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Viggo Mortensen

Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. R[2] (Danish: [ˈviko ˈmɒːtn̩sn̩]; born October 20, 1958)[3] is an American actor, artist, musician and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including nominations for three Academy Awards for Best Actor, three BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award.

Viggo Mortensen

Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr.

(1958-10-20) October 20, 1958
New York City, U.S.
  • United States
  • Denmark[1]

  • Actor
  • artist
  • musician
  • director
  • producer

1984–present

(m. 1987; div. 1997)

Ariadna Gil (2009–present)

1

Born in New York City and raised mainly in Argentina and Denmark, Mortensen made his film debut in a small role in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness. He went on to play supporting roles in several notable films during the 1990s, including The Indian Runner (1991), Carlito's Way (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Daylight (1996), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), G.I. Jane (1997), A Perfect Murder (1998), A Walk on the Moon (1999), and 28 Days (2000).


Mortensen gained international attention for playing Aragorn in the fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003). He gained acclaim for his collaborations with filmmaker David Cronenberg in the thrillers A History of Violence (2005), Eastern Promises (2007), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, and A Dangerous Method (2011).[4] He gained additional Academy Award nominations for his leading roles as an anarchist father in Captain Fantastic (2016) and as Tony Lip in Green Book (2018). Mortensen made his directorial debut with Falling (2020), in which he also starred, and which was nominated for the Goya Award for Best European Film.


Aside from acting, Mortensen has explored fine arts, photography, poetry, and music. In 2002, he founded the Perceval Press to publish both his works and the works of little-known artists and authors. Mortensen sang and composed for part of The Lord of the Rings soundtrack and has collaborated with guitarist Buckethead on several albums.

Early life[edit]

Mortensen was born in New York City on October 20, 1958,[3] the son of 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]


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.[8] He was baptized Lutheran, the tradition of his father.[9]


When Mortensen was 11 and his brothers 8 and 6, their parents divorced. The three boys returned with their mother to the United States, where Viggo spent the rest of his childhood in New York State. He graduated from Watertown High School in 1976.[10][11] He attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, earning a bachelor's degree in 1980 in Spanish studies and politics.[12]


Upon graduating, Mortensen went to Europe, living for a time 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.[13][14] He eventually returned to the United States to pursue an acting career.[15]

Acting career[edit]

1980s–1990s: First films[edit]

Mortensen's first film role was in the Woody Allen film The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), but his scenes were deleted from the final cut.[16] He was one of the four finalists to play the title role of Tarzan in the adventure film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984), though the role eventually went to Christopher Lambert.[17]


His first onscreen appearance was playing an Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness. He was cast in Witness because the director thought he had the right face for the part of an Amish man. He had also been simultaneously cast for another role as a soldier in Shakespeare in the Park's production of Henry V, but he decided to choose acting in the film because he wanted to try something new. He credited that decision and the very positive experience on the film as the start of his film career.[18]


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, about homosexual prisoners in a concentration camp, was known for the leading performance by Ian McKellen.[19] Mortensen later costarred with him in the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings. In 1987, Mortensen guest starred as a police detective on the hit TV series Miami Vice.[20]


During the 1990s, Mortensen appeared in supporting roles in a variety of films, including Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady, Young Guns II, Prison, Boiling Point, Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Sean Penn's The Indian Runner, Danny Cannon's The Young Americans, Brian de Palma's Carlito's Way, Crimson Tide, G.I. Jane, Daylight, A Walk on the Moon, Philip Ridley's films The Reflecting Skin and The Passion of Darkly Noon, the remake films A Perfect Murder and Gus Van Sant's Psycho (the 1998 remakes of two Alfred Hitchcock's movies Dial M for Murder and Psycho), 28 Days, and The Prophecy, with Christopher Walken. Of these roles, Mortensen was probably best known for playing Master Chief John Urgayle in G.I. Jane.[21]

Ten Last Night – (1993), his first collection of poetry.

[58]

Recent Forgeries – (1998), ISBN, 5th Edition, documents Viggo's first solo exhibition and includes a CD with music and spoken-word poetry. Introduction by Dennis Hopper.

[58]

Errant Vine – (2000), limited edition booklet of an exhibit at the Robert Mann Gallery.

[58]

Hole in the Sun – (2002, ISBN), color and black & white photographs of a back yard swimming pool.

[58]

SignLanguage – (2002 ISBN), 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.

[58]

Coincidence of Memory – (2002, ISBN) Third Edition. In this book, the artist combines photographs, paintings, and poems that cover his artistic output from 1978 to 2002.

[58]

Mo Te Upoko-o-te-ika/For Wellington – (2003), ISBN, a book to accompany the joint exhibitions at Massey University and the Wellington City Gallery during the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

[58]

45301 – (2003), ISBN. Abstract images, fragments, and phrases from poems are comprised in this photography book. Many of the photographs were shot during travels to Morocco, Cuba, and the northern plains of the United States.

[58]

Un hueco en el sol – (2003), a small booklet published to accompany the exhibition "Un hueco en el sol" at the Fototeca de Cuba in Havana. In Spanish.

[58]

Miyelo – (2003), a series of panoramic photographs of a Lakota Ghost Dance. It also tells about the events leading up to the massacre at Wounded Knee.

[58]

Nye Falsknerier – (2003). Paintings and poems translated into Danish from Ten Last Night, Recent Forgeries, Coincidence of Memory.

[58]

The Horse is Good – (2004), ISBN, a photography book, partly shot during his work on the film Hidalgo, about horses as partners, teachers, and fellow travelers. Images from Morocco, South Dakota, Montana, California, Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark, Brazil, and Argentina. This book reflects Mortensen's fondness for horses. In fact, he bought Uraeus—the horse who played Brego, Aragorn's steed (Roheryn in the books) in The Lord of the Rings movies—as well as TJ, one of the horses who played Hidalgo. He also purchased the stallion that played Arwen's horse, a gray Andalusian stallion named Florian, and gave it to the stunt woman, Jane Abbott, who rode the horse in place of Liv Tyler.

[58]

Linger – (2005). In this book, the artist combines black and white photographs and prose poems. Images from Spain (partly shot during his work on the film Alatriste), Morocco, Iceland, United States, Denmark ...

[58]

I Forget You For Ever – (2006). Texts and photographs.

[58]

Skovbo – (2008). Collection of photographs, poems (in English, Spanish and Danish) and quotes.

[59]

Sådanset – (2008). A small booklet published to accompany the exhibition Sådanset (October 18 – November 16, 2008) at the Palæfløjen in Roskilde (Denmark).

[60]

Canciones de Invierno – Winter Songs – (2010). Collection of photographs and poems. Bilingual : in Spanish and English. It includes new texts (most of the poems and all the translations) and revised versions of texts previously published. They're accompanied by pictures of landscapes taken during the previous two winters.

[61]

That Turned Ugly Fast – (2015), ISBN, Poems by Mark Berriman, with a foreword by Viggo Mortensen.

[62]

Ramas Para Un Nido – (2017). Collection of photos comprising a "distillation of isolated instances".

[63]

Personal life[edit]

Family and relationships[edit]

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".[70]


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, who later played his on-screen son in the film Crimson Tide in 1995. His son 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.[71][72][73] Mortensen and Cervenka lived in Idaho for three years.[74] They separated in 1992 and divorced in 1997.[75] 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."[76][77] He has owned property in Sandpoint, Idaho, and spends time there when not filming movies.[78]


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.[79] In 2016, Mortensen traveled to New York to take care of his father,[76] who died a year later.[79] Two years earlier, Mortensen's mother had also died from complications of the condition.[79]


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.[80]

Sports[edit]

Mortensen has expressed a liking for association football, ice hockey and baseball. His favorite teams include Argentine club San Lorenzo de Almagro,[81] English team Fulham,[82] Spanish team Real Madrid,[83] Turkish team Beşiktaş,[84] and both the Argentine and Danish national teams.[85] His favorite football players are Diego Maradona and Héctor "Bambino" Veira.[86] He is a fan of the Montreal Canadiens and wore a Canadiens shirt underneath his costume throughout the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.[87] During the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Montreal Canadiens, Mortensen introduced one of his idols, Guy Lafleur, to the crowd at the Bell Centre in Montreal.[88] He is also a fan of the New York Mets and, in an interview promoting 2009 film The Road, was seen wearing apparel indicating his support for the Australian Football League's Collingwood Magpies.[89] While appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman, he held a sign supporting the New York Giants of the NFL.[90]

Political activities[edit]

Mortensen signed a protest that the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival's "Spotlight on Tel Aviv" implicitly condoned Israeli occupation and marginalised Palestinians.[91][92] In 2015 he donated $1,000 to Irish political party Sinn Fein.[93]


Mortensen endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for U.S. president during the primaries for the 2016 election.[94] After Sanders failed to win the Democratic Party nomination, Mortensen endorsed Green Party candidate Jill Stein.[95] 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.[96] 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.[97]


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.[98] His longtime partner and her extended family were supporters of the 2017 Catalan independence referendum. In 2019, he publicly criticized the use of his character Aragorn by the far-right Spanish party Vox during the campaign for the 2019 Spanish general election.[99]


In May 2020, Mortensen urged Israel to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip.[100] In October 2023, he was a signatory in the Artists4Ceasefire open letter to President Joe Biden, calling for a ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas war.[101]

List of actors with Academy Award nominations

List of actors with three or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories

at Curlie

Viggo Mortensen

at IMDb

Viggo Mortensen

at Rotten Tomatoes

Viggo Mortensen

Viggo Mortensen's publishing house

Perceval Press

A Life in Pictures event

Viggo Mortensen at BAFTA

at Library of Congress, with 10 library catalog records

Viggo Mortensen