Biography
Willem Dafoe is one of his generation's finest actors and a performer who can fit seamlessly into any type of film. Dafoe has twice been nominated for the Academy Award® (Platoon and Shadow of the Vampire) and once for the Golden Globe®. Among his other honors are an L.A. Film Critics Award and an Independent Spirit Award.
Dafoe was seen in Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel, Josh Boone's The Fault in Our Stars, Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man, Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac, Scott Cooper's Out of the Furnace and Chris Brinker's Bad Country.
In 1979 Dafoe was given a small role in Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate, but was subsequently fired. His first feature role came shortly thereafter in Kathryn Bigelow's The Loveless. From there, he went on to perform in more than 80 films, including Hollywood releases such as John Carter of Mars, Spider-Man, The English Patient, Finding Nemo, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Clear and Present Danger, White Sands, Mississippi Burning, Streets of Fire and American Dreamz. His work in the independent cinema includes The Clearing, Animal Factory, Boondock Saints and American Psycho. Films made abroad include Theo Angelopoulos' The Dust of Time, Yim Ho's Pavilion of Women, Yurek Bogayevicz's Edges of the Lord, Wim Wenders' Faraway, So Close, Nobuhiro Suwa's segment of Paris Je t'aime, Brian Gilbert's Tom & Viv, Christian Carion's Farewell, Steve Bendelack's Mr. Bean's Holiday, The Spierig brothers' Daybreakers and Daniel Nettheim's The Hunter.
Dafoe has chosen projects for their diversity of roles and the opportunity to work with strong directors. He has collaborated with filmmakers such as Wes Anderson (The Life Aquatic, The Fantastic Mr. Fox), Martin Scorsese (The Aviator, The Last Temptation of Christ), Spike Lee (Inside Man), Julian Schnabel (Miral, Basquiat), Paul Schrader (Auto Focus, Affliction, Light Sleeper, The Walker, Adam Resurrected), David Cronenberg (Existenz), Abel Ferrara (4:44 Last Day on Earth, Go Go Tales, New Rose Hotel), David Lynch (Wild at Heart), William Friedkin (To Live and Die in L.A.), Werner Herzog (My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done), Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July, Platoon), Giada Colagrande (A Woman and Before It Had a Name) and Lars von Trier (Antichrist and Manderlay).
Dafoe is one of the founding members of The Wooster Group, the New York-based experimental theater collective. He performed in all of the group's work from 1977 through 2005, both in the U.S. and internationally. Since then he has worked with Richard Foreman in "Idiot Savant" at the Public Theater in New York and performed in two international productions with Robert Wilson: "The Life & Death of Marina Abramovic" and "The Old Woman," opposite Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Summit Entertainment
Actor
Series | |
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2022 |
The Kingdom |
Exodus (S03E05) |
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Big Brother (S03E03) |
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The Congress Dances (S03E02) |
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2014 |
The Simpsons |
Blazed and Confused (S26E07) |
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1997 |
The Simpsons |
The Secret War of Lisa Simpson (S08E25) |
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1983 |
The Hitchhiker |
Music videos | |
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2012 |
Antony and the Johnsons - Cut the World |
Short | |
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2013 |
Love's Routine |
Saving Norman |
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The Benaki Museum - narrator |
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The Smile Man |
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2007 |
The Procedure |
2003 |
Camel Cricket City |
1985 |
O Panama |
1981 |
White Lies |
Performer
Screenwriter
Movies | |
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2005 |
Before It Had a Name |