John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich (born December 9, 1953)[1] is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
John Malkovich
Malkovich started his career as a charter member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 1976.[2] He moved to New York City acting in a Steppenwolf production of the Sam Shepard play True West (1980). He made his Broadway debut as Biff in the revival of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman (1984). He directed the Harold Pinter play The Caretaker (1986), and acted in Lanford Wilson's Burn This (1987).
Malkovich has received two Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nominations for Places in the Heart (1984), and In the Line of Fire (1993). Other notable film roles include in The Killing Fields (1984), Empire of the Sun (1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Of Mice and Men (1992), Con Air (1997), Rounders (1998), Being John Malkovich (1999), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Ripley's Game (2002), Burn After Reading (2008), and Red (2010). He has also produced films such as Ghost World (2001), Juno (2007), and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012).
For his work on television he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for Death of a Salesman (1985). His other Emmy-nominated roles were for portraying Herman J. Mankiewicz in RKO 281 (1999) and Charles Talleyrand in Napoléon (2002). Other television roles include in Crossbones (2014), Billions (2018–19), The New Pope (2020), and Space Force (2020–2022).
Early life and education[edit]
Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois, on December 9, 1953. He grew up in Benton, Illinois. His father, Daniel Leon Malkovich, was a state conservation director, who published the conservation magazine Outdoor Illinois. His mother, Joe Anne (née Choisser), owned the Benton Evening News daily newspaper and Outdoor Illinois.[2][3][4] He grew up with an older brother, Danny, and three younger sisters, Amanda, Rebecca, and Melissa. In a May 2020 interview, he revealed that Melissa is his only surviving sibling.[5][6][7] His paternal grandparents were Croatian immigrants from the vicinity of Ozalj;[8][9][10][11] his other ancestry includes English, Scottish, French, and German descent. Malkovich attended Logan Grade School, Webster Junior High School, and Benton Consolidated High School. During his high-school years, he appeared in various plays and the musical Carousel. He was also active in a folk gospel group, with whom he sang at churches and community events. As a member of a local summer theater project, he co-starred in Jean-Claude van Itallie's America Hurrah in 1972.
After graduating from high school in 1972, Malkovich enrolled at Eastern Illinois University. He then transferred to Illinois State University, where he majored in theater, but dropped out.[12] He studied acting at the William Esper Studio.[13]
Fashion design[edit]
Malkovich created his own fashion company, Mrs. Mudd, in 2002. The company released its John Malkovich menswear collection, "Uncle Kimono", in 2003,[43] which was subsequently covered in the international press,[44] and its second clothing line, "Technobohemian", in 2011.[45] Malkovich designed the outfits himself.[46]
Frequent collaborators[edit]
Malkovich was directed many times by Chilean director Raúl Ruiz — Le Temps retrouvé (Time Regained, 1999), Les Ames Fortes (Savage Souls, 2001), Klimt (2006)[47] and Lines of Wellington (2012).
In 2008, directed by Austrian director Michael Sturminger, he portrayed the story of Jack Unterweger in a performance for one actor, two sopranos, and period orchestra entitled Seduction and Despair, which premiered at Barnum Hall in Santa Monica, California.[48] A fully staged version of the production, entitled The Infernal Comedy premiered in Vienna in July 2009. The show has since been performed in 2009 through 2012 throughout Europe, North America and South America.[49]
Malkovich was also directed by Sturminger in Casanova's Variations and its movie adaptation in 2014 (co-starring Fanny Ardant).[50] For their third collaboration, in 2017, Michael Stürminger directed Malkovich in Just Call me God – the final speech, in which he played a Third World dictator called Satur Dinam Cha, who is about to be overthrown.[51]
He frequently worked with Julian Sands.[52]
In the media[edit]
In 2014, the photographer Sandro Miller recreated 35 iconic portraits of John Malkovich as the subject, in a project called Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich: Homage to Photographer Master.[53]
Malkovich starred in his first video-game role in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in the "Exo Zombies" mode.[54] In 1992, he appeared in period costume along with Hugh Laurie in the music video for "Walking on Broken Glass" by Annie Lennox. In 2015, he appeared in the music video for Eminem's single "Phenomenal". In 2017, he appeared in some humorous Super Bowl commercials portraying himself attempting to gain control of the johnmalkovich.com domain.[55]