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Viggo Mortensen Profile |
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Birth Date: October 20, 1958
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Birth Place: Manhattan, New York, USA
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Birth Name: Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr.
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Height: 5'11"
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Biography |
Viggo Mortensen is a Danish/American theater and
movie actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter. He is
best known for his role as Aragorn in Peter Jackson's The
Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
After several years of experience in live theater, he made
his first movie appearance playing an Amish farmer in Peter
Weir's Witness. (Mortensen had actually been cast in two
prior films - Swing Shift and The Purple Rose of Cairo - but
his scenes in both of these films were deleted from the
final cuts.) He has also appeared in Jane Campion's The
Portrait of a Lady, Sean Penn's Indian Runner, Brian
DePalma's Carlito's Way, Tony Scott's Crimson Tide, Ridley
Scott's G.I. Jane, Tony Goldwyn's A Walk on the Moon, Philip
Ridley's Reflecting Skin, Andrew Davis's A Perfect Murder,
Betty Thomas's 28 Days, The Prophecy with Christopher
Walken, and David Cronenberg's A History of Violence.
Mortensen's performance in Bent at the Coast Playhouse, Los
Angeles, won him a Dramalogue Critics' Award.
Coincidentally, the play, about homosexual concentration
camp prisoners, was originally brought to prominence by Sir
Ian McKellen, with whom Mortensen co-starred in The Lord of
the Rings. In Lord of the Rings, Mortensen was a last-minute
replacement for Stuart Townsend, and wouldn't have taken the
part if it hadn't been for his son's enthusiasm for J. R. R.
Tolkien's trilogy.
In 2004, he starred as Frank Hopkins in Hidalgo, the story
of a Pony Express courier who travels to Arabia to compete
with his horse, Hidalgo, in a dangerous race for a massive
contest prize.
Mortensen was born in New York City, although spent some
childhood years in Venezuela, Argentina, and his father's
native Denmark, before returning to high school in
Watertown, New York (where he was captain of the swim team).
He graduated from St. Lawrence University in 1980.
His Danish father and half-Norwegian mother met in Norway.
Henry and Viggo have done public father/son poetry reading
together as recently as March 2006.
He has a son, Henry Blake, with his ex-wife Exene Cervenka
of the band X.
He is fluent in English, Danish, Spanish and somewhat fluent
in Norwegian. He also speaks French, Italian, and Swedish
reasonably well. Mortensen has dual citizenship in the US
and Denmark.
Mortensen is an ice hockey fan, particularly of the Montreal
Canadiens. He also likes soccer and is a big fan of the
Danish national team and the Argentinian team San Lorenzo de
Almagro. In 1992 Mortensen went to Ireland during a break in
shooting, without the consent of the production company, to
watch Denmark play in an important match. He is a fan of the
New York Mets.
In the Two Towers DVD extras, the film's swordmaster Bob
Anderson described Mortensen as "the best swordsman I've
ever trained".
In the DVD extras for A History of Violence, David
Cronenberg relates that Mortensen is the only actor he'd
come across who would come back from weekends with his
family having bought items to use as props on the set.
Mortensen is very fond of horses, and shows such in his book
The Horse Is Good. In fact, he bought the horse which played
Brego in The Lord of the Rings movies (Roheryn in the
books), which is Aragorn's steed; as well as TJ, one of the
horses who played Hidalgo. He also purchased the stallion
that played Arwen's horse, and gave it to the stunt woman
who rode the horse in place of Liv Tyler.
He has spoken out against militarism and U.S. foreign
policy. |
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Other Information |
He is the ex-husband of Exene Cervenka, the singer of the
punk band X.
Had a book of poetry printed before he was known. The title:
"Ten Last Night."
Speaks fluent English, Spanish and Danish, but he also
speaks Swedish and Norwegian reasonably well.
Father of Henry Mortensen.
He actually painted the large murals in his artist's studio
in the film A Perfect Murder (1998).
Lived in South America from age 2 to age 11.
Is a photographer.
Has been photographing for years, recently debuted with an
exhibition at the Robert Mann Gallery in NYC. - American
Photo, July/August 2000
Writes poetry in his spare time.
Is also a jazz musician - he has released three CDs so far.
Worked as a truck driver while living in Denmark
Broke a tooth while filming a fight sequence for The Lord of
the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).
Replaced Stuart Townsend in the role of Aragorn/Strider in
The Lord of the Rings, after filming began.
Got so into his character of Aragorn that director Peter
Jackson once addressed him as Aragorn for over half an hour,
and Mortensen didn't even realize it.
Was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People
Magazine in 2002
He has two younger brothers
Graduated from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York
in 1980 with a degree in Government and Spanish.
An accomplished horseman in his spare time, Mortensen
requested that his "Rings" character Aragorn be given more
saddle time than was originally scripted. He also kept his
on-screen horse nearby during the entire principal
photography schedule in order to ride in his off-hours and
strengthen his relationship with the horse.
As Viggo lived in Argentina as a child, he is a fan of
Argentine soccer team San Lorenzo.
Broke two toes during the filming of The Lord of the Rings:
The Two Towers (2002), in the scene where he kicks an Orc
helmet.
Owner of publishing company Perceval Press.
He is a New York Mets fan.
Visits Denmark at least 3 times a year. In 2003 he had a
booksigning, an art exhibition opening and The Lord of The
Rings premiere.
He's a Danish citizen.
Was in remakes of two Alfred Hitchcock films in the same
year: A Perfect Murder (1998) - a remake of Dial M for
Murder (1954) - and Psycho (1998).
Purchased the horses he rode in the "Lord of the Rings"
trilogy and Hidalgo (2004) after the films were completed.
It is well-known that his father is Danish and his mother
American, but also his grandmother was from Trondheim,
Norway.
Worked as a translator for the Swedish hockey team during
the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid and was at the
'miracle' game between the Soviet Union and United States.
While filming "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy in New
Zealand, he would go surfing with the other actors in their
spare time. One day he suffered an accident which left a
bruise on the right side of his face. As a result, director
Peter Jackson had to shoot only the left side of his face in
the entire Moria sequence.
Dated Lola Schnabel, daughter of painter and film director
Julian Schnabel, for nearly two years. Broke up in 2003.
Was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences (AMPAS) in June 2004.
Ranked #10 on VH1's Hottest Hotties
At first, turned down the part of Aragorn of Lord of the
Rings. His son convinced him to do the part.
Is one of four "Lord of the Rings" stars to star,
pre-"Rings," with Harrison Ford. He starred with Ford in
Witness (1985). Ford starred with John Rhys-Davies (Gimli)
in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the
Last Crusade (1989), Sean Bean (Boromir) in Patriot Games
(1992) and Miranda Otto (Eowyn) in What Lies Beneath (2000).
While working on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he asked
writer/director Peter Jackson to revise scripts so that his
character Aragorn would be speaking in the Elvish language
in several scenes of all three movies.
He became good friends with the close-knit stunt men on the
"Lord of the Rings" films, but they were wary of doing fight
scenes with him because, carried away with the intensity of
his character Aragorn, he would frequently "really go at
them" and leave the other combatants in bruises. Massive
actor Lawrence Makoare, playing Lurtz under heaps of make-up
which restricted his vision, also got carried away during
their fight scene at the conclusion of The Lord of the
Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and, for once,
Mortensen was left more bruised than the other actor.
Ranked #19 on Tropopkin's Top 25 Most Intriguing People
[Issue #100]
Shares a birthday with Tom Petty and Snoop Dogg.
Shares a birthday with actor Bela Lugosi and poet Arthur
Rimbaud.
Although their divorce only became final in 1998, he and his
former wife, Exene Cervenka, separated in 1992, 5 years
after they were married.
Both his brothers are geologists.
Is a Montreal Canadians fan
Father's name is also Viggo. Mother's is Grace.
After his parents divorced when he was 11, he moved back
with his mother and two younger brothers, Walter and
Charles, to New York.
Born on the same day as director Danny Boyle.
The scar on his upper lip comes from a wild Halloween party
where he got too close to a barbed-wire fence. |
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