Viggo Mortensen

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Viggo Mortensen was born on October 20th, 1958 in New York, New York. Mortensen’s attended St. Lawrence University Canton, NY earning a BA in Spanish and training for two years at Warren Robertson’s Theatre Workshop in New York.

After making his TV debut in the 1984 mini-series George Washington, Viggo landed a role in 1985’s Witness with Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. He followed that with 1988’s Prison and Fresh Horses with Andrew McCarthy and Molly Ringwald. A busy 1990 saw Mortensen in Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, The Reflecting Skin and Young Guns II with Kiefer Sutherland, Emilio Estevez, and Christian Slater.

1991 saw Viggo with a role in Sean Penn’s directorial debut, The Indian Runner, with David Morse and Patricia Arquette. A little busier in 1994, he appeared in Boiling Point with Wesley Snipes, Ruby Cairo with Liam Neeson and Andie MacDowell, Carlito’s Way with Sean Penn and Al Pacino, The Young Americans and American Yakuza. The next year, he was seen in Crimson Tide with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman as well as The Passion of Darkly Moon with Ashley Judd and Brendan Fraser and The Prophecy with Christopher Walken, Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen and Eric Stoltz. In 1996, he starred with Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey and Mary-Louise Parker in Portrait of a Lady and appeared in Albino Alligator with Matt Dillon and Gary Sinise.

The next year, Viggo found himself alongside Demi Moore in G.I. Jane. In 1998, Mortensen starred in two Alfred Hitchock remakes. The first was A Perfect Murder, a remake of Dial “M” for Murder. This version starred Michael Douglas as the scorned husband and Gwyneth Paltrow as his wife. The next was the shot-by-shot remake of Psycho with Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche and Julianne Moore. In 1999, Mortensen made A Walk on the Moon with Diane Lane and Anna Paquin and in 2001 he starred with Sandra Bullock in 28 Days.

Viggo then embarked on making one of the most successful trilogies to hit theatres. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) would mesmerize and enchant audiences for the next three years. He played Aragorn with Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean, Ian Holm and Andy Serkis to name a few of the talented actors rounding out the cast.

Teaming up with David Cronenberg, he starred in 2005’s A History of Violence with Maria Bello and Ed Harris. He worked with Cronenberg again for 2007’s Eastern Promises with Naomi Watts. Mortensen then worked with Ed Harris and Renee Zellweger in 2008’s Appaloosa, a year that also saw him in Good. In 2009, he appeared in The Road with Kodi Smit-McPhee, Robert Duall and Guy Pearce.

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