
Willem Dafoe
7 FOLLOWERS • 82 CREDITS • JUL 22, 1955 • 69
Biography
William James "Willem" Dafoe (born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, in addition to receiving nominations for four Academy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a British Academy Film Award. He frequently collaborates with filmmakers Paul Schrader, Abel Ferrara, Lars von Trier, Julian Schnabel, Wes Anderson, and Robert Eggers.
Dafoe was an early member of experimental theater company The Wooster Group. He made his film debut in Heaven's Gate (1980), but was fired during production. He had his first leading role in the outlaw biker film The Loveless (1982) and then played the main antagonist in Streets of Fire (1984) and To Live and Die in L.A. (1985). He received his first Academy Award nomination (as Best Supporting Actor) for his role as Sergeant Elias Grodin in Oliver Stone's war film Platoon (1986). In 1988, Dafoe played Jesus in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ and costarred in Mississippi Burning, both of which were controversial.
After receiving his second Academy Award nomination (as Best Supporting Actor) for portraying Max Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Dafoe portrayed the supervillain Norman Osborn / Green Goblin in the superhero film Spider-Man (2002), a role he reprised in its sequels Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007), and the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) earning him the Guinness World Record for the "longest career as a live-action Marvel character". He also portrayed the villains in Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) and XXX: State of the Union (2005), as well as Carson Clay in the film Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007). In 2009, he starred in the experimental film Antichrist, one of his three films with Lars von Trier. Dafoe then appeared in The Fault in Our Stars, John Wick, The Grand Budapest Hotel (all 2014), The Great Wall (2016), Murder on the Orient Express (2017), The Florida Project (2017) (for which he received his third Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category), The Lighthouse (2019), The French Dispatch, and Nightmare Alley (both 2021). He portrayed Nuidis Vulko in the DC Extended Universe films Aquaman (2018), Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2022).
Dafoe has portrayed several real-life figures, including T. S. Eliot in Tom & Viv (1994), Pier Paolo Pasolini in Pasolini (2014), Vincent van Gogh in At Eternity's Gate (2018) (for which he received an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination, his first in that category), and Leonhard Seppala in Togo (2019).
Known For

Saturday Night Live

Late Night with Seth Meyers

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

The Oscars

The Simpsons

The Colbert Report

The Hitchhiker

The Daily Show

The Graham Norton Show

The Wonderful World of Disney

Vox Lux

The French Dispatch

Finding Dory

The Aviator

Cry-Baby

The Hunger

Spider-Man 3

Asteroid City

Saturday Night

Tales from Earthsea

Born on the Fourth of July

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Spider-Man 2

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

American Psycho

Zack Snyder's Justice League

The Northman

John Carter

On the Set: 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou'

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Murder on the Orient Express

The Fault in Our Stars

Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Spider-Man: All Roads Lead to No Way Home

Inside Man

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Motherless Brooklyn

Nymphomaniac: Vol. II

Out of the Furnace

Death Note

Finding Nemo

Nosferatu

American Dreamz

Nightmare Alley

The Last Thing He Wanted

John Wick

Odd Thomas

Aquaman

The Clearing

Kinds of Kindness

The Great Wall

xXx: State of the Union

Poor Things

Speed 2: Cruise Control

The Florida Project

Daybreakers

The English Patient

What Happened to Monday

Wild at Heart

Platoon

Mississippi Burning

To Live and Die in L.A.

Dog Eat Dog

Flight of the Intruder

Mr. Bean's Holiday

Spider-Man

Clear and Present Danger

Shadow of the Vampire

The Lighthouse

Auto Focus

Inside

Togo

At Eternity's Gate

The Last Temptation of Christ

Antichrist

Tommaso

The Boondock Saints
Production Credits
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