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Platoon Soldier
Background:
"To this day, I can't believe I was so brazen to think I could pull off the
Jesus role." Willem Dafoe
Oscar nominated actor who gained notice for playing the controversial role of
Jesus in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Willem Dafoe
received critical acclaim while portraying Sgt. Elias in Oliver Stone's Platoon
(1986) and for playing Max Schrek in Shadow of the Vampire (2000). The character
actor was also widely recognized for his part in such films as Light Sleeper
(1992), Clear and Present Danger (1994), Tom & Viv (1994), The English Patient
(1996), Speed 2 (1997) and Spider-Man (2002 and 2004). His recent films included
The Aviator, Ripley Under Ground, and xXx: State of the Union.
As for his private life, since 1977 Dafoe had been involved with theater
director and actress Elizabeth LeCompte (also member and director of the Wooster
Group). They have one son. Currently, the 50-year-old, 5' 9½" tall Dafoe is
dating Italian director Giada.
Vegetarian Billy
Childhood and Family:
"I don't think people want to see me as a regular guy. Besides, I'm a regular
guy in real life. I guess I just want to be reckless in my work." Willem Dafoe
On July 22, 1955, William Dafoe Jr. was born in Appleton, Wisconsin. The seventh
of eight children to father Willem Dafoe (doctor), William Dafoe Jr. has five
sisters and two brothers.
William Dafoe Jr. was known as Billy while attending the Einstein Junior High
School in Appleton, Wisconsin and received the nickname Willem while studying at
the Appleton East High School. Having been interested in acting since his early
years, Willem continued studying Drama at the University of Wisconsin, but later
dropped out.
Willem is a vegetarian, regularly practices yoga and co-owns a restaurant with
Platoon costar actor John C. McGinley. He also has a son named Jack (born in
1982), from his former long-time relationship with director and actress
Elizabeth LeCompte (born April 28, 1944).
Shadow Of The Vampire
Career:
"Casting people feel that they have to get someone who looks a certain way, and
I think that jury is still out whether people find me attractive or not." Willem
Dafoe
Starting his acting stint in such university productions as "The Devils" and
"Sleeping Beauty," Dafoe left college to join an experimental community theater
called Theater X. With them, he performed in "Offending the Audience," "Phaedre"
and "Razor Blades" while touring around the United States and Europe for four
years. In 1977, Dafoe headed to New York to sign up with the advanced theater
company Wooster Group, in which he debuted with the "Nayatt School" production.
Dafoe would first be seen in Michael Cimino's western drama Heaven's Gate (1980,
starring Kris Kristofferson and Christopher Walken), playing a role that was
later cut from the screen. He rebounded two years later with his initial leading
role as one in a group of reckless bikers in Kathryn Bigelow and Monty
Montgomery's drama The Loveless (costarring J. Don Ferguson and Liz Gans).
Following his debut performance, Dafoe played a bit part in Tony Scott's
romantic horror The Hunger (1983) and Simon Nuchtern's drama New York Nights
(1984). He also starred in John Mark Robinson's action comedy Roadhouse 66
(opposite Judge Reinhold) and Walter Hill's romantic action Streets of Fire
(both in 1984, with Michael Paré and Diane Lane).
His portrayal of master counterfeiter Rick Masters in William Friedkin's
adaptation of Gerald Petievich's novel, the crime action To Live and Die in L.A.
(1985, opposite William L. Petersen), attracted filmmaker Oliver Stone's
attention. He later teamed Dafoe with Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger in his
Vietnam War film Platoon in 1986. Brilliantly portraying the insouciant,
pot-smoking Sgt. Elias Grodin, Dafoe received applause and earned his first
Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
In 1988, Dafoe garnered mixed reviews for portraying Jesus in Martin Scorsese's
controversial film about the last days of Jesus Christ, based on Nikos
Kazantzakis' book, The Last Temptation of Christ. Meanwhile, he teamed with
Gregory Hines as plain clothes U.S. military policemen on duty in wartime Saigon
in Christopher Crowe's Off Limits and with Gene Hackman as 1964 FBI agents in
Alan Parker's Mississippi Burning. The following year, Dafoe became former Greek
Olympic boxer Salamo Arouch, who was captured by Nazis during WW II, in Robert
M. Young's fact-based Triumph of the Spirit. He also reunited with Oliver Stone
in his biopic Born on the Fourth of July, a film inspired by Ron Kovic, a former
Vietnam Marine turned well-known anti-war activist.
Entering the 1990s, Dafoe starred as psycho Bobby Peru in David Lynch's film
version of Barry Gifford's novel, Wild at Heart (1990, alongside Nicolas Cage
and Laura Dern) and as cynical veteran bombardier Cole in John Milius' war film,
inspired by Stephen Coonts' novel, Flight of the Intruder (1991, with Danny
Glover). He also became a small southwestern town sheriff named Ray Dolezal in
Roger Donaldson's crime drama White Sands (1992). In addition, Dafoe branched
out to modeling and briefly modeled for a 1990 Prada printed ad.
Dafoe scored a Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actor after portraying a
40-year-old drug runner who suffers from insomnia, John LeTour, in Paul
Schrader's gently haunting drama Light Sleeper (1992, costarring Susan Sarandon
and Dana Delany). In the next year, Dafoe became Madonna's lawyer in Uli Edel's
Body of Evidence and flew to Germany to star in Wim Wenders' sci-fi action Far
Away, So Close! (a.k.a. In weiter Ferne, so nah!).
Along with legend Harrison Ford, Dafoe starred as "moral" soldier of fortune
John Clark in the screen version of Tom Clancy's best-selling novel, Phillip
Noyce's Oscar nominated and smash hit Clear and Present Danger (1994). In that
same year, Brian Gilbert cast him as American-born British poet T S Eliot in his
adaptation of Michael Hastings' play Tom & Viv (opposite Miranda Richardson). He
also appeared in Europe as a manipulative narrator in Anna Maria Tatò's
adaptation of Claude-Prosper de Jolyot Crebillon's novel, The Night and the
Moment (1995), and as American loner Axel Heyst in Mark Peploe's Victory.
In 1996, Dafoe was involved in an Oscar winning movie, the epic drama based on
Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel, Anthony Minghella's The English
Patient (playing mercenary Caravaggio, also starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette
Binoche). Afterwards, he costarred with Sandra Bullock and Jason Patric in Jan
de Bont's poorly accepted 1997 sequel of Speed, Speed 2: Cruise Control, and
became Nick Nolte's brother in the screen version of Russell Banks' novel, Paul
Schrader's highly praised Affliction. He also returned to stage, playing
character Yank in Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy Ape" and in the Wooster Group's
production of "North Atlantic."
At the end of the 1990s, filmgoers watched Defoe star in Abel Ferrara's film,
inspired by William Gibson's short story, New Rose Hotel (with Christopher
Walken) and in Troy Duffy's rarely seen crime action The Boondock Saints
(playing FBI agent Paul Smecker, alongside Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman
Reedus). He also became an anthropologist in Paul Auster's Lulu on the Bridge
and played a creepy gas station attendant in David Cronenberg's sci-fi eXistenZ
(opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law).
In the new millennium, another Oscar nomination knocked when Dafoe portrayed
reclusive Max Schreck, costarring with John Malkovich, in E. Elias Merhige's
classic horror Shadow of the Vampire. Meanwhile, he also played Det. Donald
Kimball in the film version of Bret Easton Ellis' novel, Mary Harron's American
Psycho (starring Christian Bale) and was cast as prisoner Earl Copen in Steve
Buscemi's adaptation of Edward Bunker's novel, Animal Factory (alongside Edward
Furlong).
Dafoe played roles in such films as Bullfighter (2000, as a priest), Edges of
the Lord (2001, as a priest again) and Pavilion of Women (also in 2001, as an
American missionary) before landing the villainous role of the Green
Goblin/Norman Osborn in Sam Raimi's version of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's
popular comic book Spider-Man (starring Tobey Maguire). Dafoe later reprised his
role in its second installment in 2004, Spider-Man 2.
On stage, Dafoe costarred with Frances McDormand in "To You, the Birdie!," a
stage adaptation of Wooster Group's "Phedre." While on the big screen, he was
seen as Bob Crane's accused murderer in Autofocus and as a cartel kingpin in
Once Upon A Time In Mexico (both in 2003). Meanwhile, he also lent his voice to
the animation movies Finding Nemo and Camel Cricket City (both in 2003) as well
as in James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (2004).
More recent, Dafoe played a traveling leader in Paul McGuigan's version of Barry
Unsworth's novel Reckoning, Robert Redford's kidnapper in The Clearing, and
alongside Bill Murray in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Besides playing a
supporting role in Martin Scorsese's acclaimed film The Aviator, Dafoe starred
in such 2005 films as Roger Spottiswoode's Ripley Under Ground, Tim Hunter's
Control, Lars von Trier's Manderlay and Lee Tamahori's xXx: State of the Union.
As for his upcoming film projects, Dafoe is scheduled to star in Giada
Colagrande's romantic drama, Before It Had a Name (he also co-wrote), and in the
romantic Paris, je t'aime.
"I refuse to say that Clear and Present Danger is any less artful than Last
Temptation. I only do work that for some reason I'm excited or curious about.
I've been around long enough that I don't do anything for the money or for the
nice trailer or for the perk of being in a big movie. Everything has its price."
Willem Dafoe
Awards:
