Many of the photographs were shot during travels to Morocco, Cuba, and the northern plains of the United States.
  • Un hueco en el sol - (2003), a small booklet was published to accompany the exhibition "Un hueco en el sol" at the Fototeca de Cuba in Havana. In Spanish.
  • Miyelo - (2003), ISBN-X), a series of panoramic photographs of a Lakota Ghost Dance. It also tells about the events leading up to the massacre at Wounded Knee.
  • The Horse is Good - (2004), ISBN, a photography book, partly shot during his work on the film Hidalgo, about horses as partners, teachers, and fellow travelers. Images from Morocco, South Dakota, Montana, California, Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark, Brazil, Argentina. This book reflects Mortensen's fondness for horses. In fact, he bought Uraeus, the horse who played Brego in The Lord of the Rings movies (Roheryn in the books), which is Aragorn's steed; as well as TJ, one of the horses who played Hidalgo. He also purchased the stallion that played Arwen's horse, a grey Andalusian stallion named Florian, and gave it to the stunt woman who rode the horse in place of Liv Tyler.

With part of his earnings from The Lord of the Rings, he founded the Perceval Press publishing house — named for the knight from the legend of King Arthur — to help other artists by publishing avant-garde works that might not find a home in more traditional publishing venues.

Visual arts and discography

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 several appeared in A Perfect Murder.

Mortensen experiments with his poetry and music by mixing the two art forms. He has collaborated with guitar virtuoso Buckethead on 6 albums. His discography includes: Don't Tell Me What to Do, Intelligence Failure, One Less Thing to Worry About, One Man's Meat, Live at Beyond Baroque, The Other Parade, This That and The Other, Live at Beyond Baroque 2, Pandemoniumfromamerica, and Please Tomorrow.

His latest CD/DVD, 3 Fools 4 April, documents the poetry readings given on April Fool's Day 2006 at the Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice, California.

His voice 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. His poems are written in English, Danish, and Spanish.

Filmography

Year Film Role Other notes
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
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
2006 Alatriste Diego Alatriste y Tenorio
2007 Eastern Promises Nikolai Luzhin
2008 Good Halder Post-Preduction
Appaloosa Everett Hitch Pre-Production

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  1. ^ Film Reference website
  2. ^ http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=133016&ran=177221
  3. ^ Rootsweb Celebrities website
  4. ^ [Pearlman, Cindy. Chicago Sun-Times, "Superstar Viggo's a serious soul at heart," 9 Sept, 2007
  5. ^ Interview with Clarín (Spanish)
  6. ^ Applebaum, Stephen. "Mortensen's battle scars", BBC News, bbc.co.uk, 2002-12-05. 

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Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the Viggo Mortensen biography from Who2.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Viggo Mortensen" Read more

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