Background

Christopher Walken was born on March 31, 1943 in Astoria, New York, United States. Son of Paul Walken.

Education

Walken took dancing lessons as a young child and auditioned for the many bit parts that were open to children in live television dramas. He attended the Professional Children’s School, a school for child actors.

Career

He began his career at the age of seven when his mother landed him and his brothers, Kenneth and Glenn, jobs as catalogue models. By the mid-1950s he was starring in the CBS daytime serial Guiding Light a role he often swapped with Glenn while training as a dancer.

As far as the actor was concerned, his future always lay in showbiz but his original choice of path was that of a dancer. He studied dance from an early age and has managed to work some sort of routine into practically every one of his major roles, and in 2001 he won an MTV Video Music Award for choreographing his own moves in Fatboy Slim's music video Weapon Of Choice.. Acting was to cast its spell, however, and since his 1959 Broadway debut in JB, Christopher has never looked back.

"I was in showbiz since I was a kid," he says. "My mind, the way it works, is in show business, always has been. People talk to me about things, income tax, real estate, plumbing I have no idea what they are talking about... Acting is all I know."

After a spell as a lion tamer, the actor returned to Broadway in the mid-Sixties with the new name "Christopher" where he started out with chorus roles in Broadway musicals such as Baker Street. Before long he was earning glowing reviews for turns in historical dramas such as 1966's The Lion In Winter, and a lead in Shakespeare's Measure For Measure in the same year, building a reputation as a galvanising stage performer. In the Seventies, he wowed critics with such diverse fare as the title roles in Macbeth and Kid Champion, for which he received a Village Voice OBIE award in 1975.

With theatrical success came the jump into cinema. Christopher had made an impression in the 1971 Sidney Lumet thriller The Anderson Tapes, but it was not until Annie Hall in 1977 that his film career really began to take off. Then came The Deer Hunter and an Oscar, and suddenly he was a major player.

He surprised audiences in 1981's Pennies From Heaven with a show-stopping dance routine, and two years later was perfectly cast in The Dead Zone as a man cursed with the ability to see into the future. In his role as the oddball drill sergeant in 1986's Biloxi Blues Christopher exhibited his rarely seen comic ability, but by the end of the decade he was back to his old malevolent acting self as a mobster/philanthropist in the ultra-violent King Of New York.

Despite a set of warm portrayals opposite Glenn Close in the Sarah: Plain And Tall TV film series, feature film casting directors still seem to favour him as the bad guy. He was particularly effective as the flamboyant villain Max Shreck in 1992's Batman Returns and will be well remembered for the small but pivotal role of a war veteran explaining the strange history of a gold watch in Quentin Tarantino's seminal work Pulp Fiction in 1995.

While he may play the bad guy on screen, Christopher's personal life is far more tranquil. He met his wife Georgianne, an award-winning casting agent, in the Sixties and the couple have been happily married since 1969. "Off screen, I'm ordinary, predicable, and very conservative," he said in 1997. "I have two houses, a station wagon, cats, the same wife of 28 years, and I like to save money."

Works

Works Gallery

• Movie

  • Saturday Night Live (SNL) The Best of Christopher Walken: Lorne Michaels: Amazon Digital Services LLC

    (Buy Saturday Night Live (SNL) The Best of Christopher Wal...)

  • Who Am I This Time?: Susan Sarandon, Christopher Walken, Robert Ridgely, Jonathan Demme: Amazon Digital Services LLC

    (Buy Who Am I This Time?: Read 164 Movies & TV Reviews - A...)

  • Seven Psychopaths: Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken: Amazon Digital Services LLC

    (Buy Seven Psychopaths: Read 3476 Movies & TV Reviews - Am...)

  • King of New York: Christopher Walken, Larry Fishburne, David Caruso, Wesley Snipes

    (Buy King of New York: Read 323 Movies & TV Reviews - Amaz...)

  • Suicide Kings: Christopher Walken, Denis Leary, Nina Siemaszko, Peter O'Fallon: Amazon Digital Services LLC

    (Buy Suicide Kings: Read 238 Movies & TV Reviews - Amazon.com)

  • The Dead Zone: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom: Amazon Digital Services LLC

    (Buy The Dead Zone: Read 729 Movies & TV Reviews - Amazon.com)

  • The Prophecy: Christopher Walken, Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen, Eric Stoltz

    (Buy The Prophecy: Read 170 Movies & TV Reviews - Amazon.com)

  • Vendetta: Christopher Walken, Clancy Brown, Bruce Davison, Joaquim de Almeida: Amazon Digital Services LLC

    (Buy Vendetta: Read 72 Movies & TV Reviews - Amazon.com)

  • Eternal: Christopher Walken, Alison Elliott, Michael Almereyda

    (Buy Eternal: Read 65 Movies & TV Reviews - Amazon.com)

Politics

Walken endorsed President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012.

Views

Quotations: I don't need to be made to look evil. I can do that on my own.

I make movies that nobody will see. I've made movies that even I have never seen.

If you want to learn how to build a house, build a house. Don't ask anybody, just build a house.

Interests

• Writers

  Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"

• Sport & Clubs

  golf

• Other Interests

  cooking

• Music & Bands

  old music

Connections

Walken married Georgianne Walken (née Thon), a casting director, in 1969. She is most notable for The Sopranos. The couple have no children. Walken has stated in interviews that having no children is one of the reasons he has had such a prolific film career. The Walkens have a cat named Bowtie and their previous cat was named Flapjack. The couple lives in Wilton, Connecticut and they also have a vacation home on Block Island, Rhode Island.

father:

Paul Walken

He migrated from Germany in 1928 with his brothers, Wilhelm and Alois.His father owned and operated Walken's Bakery in Astoria. He was raised a Methodist.

mother:

Rosalie

She was a Scottish immigrant from Glasgow

wife:

Georgianne Walken - United States

brother:

Glenn Walken - United States

brother:

Ken Walken - United States