Christopher Walken is that rare actor who made the successful transition from child player to adult star. Born and raised in Astoria, Queens, he studied dance as a youngster and, from the age of 10, appeared in live musicals and dramas in the so-called "Golden Age of Television" in the 1950s. (He also occasionally traded off with his brother Glenn playing the character of Mike Bauer on the CBS daytime serial "Guiding Light" between 1954 and 1956.) The tall, angular blue-eyed performer was in his mid-teens when he made his Broadway debut (then billed as 'Ronnie' (short for Ronald) Walken) in Archibald MacLeish's award-winning verse play "J.B." in 1959.
By the middle of the next decade, he had adopted a new first name, Christopher, and was landing chorus roles in Broadway musicals like "Baker Street". While few chorus players segue to dramatic roles, Walken was an exception when he received good notices for his King Philip in the historical drama "The Lion in Winter" (1966). Later that same year, he tackled his first Shakespearean role in "Measure for Measure". Over his long and distinguished career, the actor came to be consider a galvanizing stage performer and wowed critics and audiences in such diverse fare as the title roles in "Macbeth" (1974) and "Kid Champion" (1975), Chance Wayne to Irene Worth's Alexandra Del Lago in "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1975), "Hurlyburly" (1984-85), "Coriolanus" (1988) and his own one-person "Him", (1995, about Elvis Presley). After a four-year absence, Walken returned to his stage roots starring opposite Blair Brown in a musical adaptation of James Joyce's short story "The Dead.”
A versatile and highly-skilled performer, Walken has alternated comfortably between lead and supporting roles in a variety of genres. In nearly every case, there is a quality of eccentricity that colors his performances, making him perfectly cast as villains or larger-than-life figures. After a bit role in 1968's "Me and My Brother", he made an impression as a young electronics expert in "The Anderson Tapes" (1971), an intriguing Sidney Lumet-directed thriller. Walken first demonstrated a flair for comedy in the small but indelible role of Diane Keaton's possibly psychotic brother in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" (1977). For his brilliant depiction of the self-disintegration of a war ravaged Vietnam soldier obsessed with playing Russian roulette in Michael Cimino's "The Deer Hunter," he received a 1978 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.
Following his Oscar win, the actor was featured in a string of projects that utilized his unique style to full effect. Walken reunited with Cimino to play a gunslinger in the disastrous "Heaven's Gate" (1980), although he came out unscathed. On the small screen, he offered a memorable turn as a Method actor in "Who Am I This Time?" (PBS, 1981), directed by Jonathan Demme, while in films he paid tribute to his theatrical background as the oily villain who performs a sinuous dance number in the underrated "Pennies From Heaven" (1981). In one of his rare leading roles, Walken was perfectly cast as a man cursed with the ability to see the future in "The Dead Zone" (1983). Cutting a colorful figure, he essayed the campy nemesis to Roger Moore's James Bond in "A View to a Kill" (1985) then turned chilly as the abusive father in "At Close Range" (1986). The decade also saw him enliven "Biloxi Blues" (1988) as an oddball drill sergeant and real-life author Whitley Streiber who claimed visitation by aliens in "Communion" (1989).
As the 90s dawned, Walken began a collaboration with director Abel Ferrara in which he often portrayed crime lords as in "The King of New York" (1990) and "The Funeral" (1996). Although he played a stalwart farmer who finds unlikely romance with an Eastern woman (Glenn Close) in three TV-movies ("Sarah, Plain and Tall" CBS 1991; "Skylark" CBS 1993: and "Sarah: Plain and Tall: Winter's End" CBS, 1999), the seemingly always employed actor shone in a variety of supporting turns in features ranging from a gangster in the Quentin Tarantino-scripted "True Romance" (1993) to the pivotal role of a Vietnam veteran explaining the strange history of a gold watch in Tarantino's seminal "Pulp Fiction" (1995). Walken rounded out the decade with a string of over-the-top comic characters that encompassed the exterminator doing battle with a single rodent in "Mouse Hunt" (1997) and an effete early 20th Century drama critic in John Turturro's valentine to his wife and the theater, "Illuminata" (1998).
Walken continued to branch out into ever-loopier character parts: He gave voice to the brutal insect Cutter in the CGI-animated "Antz" (1998), played the vicious Headless Horseman for Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" (1999), appeared a retro dad living in a bomb shelter in the Brendan Fraser comedy "Blast From the Past" (1999),starred in the indie crime drama "The Opportunists" (2000), played a cop named McDuff in the off-kilter telling of "Macbeth" set in a 1970s fast food joint in "Scotland, PA" (2001) and appeared as part of David Spade's white trash ensemble in the comedy "Joe Dirt" (2001), took a supporting role in the lackluster Julia Roberts comedy "America's Sweethearts" (2001); portrayed the mesmerist Count Cagliostro in "The Affair of the Necklace" (2001) and was one of the few live-action actors in the Disney kid's film "The Country Bears" (2002).
Walken even surprised fans with his far-out but always-graceful dance moves in the Fat Boy Slim music video "Weapon of Choice," which was in heavy rotation on MTV in 2001. Just when it seemed that Walken had given up serious acting to specialize in self-parody, the actor turned in a moving and poignant performance in director Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can" (2002), playing the father of teen con artist Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), the youngest man ever to make the FBI's Most Wanted list. Walken's turn as the once-prosperous businessman whose life is torn asunder by an IRS investigation was a revelation, reminding audiences of the actor's ability to convey the genuine pathos behind a tortured man, all the while putting on a positive spin for the son he adores—the actor subsequently received an Academy Award nomination for his supporting performance.
That triumph was followed by a comedic turn as a mafioso in the less-than-stellar comedy "Kangaroo Jack" (2003) and an kooky but out-of-place turn as a police detective in the dismal flop "Gigli" (2003) opposite Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, but Walken still had his share of scene-stealing roles in hit movies ahead of him, delivering yet another offbeat villain with a penchant for speech-making as the evil gold mine owner of "The Rundown" (2003) who's forced to team up with The Rock and Seann William Scott. Further strategic guest roles followed in films of varying genres and qualities, some successful--like his turn as Denzel Washington's sympathetic friend in the revenge thriller "Man on Fire" (2004)—and other not—such as his role as the bizarre J-Man in the horribly unfunny Ben Stiller-Jack Black comedy "Envy" (2004). Walken next played the formidable Mike Wellington, the Mayor of Stepford, CT, who secret, singular vision surrounding spouse-subservient women of "The Stepford Wives" (2004) proves too seductive for most of the community's men to resist.
He was better utilized in the Owen Wilson-Vince Vaughn comedy "Wedding Crashers" (2005), playing the powerful politico father of leading lady Rachel McAdams—refreshingly, Walken was allowed to play this one straight, without overdoing the quirks that had begun to define him. Then it was on to director Tony Scott's hyperkinetic pseudo-biopic "Domino" (2005) as a reality TV show producer who becomes embroiled in the life of model-turned-bounty hunter Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley). He then costarred in the Adam Sandler comedy vehicle “Click” (2006), playing a strange Bed, Bath and Beyond clerk who gives an overworked architect (Sandler) a remote control that can rewind, fast-forward or pause his life. But when the remote gets stuck on fast-forward, he begins to miss all the important events in his life, realizing that it’s better to accept to bad with the good than to let his life pass before his eyes.
The hard-working actor next filmed “Citizen Brando” (lensed 2006), half documentary, half fictional take on a young man’s fascination with Marlon Brandon and the American Dream, then went right into “Balls of Fury” (lensed 2006), a comedy about a washed-up ping pong champion going undercover for the government to ensnare a crime lord who hosts an annual tournament in which all the losers are executed. Hilarity ensues. Walken next costarred in “Man of the Year” (2006), playing the ailing talent manager of a popular talk show host (Robin Williams) whose surprise run for the presidency shocks the nation when he actually wins thanks to a glitch in voting machines. As “Man of the Year” took a critical drubbing while awaiting release, Walken was already busy at work on his next feature, “Hairspray” (lensed 2006), an adaptation of the 2003 musical which was itself adapted from John Waters’s 1988 film in which he played Wilbur Turnblad opposite John Travolta as the rather large and androgynous Edna.