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Ronald Walken was born March 31, 1943 in Astoria, Queens, New York. The
middle child of three boys, Ronnie spent the majority of his childhood in show
business.
Parents Paul and Rosalie Walken were immigrants (from Germany and Scotland,
respectively) and married after they met in the US. Paul ran a bakery in
Queens, and Rosalie became what one would call a "stage mother." All three
of their boys (Kenneth, the oldest, Ronnie, and youngest son Glenn) were
actively involved in
modeling, acting, and dancing from early childhood. Ronnie and Glenn would often play the same role,
and were used interchangeably in the 1950s television
show 'The Wonderful John Acton' playing Kevin Acton.
Ronnie made his
off-Broadway theater debut at age 15 in Archibald MacLeish's
J.B.
Upon graduating from the Professional Children's School (PCS), he attended Hofstra University for a brief
stint, half-heartedly considering becoming an English teacher. He quit school
at age 20 and returned to his first love - entertainment - dancing in
the musical Best Foot Forward
(1963) with Liza Minnelli. That same year, Ronnie toured
in a
production of West Side Story, playing Riff and dancing opposite
Georgianne Thon who played Graziella. Ronnie and Georgianne
have been together ever since, marrying in February of 1969. (Georgianne
is now a casting director, and won an Emmy in 1999 for her casting
of
The Sopranos.)
When Ronnie was 22, he worked with singer/actress Monique Van Vooren
as one of her backup dancers. One evening Monique decided she
thought he looked more like a 'Christopher' than a 'Ronald,' and so Christopher
became his stage name
from that point on. He was billed for the first time as Christopher Walken
in the musical Baker Street (1965). (Interestingly, Chris's
family and old friends still call him Ronnie.)
Chris began to branch out from musical comedy into serious acting
roles, and after overcoming serious stage fright, won the Clarence
Derwent award for his portrayal of King Phillip in 1966's The Lion
in Winter. He began to perform regularly in repertory
Shakespeare, including Measure for Measure, Romeo and Juliet,
Hamlet, and Macbeth. He won acclaim for his 1971
performance in the title role of Yale Repertory's
Caligula,
and then won an Obie for his 1975 role as Kid in
Kid
Champion.
In the midst of his theater accomplishments, Chris found himself attracted to
screen acting. He made his
film debut in 1968's Me and My
Brother, played an electronics expert in Sidney Lumet's The
Anderson Tapes starring Sean Connery, and then earned his first
lead role in 1972's The Happiness Cage (now known by the
title The Mind
Snatchers). In 1977, he secured a small but
memorable role as Diane Keaton's kooky brother in Annie Hall,
which set him up for many of the strange roles he's been asked to
perform over the years. But it was his role as the
Vietnam-bound steel worker Nick in Michael Cimino's The Deer
Hunter which set him solidly on the path to stardom. Chris
won the 1979 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his
devastating performance.
In addition to his own Oscar, being in back-to-back Oscar-winning
Best Picture films had its benefits.
Starring roles began to come in, but the movies themselves did not
make the kind of money necessary to keep Chris in the leading-man
category. Chris co-starred in Cimino's follow-up movie,
Heaven's Gate,
which was a critical and box office flop. (It was the most
expensive movie of it's time, to add insult to injury.)
Dogs of War,
Brainstorm,
and The Dead Zone
were not blockbusters either...but Chris continued to work in
theater when he wasn't filming. He left the off-Broadway
production of Hurlyburly to play the villain Max Zorin in the
1984 James Bond thriller
A
View to a Kill. (Let's see, work on stage for 6 weeks at scale or earn a million dollars for a couple months of
filming...hard decision!)
Chris continued to work steadily in film and theater through the 80s
and 90s, occasionally combining elements of his dancing background
with his screen work. He almost always tries to embed a small
dance routine into his movies (pay attention to the warehouse scene
in At Close Range for one example!), and danced in two screen
musicals - MGM's Pennies from Heaven, and the Cannon Movie
Tales version of Puss in Boots. Puss also gave us
the opportunity to hear Chris's strong and surprisingly melodic singing voice.
In the 1990s, Chris had two memorable cameos in Quentin
Tarantino films - one in True Romance as a mobster who has a
tête-à-tête with Dennis Hopper, and the other as Captain Koons in
Pulp Fiction. The 90s continued with Chris playing in nearly
forty movies. Among his choices were the Angel Gabriel in the
cult trilogy The Prophecy, the Abel Ferraro independent flicks
King of New York,
The
Addiction, and The Funeral, and the Tim
Burton-directed Batman Returns and Sleepy Hollow. Two
overlooked but excellent Walken performances in the 90s were Chris's
starring role in Charlotte Brandstrom's romantic comedy A Business
Affair (Chris has said that the role of Vanni Corso was the closest to
his real personality he has ever
played), and his amazing turn in
Donald Cammell's Wild Side. (Note: there are two versions of
Wild Side - the 95 minute commercially released version was butchered by the
studio; the so-called Director's Cut re-edited after Cammell's death
- clocking in at 111 minutes - is the movie I am referring to here.)
Chris returned to Broadway in 2000, earning a Tony nomination for
his portrayal of Gabriel Conroy in the musical version of James
Joyce's The Dead. He most recently revisited his dancing
career by starring in Fat Boy Slim's music video for
Weapon of Choice.
Chris played a worn-out businessman who suddenly comes to life when
a hotel worker leaves a radio playing nearby. Chris tap dances
through the hotel lobby, and performs some interesting high-wire
moves as well. The video was extremely popular, and captured
several MTV music awards including Best Video of 2001. Keep in
mind when you see it that Chris choreographed his own moves and was 58 years old!
Two years later he was nominated for his second Academy Award as Leo DiCaprio's world-weary father in Steven Spielberg's
Catch Me if You
Can. Although the Supporting Actor award went to Chris
Cooper (for his fine performance in Adaptation), Chris Walken
continues to pursue his acting career with as much ambition as had
when he started - and he has no intention of slowing down. In
addition to his acting, Chris
paints in his (infrequent) spare time,
loves to
cook, and is an investor in Robert De Niro's
Tribeca Grille restaurant.
Please check News
or the home page
for Chris's current activities and upcoming projects. |
