Willem Dafoe
| Willem Dafoe | |
|---|---|
 Willem Dafoe in September 2011 |
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| Born | William J. Dafoe July 22, 1955 Appleton, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, voice actor |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Spouse(s) | Giada Colagrande (2005–present) |
Willem Dafoe (born July 22, 1955) is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a member of the experimental theater company The Wooster Group. He has had roles in a wide range of films, including Platoon, Affliction, Off Limits, Streets of Fire, To Live and Die in L.A., Born on the Fourth of July, The English Patient, The Last Temptation of Christ, Mississippi Burning, Mr. Bean's Holiday, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Boondock Saints, Spider-Man, and The Aviator, and voice roles in Fantastic Mr. Fox and Finding Nemo.
Dafoe has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice - for Platoon in 1986 and for Shadow of the Vampire in 2000.
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Early life and career [edit]
Dafoe was born William J. Dafoe[1] in Appleton, Wisconsin. One of seven children of Muriel Isabel (née Sprissler)[2] and Dr. William Alfred Dafoe,[2][3] 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."[4] In high school, he acquired the nickname Willem.[5] His ancestry includes Irish, Scottish, and German.[2] 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 City in 1976.[5] There he apprenticed under Richard Schechner, director of the avant-garde theater troupe The Performance Group, and became romantically involved with the group's Elizabeth LeCompte, 11 years his senior and who, with her former romantic partner Spalding Gray and others, edged out Schechner and created the Wooster Group.[5] Within a year Dafoe was part of the company.[6]
Theater and film [edit]
Dafoe, who would continue with the Wooster Group into the 2000s,[7] began his film career in 1981, when he was cast in Heaven's Gate[8] only to see his role removed from the film during editing.[1] As Dafoe recalled of his first film experience, in which he played a cockfighter,
I worked for Jeff Bridges' character in the story. I was there for three months and I worked a lot. It was the kind of thing where you were hired to play an unscripted character and then they developed these smaller characters. I had scenes and everything and was really enjoying it and then one day we were doing a lighting setup for a long time; basically eight hours standing in place, and a woman told me a joke in my ear and I laughed at a moment of silence. Cimino turned around and said, 'Willem step out,' and that was that. I was the lamb for sacrifice."[9]
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. A year later he starred as the leader of a motorcycle gang in The Loveless, having played a similar role in Streets of Fire. He became "very conscious" that he might be typecast as a villain, saying in 1998,
...I really made a conscious effort to mix it up, not because in itself it's not the job of an actor to do all different things, but for me that's what I'm interested in. You've got to be careful because you've got to work with what you have, not just for vanity's sake, but I think the best part of being an actor sometimes is the opportunity to transform yourself superficially, and deeply. So, it's true in the beginning I started playing villains and I think that's pretty clear because if you don't conventionally look a certain way and you've got a certain kind of presence when you're young, then what's available to you is character roles and the best character roles when you're young tend to be villains. And, also, it's fun to be bad and the only problem is often villain roles are devices and they lack a certain depth. They're signs, they're signals and after a little while you want something to chew on and if you function in a film it's the same too often. I think what happens is you develop a language that distances you from a certain kind of flashpoint of inspiration and creativity and you may refine that and that may be your work, but I'm not so interested in that. I think the best work comes when you're unsure, when you're terrified, when you're off balance.[10]
Dafoe would go on to gain his widest exposure to that time 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."[11]
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.[12]
He starred in the erotic drama Body of Evidence with Madonna. In 1991, Willem Dafoe portrayed a Manhattan drug dealer in the Paul Schrader film Light Sleeper. Dafoe played an eccentric FBI agent in The Boondock Saints (1999) and a private investigator 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. 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, playing a Greek Jew, Salamo Arouch, who survived Auschwitz-Birkenau through his prowess as a boxer. In 1998 he was the brother of Nick Nolte and son of James Coburn in another Schrader film, Affliction.
He worked briefly as a model in a 1990 Prada campaign.[citation needed] 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 (2006).
In 2011, Dafoe began narrating a series of television commercials for the Greek yogurt company Fage.[13][14] Additionally, the actor is featured in Jim Beam's "Bold Decisions" television ad campaign, which began airing April 2011.[15]
Dafoe starred alongside Marina Abramović in the 2011 Manchester International Festival premiere of the play The Life and Death of Marina Abramović.[16][17]
Dafoe since 2010 voices Clarence the Birdseye polar bear mascot on the company's television commercials in the United Kingdom.[18]
Personal life [edit]
Dafoe met director Elizabeth LeCompte at The Performance Group and began a professional and personal relationship there and at its successor company, the Wooster Group. Their son, Jack, was born in 1982.[19] The pair eventually split in 2004.[20][21] 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.[19] The two worked together on the film Before It Had a Name.[19] The couple divide their time among Colagrande's native Italy,[7] New York City, and Los Angeles, California.[19]
Dafoe said in 2008 he is no longer a vegetarian.[22]
Dafoe's brother, Donald Dafoe, is a transplant surgeon and researcher.[23]
Filmography [edit]
Film [edit]
Television [edit]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | The Hitchhiker | Jeffrey Hunt | "Ghostwriter" |
| 1991 | Fishing With John | Himself | Segment: "Ice Fishing in Northern Maine" |
| 1997 | The Simpsons | The Commandant | Voice "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson" |
| 2007 | Family Guy | Himself | voice and likeness Lois Kills Stewie |
Video games [edit]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Spider-Man | Green Goblin / Norman Osborn | |
| 2004 | James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing | Nikolai Diavolo | Both voice and likeness |
| 2013 | Beyond: Two Souls | Nathan Dawkins | Both voice and likeness |
Other awards and nominations [edit]
- 2002: Won, "Special Award:For immense contribution to the art of film."
San Sebastian International Film Festival
- 2005: Won, Donostia Award
Stockholm International Film Festival
- 2012: Won, Stockholm Achievement Award
References [edit]
- ^ a b Marx, Rebecca Flint. "Willem Dafoe". All Movie Guide via The New York Times.
- ^ a b c "Dafoe". Ancestry.com public page. Archived from the original on November 20, 2009.
- ^ Isaac, Sara (August 12, 1988). "Actor Dafoe's Orlando Parents Support 'Last Temptation' Role". Orlando Sentinel (Florida). Archived from the original on Februyar 7, 2012.
- ^ Dafoe, Willem (November 21, 2009). "What I Know about Women". The Observer (UK). Archived from the original on November 26, 2009.
- ^ a b c Bromberg, Craig. "Wild at Heart". New York: 39.
- ^ Bromberg, p. 40
- ^ a b "Mr Bean's Holiday - Willem Dafoe interview". IndieLondon.co.uk. 2007 (date n.a.). Archived from the original on January 23, 2010. Retrieved February 8, 2012.
- ^ "Spalding Gray's Tortured Soul". The New York Times Magazine: p. 5 of online version. October 6, 2011. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- ^ "Willem Dafoe Fired from 'Heaven's Gate' Role". WENN via ATPictures.com. January 8, 2010. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2012.
- ^ "Willem Dafoe". UK: (Interview), The Guardian. November 8, 1998. Archived from the original on May 1, 2010.
- ^ Morra, Louis (Spring 1987). "Willem Dafoe". Bomb (19).
- ^ Batman Movie Online
- ^ Murg, Stephanie (March 10, 2011). "Mullen Makes Mouths Water, Eyes Widen with Mesmerizing Yogurt Commercial". Mediabistro.com. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2012.
- ^ Chapman, Mike (March 04, 2011). "Fage, 'Plain Extraordinary'". Adweek. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2012.
- ^ "Time Magazine Recognizes Jim Beam TV Commercial as One of Top 10 Ads of 2011". James B. Beam Distilling Company press release via PRNewswire.com. December 20, 2011. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2012.
- ^ Youngs, Ian (7 July 2011). "Marina Abramovic stages life and death". BBC News. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
- ^ Dorment, Richard (11 July 2011). "The Life and Death of Marina Abramovich, Manchester International Festival, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
- ^ Sweney, Mark (May 10, 2010). "Willem Dafoe voices Birds Eye ad". The Guardian (UK).
- ^ a b c d "Willem and Giada Dafoe". English-language website of Vogue Italia. March 4, 2010. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2012.
- ^ Spalding Gray (20 October 2011). "Spalding Gray on Hollywood, Writing, and Willem Dafoe". Slate. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
- ^ "Willem Dafoe - Dafoe Trades Old Love For Young New Flame". Contactmusic. 2 March 2004. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
- ^ "Willem Dafoe Is No Longer A Vegetarian", Starpulse.com, April 16, 2008
- ^ "Pancreas Transplant Director Donald Dafoe Joins Cedars-Sinai". Cedars-Sinai Medical Center press release via Newswise.com. May 13, 2005. Archived from the original on December 9, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
- ^ "Willem Dafoe Fandango filmography". Online database. Fandango. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
External links [edit]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Willem Dafoe |
- Willem Dafoe at the Internet Movie Database
- Willem Dafoe at AllRovi
- Willem Dafoe Biography
- The Onion A.V. Club interview
- Oney, Steve (December 3, 1989). "FILM; Willem Dafoe, Looking for Characters With Possibility". The New York Times. p. 6.
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- 1955 births
- Actors from Wisconsin
- American expatriates in Italy
- American film actors
- American male models
- American voice actors
- American people of German descent
- American people of Irish descent
- American people of Scottish descent
- Independent Spirit Award winners
- Living people
- People from Appleton, Wisconsin
- University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni
- 20th-century American actors
- 21st-century American actors
