Willem Dafoe
William "Willem" Dafoe Jr. (born
July 22,
1955) is a versatile, award-winning and
Oscar-nominated
American film and
stage actor. He is a founding member of the
experimental theatre company
The Wooster Group.
William Dafoe has
Italian/
Irish/
German/
Puerto Rican ancestry. Born in
Appleton, Wisconsin, the seventh of eight children, he acquired the nickname "Willem" in childhood. 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, where he met director
Elizabeth LeCompte. LeCompte and Dafoe left the Performance Group together became professional collaborators, and began a relationship. Their son, Jack, was born in
1982. Dafoe married
Italian actress Giada Colagrande on
March 25,
2005.
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). He has since become a popular
character actor; due to his harsh facial features, he is often typecast as unstable or villainous characters, most recently the
Green Goblin in the
Spider-Man movies. 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 [
1]He also played
Jesus in
The Last Temptation of Christ (
1988), which moved
Sergio Leone to exclaim, "This is the face of a murderer, not of Our Lord!" 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.
Twice he has played peculiar detectives, once in
The Boondock Saints (
1999), and again 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.
*
Ratatouille (2007) .... Ratatouille's Dad (voice)
*
The Walker (2007)
*
Anamorph (2007) .... Stan Aubray
*
French Bean (2007)
*
Inside Man (2006) .... Captain Darius
*
American Dreamz (2006) .... Vice President Sutter
*
Before it Had a Name (2005) .... Leslie (also co-writer/written and directed by Colagrande)
*
Manderlay (2005) .... Grace's father
*
(2005) .... George Deckert
*
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) .... Klaus Daimler
*
Mr. Ripley's Return (2004) .... Murchison
*
The Aviator (2004) ....
Roland Sweet*
The Clearing (2004) .... Arnold Mack
*
Control (2004 Direct-to-video movie) .... Michael Copeland
*
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) .... Barillo
*
Finding Nemo (2003) .... Gill (voice)
*
Auto Focus (2002) ....
John Carpenter*
Spider-Man (2002) .... Norman Osborn/The
Green Goblin *
Bullfighter .... Father Ramirez
*
The Reckoning .... Martin
*
Edges of the Lord .... Priest
*
Pavilion of Women .... Father Andre
*
Shadow of the Vampire (2000) ....
Max Schreck*
Animal Factory .... Earl Copen
*
American Psycho (2000) .... Donald Kimball
*
The Boondock Saints (1999) ....
FBI Agent
Paul Smecker*
eXistenZ (1999) .... Gas
*
New Rose Hotel (1998) .... X
*
Lulu on the Bridge .... Dr. Van Horn
*
Affliction (1997) .... Rolfe Whitehouse
*
Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) .... John Geiger
*
The English Patient (film) (1996).... Caravaggio
*
Basquiat (1996) .... The Electrician
*
Victory .... Axel Heyst
*
The Night and the Moment (1995) .... The Writer
*
Tom & Viv (1994) ....
Thomas Stearns Eliot *
Clear and Present Danger (1994) .... John Clark
*
In weiter Ferne, so nah! .... Emit Flesti
*
Body of Evidence (1993) .... Frank Dulaney
*
Light Sleeper (1993) .... John LeTour
*
White Sands (1992) .... Deputy Sheriff Ray Dolezal
*
Flight of the Intruder .... Lt. Cmdr. Virgil 'Tiger' Cole
*
Wild at Heart (1990) .... Bobby Peru
*
Cry Baby (1990) .... Hateful Guard at Maryland Training School for Boys
*
Born on the Fourth of July (1989) .... Charlie - Villa Dulce
*
Triumph of the Spirit .... Salamo Arouch
*
Mississippi Burning (1988) .... Agent Ward
*
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) ....
Jesus*
Arrive Alive (unfinished) (1988)
*
Off Limits .... Sfc. Buck McGriff, CID
*
Platoon (1986) .... Sgt. Elias Grodin
*
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) .... Eric 'Rick' Masters
*
Roadhouse 66 .... Johnny Harte
*
Streets of Fire (1984) .... Raven Shaddock, Bombers Leader
*
New York Nights (1984) .... Boyfriend
*
The Hunger (1983) .... 2nd Phone Booth Youth
*
The Loveless (1982) .... Vance
*
Heaven's Gate (1980) .... Extra
* His birth name is William Dafoe. He changed it to "Willem" so people wouldn't call him "Billy."
*
*
Willem Dafoe Biography*
Profile and Gossips*
Interview with Willem Dafoe
