Mortensen made his film debut as Moses Hochleitner in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness. Through the early 2000s, Mortensen played supporting roles in a variety of films including the historical romance The Portrait of a Lady (1996), the action drama G.I. Jane (1997), the crime drama A Perfect Murder (1998), and the comedy 28 Days (2000).
In addition to film, Mortensen has pursued a variety of artistic endeavors including painting, poetry, music, and photography. Mortensen composed and performed music for films including The Lord of the Rings soundtrack, and has collaborated with guitarist Buckethead on several albums.
In 2002, Mortensen founded Perceval Press to publish his works and the works of little-known artists and authors.
Early life
Mortensen was born in Watertown, New York, on October 20, 1958,[3] to Grace Gamble (née Atkinson; July 8, 1928 – April 25, 2015) and Viggo Peter Mortensen Sr. (May 8, 1929 – March 2, 2017). His mother was American, while his father was Danish. They met in Norway.[5] His maternal grandfather was a Canadian from Nova Scotia. His paternal grandmother was from Trondheim, Norway.[6][7]
In 1961,[8] the family moved to Venezuela, then Denmark, and eventually settled in Argentina. They lived successively in the provinces of Córdoba, Chaco, and Buenos Aires. Mortensen attended primary school and acquired a fluent proficiency in Spanish while his father managed poultry farms and ranches.[9][10] He was baptized Lutheran, the tradition of his father.[11]
After graduating, Mortensen moved to Europe and lived in the United Kingdom and Spain before returning to Denmark. There he took various jobs such as driving trucks in Esbjerg and selling flowers in Copenhagen.[15][16] In 1982, he returned to the United States to pursue an acting career.[17]
His first onscreen appearance was playing an Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness. He was cast because the director thought he had the right face for the part. Although he was simultaneously cast as a soldier in Shakespeare in the Park's production of Henry V, he chose to work on Witness instead, citing a desire to try something new. Mortensen credited that decision and the positive experience on the film as the start of his film career.[20] Also in 1985, he was cast in the role of Bragg on the TV series Search for Tomorrow.
Mortensen's 1987 performance in Bent at the Coast Playhouse, Los Angeles, won him a Dramalogue Critics' Award. The play, which revolves around homosexual prisoners in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany, was known for the leading performance by Ian McKellen,[21] with whom Mortensen later costarred in the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings. The same year, Mortensen starred as Jerome Stample in the black comedy Salvation![22] alongside Exene Cervenka, and played Burke, a professional car thief in Prison. He also guest starred as a police detective on the hit TV series Miami Vice.[23] In 1988, Mortensen played a minor part as Green, the abusive husband of Jewel (Molly Ringwald), in Fresh Horses. The following year, Mortensen appeared in a minor role as Hans in Tripwire.
Mortensen made three film appearances in 1990: Edward "Tex" Sawyer, a member of a cannibalistic family in Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, John W. Poe in Young Guns II, and Cameron Dove, a military veteran suffering from radiation poisoning in The Reflecting Skin. The Reflecting Skin was Mortensen's first film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.[24] The following year, Mortensen starred as Frank Roberts in Sean Penn's directorial debut The Indian Runner. Sandy Dennis, who played Frank Roberts's mother in the film and was a personal friend of Mortensen, was dying of ovarian cancer during filming. Mortensen described the filming experience as having an "undercurrent of loss," and wrote the poem "For Sandy Dennis" in her honor.[25]
In 1992, Mortensen starred in Ruby Cairo alongside Liam Neeson and Andie MacDowell. Although Ruby Cairo was Mortensen's highest-budget film at this point in his career, it was a commercial failure, bringing in only 608,000 on its 24 million dollar budget.[26][27] The next year, the film was recut and given the title Deception. Several scenes were reshot for Deception, including a sex scene between Mortensen and MacDowell, which was removed and replaced with a less intimate dialogue on a balcony.
In The Two Towers DVD extras, the film's swordmaster, Bob Anderson, described Mortensen as "the best swordsman I've ever trained." Mortensen often performed his own stunts, and even the injuries he sustained during several of them, including two broken toes, did not dampen his enthusiasm. At one point during filming of The Two Towers, Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, and Brett Beattie (stunt double for John Rhys-Davies) all had painful injuries, which led to Peter Jackson jokingly referring to the three as "the walking wounded."[32] Also, according to the Special Extended Edition DVD of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Mortensen purchased the two horses, Uraeus and Kenny, whom he had ridden and bonded with over the duration of the films.[33]
In 2004, Mortensen starred as Frank Hopkins in Hidalgo, the story of an ex-army courier who travels to Arabia to compete with his horse, Hidalgo, in a dangerous desert race for a contest prize.[34]
Mortensen starred in David Cronenberg's 2005 film A History of Violence as a family man revealed to have had an unsavory previous career. He was nominated for a Satellite Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for this role.[35] In the DVD extras for A History of Violence, Cronenberg related that Mortensen is the only actor he had come across who would come back from weekends with his family with items he had bought to use as props on the set.[36]
In September 2007, the film Eastern Promises, directed by David Cronenberg, was released to critical acclaim for the film itself and for Mortensen's performance as a Russian gangster on the rise in London. His nude fight scene in a steam room was applauded by Roger Ebert: "Years from now, it will be referred to as a benchmark."[38] Mortensen's performance in Eastern Promises resulted in his winning the Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film award from the British Independent Film Awards.[39] He was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.[40]
After two years, Mortensen returned to theater in 2011, starring in Ariel Dorfman's Purgatorio ("Purgatory") in Madrid.[44]Purgatorio is Mortensen's first play in Spanish. The play is about a man and woman confined either in a psychiatric hospital or prison together. During production, Mortensen's mother became ill and he pulled out of the initial premiere date, the first time he had ever done so for a project. The play premiered from November 4 to December 18.[45]
Mortensen starred in the 2016 film Captain Fantastic, for which he received his second Academy Award nomination.[47] Alonso Duralde of TheWrap praised Mortensen's performance, saying, "The movie really belongs to Mortensen, who allows Ben to be exasperating, arrogant, and impatient but also warm, loving, and caring. He's a tough but adoring father, a grieving widower and a passionate defender of his wife's final wishes, and Mortensen plays all these notes, and more with subtlety and grace".[48]
In 2018, he starred in the film Green Book. Mortensen portrayed Tony Lip, an Italian-American bouncer hired to drive and protect pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) on a tour through the Jim Crow South from 1962 to 1963. Reflecting on the character, Mortensen stated, "I was attracted to playing Tony in part because it was a different kind of character, but the main thing I liked about him was his heart".[49] Mortensen received his third Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Lip.[50]
In 2020, Mortensen released his directorial debut Falling, which he also wrote, produced, composed the score for and starred in alongside Lance Henriksen at the Sundance Film Festival.[51][52] Mortensen had based the story on his own family's history, including his parents suffering from dementia. The film is dedicated to his brothers, Charles and Walter Mortensen.[53]
Mortensen was cast as British cave diver Rick Stanton in the biographical film Thirteen Lives directed by Ron Howard which was released in July 2022.[55] Mortensen was taught cave diving by Stanton personally to prepare for the role.[56]
With part of his earnings from The Lord of the Rings, Mortensen founded the Perceval Press publishing house—named after the knight from the legend of King Arthur—to help other artists by publishing works that might not find a home in more traditional publishing venues.[62]Perceval Press is also the home of Mortensen's many personal artistic projects in the area of fine arts, photography, poetry, song, and literature.[63]
Bibliography
Mortensen is also an author, with various books of poetry, photography, and painting published. His poems are written in English, Danish, and Spanish. With anthropologists Federico Bossert and Diego Villar, he has written several works related to ethnography of natives in South America,[64] specifically in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Some of the published books co-authored by Mortensen are Sons of the Forest and Skovbo. Mortensen's bibliography includes:
Documents Mortensen's first solo exhibition and includes a CD with music and spoken-word poetry. Introduction by Dennis Hopper.[65]
Errant Vine
2000
Poetry, Photos
Limited edition booklet of an exhibit at the Robert Mann Gallery. [65]
Hole in the Sun
2002
Photos
Color and black & white photographs of a back yard swimming pool.[65]
Sign Language
2002
Art, Photos
A catalog from an exhibition of his works, combining photographs, paintings, and poetry into a multimedia diary of his time in New Zealand while filming The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Introduction by Kevin Power.
Mortensen is a painter and photographer. His paintings are frequently abstract and often contain fragments of his poetry therein.[72] His paintings have been featured in galleries worldwide, and many of the paintings of the artist he portrayed in A Perfect Murder are his own.[73]
Mortensen experiments with his poetry and music by mixing the two art forms. He has collaborated with guitarist Buckethead on several albums, mostly released on his own label (Perceval Press) or TDRS Music. Viggo was first introduced to Buckethead's work while working on sounds for an educational CD on Greek mythology. The finished product included a guitar part by Buckethead, which caught Viggo's ear and led him to initiate contact with the guitarist. The collaboration grew from there.[74]
|}
Mortensen's discography includes:[75]
Mortensen is featured on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King soundtrack, singing "Aragorn's Coronation" (the name of the extended version of this song in the 3rd original sound track is "The Return of the King"), the words by Tolkien and the music composed by Mortensen.[76] In the extended DVD edition of the first Lord of the Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, he sings the song "The Lay of Beren and Lúthien".[77]
Personal life
Family and relationships
Mortensen holds dual American and Danish citizenship.[1] He has stated that he was raised speaking English and Spanish, and sometimes feels that, when speaking Spanish, he "can get to the heart of the matter better".[78]
Mortensen met singer Exene Cervenka in 1986 on the set of the comedy Salvation! The couple married on July 8, 1987. On January 28, 1988, Cervenka gave birth to their son, Henry, who later played his on-screen son in the film Crimson Tide in 1995. Henry graduated from Columbia University in 2010 with a B.A. in archaeology and has been working at Perceval Press, which was founded by his father.[79][80][81] Mortensen and Cervenka lived in Idaho for three years.[82] They separated in 1992 and divorced in 1997.[83] Since 2009, he has been in a relationship with Spanish actress Ariadna Gil. Though the couple reside in Madrid, Mortensen spends much of his time in the United States, and has stated, "I am a citizen and longtime resident of the United States and am attached to its landscapes, history, and people."[84][85] He has owned property in Sandpoint, Idaho, and spends time there when not filming movies.[86]
Mortensen has talked about his family's struggles with dementia, seeing both of his parents, three of his four grandparents, aunts, uncles, and his stepfather battle the condition.[87] In 2016, Mortensen traveled to New York to take care of his father,[84] who died a year later.[87] Two years earlier, Mortensen's mother had also died from complications of the condition.[87]
Mortensen was a close friend of Icelandic painter Georg Guðni Hauksson until the latter's death in 2011. He had long been an admirer of Georg Guðni's work as a landscape artist, and the two published books together as well as maintaining a close friendship.[88]
During the press tour for Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, which occurred between the September 11 attacks and the Second Gulf War, Mortensen appeared in an interview wearing a t-shirt on which he had wrote, "No More Blood for Oil."[99]
Mortensen endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for U.S. president during the primaries for the 2016 election.[102] After Sanders failed to win the Democratic Party nomination, Mortensen endorsed Green Party candidate Jill Stein.[103] He wrote an open letter just before Election Day 2016 in which he listed the reasons he disagreed with Hillary Clinton’s policies and could not support her in the race against Donald Trump, though he thought that Clinton would be elected president.[104] He went on to narrate a documentary, The Revolution Televised, about the 2016 presidential election and the protests in the aftermath of the Democratic National Convention.[105]
Since 2018, Mortensen has been a member of the Catalan NGO Òmnium Cultural, a pro-independence organization dedicated to promoting Catalan culture and language in the arts and the public sphere.[106] After Vox, a far-right Spanish party, published a tweet depicting Mortensen as Aragorn fighting various social movements, including pro-Catalan separatists, during the campaign for the 2019 Spanish general election, Mortensen wrote a letter to the editor criticizing the depiction saying, "Not only is it absurd that I, the actor who embodied this character... and a person interested in the rich variety of cultures and languages that exist in Spain and the world, is linked to an ultra-nationalist and neo-fascist political party, it is even more ridiculous to use the character of Aragorn, a polyglot statesman who advocates knowledge and inclusion of the diverse races, customs and languages of Middle Earth, to legitimize an anti-immigrant, anti-feminist and Islamophobic political group."[107]
In May 2020, Mortensen signed an open letter urging Israel to end its blockade of the Gaza Strip.[108] In October 2023, Mortensen signed the Artists4Ceasefire open letter to President Joe Biden, calling for a ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas war.[109] In May 2024, Mortensen criticized Javier Milei's Argentine government, calling him a "clown" and "a puppet of the political right".[110]
^ abStone, Andrew; Carolyn Bain; Michael Booth; Fran Parnell (2008). "Cinema". Lonely Planet Denmark. Lonely Planet. p. 46. ISBN978-1-74104-669-4. Although [Mortensen] was born in New York and has lived outside of Denmark for most of his life, he retains Danish citizenship.
^Doyle, Macreena A. (2003). "Viggo Mortensen '80 REMEMBERS". St. Lawrence Magazine. St. Lawrence University. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
Canadian Film Awards 1968-1978, Genie Awards 1980-2011, Canadian Screen Awards 2012-present. Separate awards were presented by gender prior to 2022; ungendered awards for best performance regardless have been presented since.
Un lupis cubierto de coco rallado, e impregnado con jarabe de azúcar de palma, sobre un plato. Lupis (o lopis) es una comida tradicional de Indonesia y la isla de Java. Consiste de una masa compacta de arroz glutinoso que se puede endulzar agregándole una cubierta de coco rallado y jarabe (sirope, miel espesa) de azúcar de palma o azúcar de coco.[1] Suele comerse en el desayuno, como guarnición, o por la tarde como postrecillo a la hora del té. Uso regional Es muy común en los m...
Ne doit pas être confondu avec Palais Marie. Palais Mariinsky Nom local Маріїнський палацMariyins'kyi palats Période ou style Baroque Type Palais Architecte Bartolomeo Rastrelli Début construction 1744 Fin construction 1752 Destination initiale Résidence d'Élisabeth Ire de Russie Destination actuelle Résidence officielle du président de l'Ukraine Protection Registre national des monuments d'Ukraine[1]patrimoine d'intérêt national no 12 Coordonnées 50° 26�...
Shire of Menzies Local Government Area van Australië Locatie van Shire of Menzies in West-Australië Situering Staat West-Australië Hoofdplaats Menzies Coördinaten 29°41'17ZB, 121°2'13OL Algemene informatie Oppervlakte 124.635 km² Inwoners 524 (2021)[1] Overig Website (en) Shire of Menzies Portaal Australië Shire of Menzies is een lokaal bestuursgebied (LGA) in de regio Goldfields-Esperance in West-Australië. Shire of Menzies telde 524 inwoners in 2021. De hoofdpl...
Усипальниця мовчання Ідеа́льний пала́ц Фердіна́нда Шева́ля (фр. Le Palais Idéal) – палац, побудований листоношею Фердінандом Шевалем. Знаходиться у департаменті Дром, містечку Отерів, недалеко від Ліона. Зміст 1 Історія створення 2 Архітектурні особливості 3 Визнання 4 Джерела 5
American college football season 2022 Navy Midshipmen footballConferenceAmerican Athletic ConferenceRecord4–8 (4–4 AAC)Head coachKen Niumatalolo (15th season)Defensive coordinatorBrian Newberry (4th season)Base defense4–2–5Home stadiumNavy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium(capacity: 34,000)Seasons← 20212023 → 2022 American Athletic Conference football standings vte Conf Overall Team W L W L No. 9 Tulane ...
Bob de Moor Bob de Moor adalah nama pena dari Robert Frans Marie De Moor, yang dilahirkan di Antwerp, Belgia pada tanggal 20 Desember, 1925 dan wafat pada tanggal 26 Agustus, 1992, di Brussels. Dia adalah pencipta komik yang berasal dari Belgia. Secara umum dia juga dikenal sebagai artis dan dianggap sebagai seorang ahli dalam model Ligne claire.[1] Dia menuliskan dan melukis serial komik-nya sendiri, tetapi juga pernah bekerjasama dengan Hergé pada beberapa judul dari Petualangan Ti...
المعتصم بالله معمر القذافي معلومات شخصية الميلاد 18 ديسمبر 1974طرابلس, الجماهيرية العربية الليبية الشعبية الاشتراكية العظمى الوفاة 20 أكتوبر 2011 (36 سنة)سرت، ليبيا مكان الدفن الصحراء الليبية الجنسية ليبي الأب معمر القذافي الأم صفية فركاش إخوة وأخوات عائشة القذافي، ...
Jean GionoJean Giono en 1932.FonctionPrésident du jury du festival de Cannes1961Georges SimenonTetsurō FurukakiBiographieNaissance 30 mars 1895ManosqueDécès 8 octobre 1970 (à 75 ans)ManosqueSépulture Cimetière ancien de ManosqueNom de naissance Jean Fernand GionoNationalité françaiseActivité ÉcrivainPériode d'activité 1923-1970Conjoint Élise Giono (d)Enfants Aline Giono (d)Sylvie Durbet-Giono (d)Autres informationsMembre de l'Académie Goncourt (1954-1970)Conflit Première ...
Tempio di MatidiaDenario di Salonina Matidia divinizzata dal genero Adriano nel 119Civiltàromana UtilizzoTempio Stileantonino EpocaII secolo LocalizzazioneStato Italia ComuneRoma AmministrazionePatrimonioCentro storico di Roma VisitabileIl Senato organizza visite guidate in via sperimentale Mappa di localizzazione Modifica dati su Wikidata · ManualeCoordinate: 41°53′58.38″N 12°28′40.76″E / 41.89955°N 12.47799°E41.89955; 12.47799 Il tempio di Matidia (in...
Malaysian TV series or program GemilangGenreRomanceWritten byMira MustaffaDirected byKabir BhatiaStarringShalihan Tiz Zaqyah Kamal Adli Tasha Shilla Datuk Jalaluddin HassanVoices ofShalihan Tiz Zaqyah Kamal Adli Tasha Shilla Datuk Jalaluddin HassanNarrated byShalihan Tiz Zaqyah Kamal Adli Tasha Shilla Datuk Jalaluddin HassanCountry of originMalaysiaOriginal languageMalayNo. of seasons1No. of episodes13ProductionProducersFrancis Foo Kabir Bhatia Mira MustaffaProduction locationsKuala Lump...
Prototype suspended railway system For other uses of Skybus, see Skybus (disambiguation). Skybus MetroA Skybus Metro car at a stationOverviewArea servedMargao, GoaTransit typeSuspended railwayNumber of lines1Number of stations1OperationBegan operationNever entered serviceOperator(s)Konkan RailwayRolling stockBEMLTrain length18.5 m (61 ft)TechnicalSystem length1.6 km (0.99 mi)Minimum radius of curvature100 m (330 ft)Top speed100 km/h (62 mph) The Skybus ...
بودي جاردباديگاردملصق الفيلممعلومات عامةالصنف الفني فيلم دراماتاريخ الصدور2016 (2016)مدة العرض 95 دقيقةاللغة الأصلية الفارسيةالبلد إيرانالطاقمالمخرج إبراهيم حاتمي كياالسيناريو إبراهيم حاتمي كياالبطولة برويز برستوئي مريلا زارعي بابك حميديان شيلا خدادادالموسيقى كار�...
هذه المقالة يتيمة إذ تصل إليها مقالات أخرى قليلة جدًا. فضلًا، ساعد بإضافة وصلة إليها في مقالات متعلقة بها. (يناير 2022) مصرف الشرق الأوسط العراقي للاستثمارمصرف الشرق الأوسط العراقي للاستثمارمعلومات عامةالتأسيس 1993النوع مؤسسة ماليةالمقر الرئيسي بغداد العراقالمنظومة الاق...
Một con chuột bị sập bẫy Bắt chuột hay diệt chuột, săn chuột hay săn bắt chuột là một hoạt động của con người nhằm lùng bắt, tiêu diệt loài chuột với mục đích kiểm soát số lượng loài có hại này. Ngoài ra việc săn các loại chuột đồng còn là một hoạt động tìm thực phẩm phục vụ cho những món đặc sản. Tổng quan Từ lâu chuột luôn là vấn nạn của con người, con chuột là lo�...
Italian pornographic actor (1939–2018) Mark ShannonShannon as Captain Herbier in Porno HolocaustBornManlio Cersosimo(1939-12-08)8 December 1939Rome, ItalyDied11 May 2018(2018-05-11) (aged 78)Other namesMark ShannonOccupationFilm actorYears active1979-1988Notable workLe porno killersSesso neroPorno HolocaustErotic Nights of the Living Dead Mark Shannon (born Manlio Cersosimo; 8 December 1939 – 11 May 2018), sometimes also billed as Mark Shanon or Mark Channon, was an Italian...
This article is about the 1970 novel by Terry Southern. For the 1969 film by Andy Warhol, see Blue Movie. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: Blue Movie novel – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Blue Movie AuthorT...
Suasana kelahiran Yesus yang digambarkan secara tradisional dari Napoli, Italia Gua Natal adalah istilah yang digunakan untuk menggambarkan suasana kelahiran Yesus di Betlehem. Dalam bahasa Prancis, gambaran adegan kelahiran Yesus ini disebut crèche yang juga berarti palungan. Di Italia, disebut presepe; di Spanyol dan negara-negara berbahasa Spanyol, seperti di Amerika Latin dan Meksiko, gambaran ini disebut Belen (dari Betlehem, nacimiento atau pesebre (dari bahasa Katalan). Gua Natal dibu...
USATC S100 classFormer Southern Railway USA class No. 65 preserved at the Kent and East Sussex RailwayType and originPower typeSteamDesignerHoward G. HillBuilderDavenport Locomotive Works (109),H. K. Porter, Inc (150),Vulcan Iron Works (123)Build date1942–1944Total produced382SpecificationsConfiguration: • Whyte0-6-0T • UICC ntGauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gaugeDriver dia.4 ft 6 in (1,372 mm)Minimum curve150...
For other uses, see Battle of Saigon. Siege of SaigonPart of Cochinchina CampaignFrench warships off Saigon, February 1859Date18 February 1859 – 25 February 1861LocationGia Định, Nam Kỳ, Đại NamResult French and Spanish victoryBelligerents French Empire Spanish Empire Đại NamCommanders and leaders Rigault de Genouilly Vũ Duy Ninh[1]Trương Văn Uyển vteCochinchina campaign Đà Nẵng Saigon Kỳ Hòa Mỹ Tho Qui Nhơn Biên Hòa Vĩnh Long Part of a series on the Hi...