Viggo Mortensen Biography
Born: October 20, 1958
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.
In 2007 MOrtensen teamed up for a second time with David Cornenberg, playing a Russian mob enforcer in Eastern Promises. His impressive work in the film garnered hiim strong reviews as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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