In 1982, Dafoe starred as the leader of an outlaw motorcycle club in the drama The Loveless, his first role as a leading man. Dafoe did not receive a credit for his work on the film.
His role, that of a cockfighter who works for Jeff Bridges' character, was removed from a majority of the film during editing but was visible during a cockfight scene. Dafoe was only present for the first three months of an eight-month shoot. Career 1980s ĭafoe began his film career in 1979, when he was cast in a supporting role in Michael Cimino's epic Western film Heaven's Gate. Dafoe would continue with the Wooster Group into the 2000s.
Within a year Dafoe was part of the company. She, with her former romantic partner Spalding Gray and others, edged out Schechner and created the Wooster Group. There he apprenticed under Richard Schechner, director of the avant-garde theater troupe The Performance Group, where he met and became romantically involved with Elizabeth LeCompte. Īfter attending Appleton East High School, Dafoe studied drama at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, but left after a year and a half to join the experimental theater company Theatre X in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, before moving to New York City in 1976. Only after becoming an actor, he took the second interpretation as his stage name. During an interview he explained that about half of the Dafoe family puts the emphasis on the first syllable of their surname, and the other half on the second. In high school, he acquired the nickname Willem, which is the Dutch version of the name William. His surname, Dafoe, is the Anglicized version of the Swiss Thévou. He has English, French, German, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. William Alfred Dafoe (J– November 21, 2014), he recalled in 2009: "My five sisters raised me because my father was a surgeon, my mother was a nurse and they worked together, so I didn't see either of them much." His brother, Donald Dafoe, is a transplant surgeon and researcher. One of eight children of Muriel Isabel (née Sprissler) (Novem– September 2012) and Dr. William James Dafoe was born on July 22, 1955, in Appleton, Wisconsin. The Performing Garage in SoHo, New York City, the home of the experimental theater company The Wooster Group, which Dafoe co-founded Dafoe holds dual American and Italian citizenship. Eliot in Tom & Viv (1994), Pier Paolo Pasolini in Pasolini (2014), Vincent van Gogh in At Eternity's Gate (2018) (for which he received an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination, his first in that category), and Leonhard Seppala in Togo (2019). Dafoe then appeared in The Fault in Our Stars, John Wick, The Grand Budapest Hotel (all 2014), The Great Wall (2016), Murder on the Orient Express (2017), The Florida Project (2017) (for which he received his third Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category), and The Lighthouse (2019), portraying Nuidis Vulko in the DC Extended Universe films Aquaman (2018) and Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021).ĭafoe has portrayed several real-life figures, including T.S. In 2009, he starred in the experimental film Antichrist, one of his three films with Lars von Trier. He also portrayed the villains in Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) and XXX: State of the Union (2005), as well as Carson Clay in the film Mr. In 1988, Dafoe played Jesus in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ and costarred in Mississippi Burning, both of which were controversial.Īfter receiving his second Academy Award nomination (as Best Supporting Actor) for portraying Max Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Dafoe portrayed the supervillain Norman Osborn / Green Goblin in the superhero film Spider-Man (2002), a role he reprised in its sequels Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007), and the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). He received his first Academy Award nomination (as Best Supporting Actor) for his role as Sergeant Elias Gordon in Oliver Stone's war film Platoon (1986).
He had his first leading role in the outlaw biker film The Loveless (1982) and then played the main antagonist in Streets of Fire (1984) and To Live and Die in L.A. He made his film debut in Heaven's Gate (1980), but was fired during production. He has frequently collaborated with filmmakers Paul Schrader, Abel Ferrara, Lars von Trier, Julian Schnabel, and Wes Anderson.ĭafoe was an early member of experimental theater company The Wooster Group. He has received nominations for four Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards and other awards. William James " Willem" Dafoe (born July 22, 1955) is an American actor.
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