Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. (Danish: [ˈviko ˈmɒːtn̩sn̩]; born October 20, 1958) is a Danish-American actor and filmmaker. He has received various accolades including an Actor Award and a Critics' Choice Award as well as nominations for three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.
Mortensen made his film debut with a role in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness. Through the late 1990s, 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).
Mortensen gained international attention for his breakthrough role as Aragorn in the fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003). He later starred in several David Cronenberg films including A History of Violence (2005), Eastern Promises (2007), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, A Dangerous Method (2011) and Crimes of the Future (2022). He gained further 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. He also starred in the movie Alatriste (2006), where he portrayed the main character, the movie being the most expensive Spanish language film ever produced.
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.
Mortensen was born in New York City, on October 20, 1958, to Grace Gamble (née Atkinson) and Viggo Peter Mortensen Sr. His mother was American, while his father was Danish. They met in Norway. His maternal grandfather was a Canadian from Nova Scotia. His paternal grandmother was from Trondheim, Norway.
In 1961, 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. He was baptized Lutheran, the tradition of his father, though he now identifies as an atheist.
When Mortensen was 11 and his brothers 8 and 6, their parents divorced. In 1969, the three boys returned with their mother to the United States, where Viggo spent the rest of his childhood in Northern New York State. He graduated from Watertown High School in 1976. He attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, earning a bachelor's degree in 1980 in Spanish studies and government.
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. In 1982, he returned to the United States to pursue an acting career.
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. He was one of the two 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.
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. Also in 1985, he was cast in the role of Bragg on the TV soap opera Search for Tomorrow, and played Tybalt opposite Michael Cerveris in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.
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, with whom Mortensen later costarred in the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings. The same year, Mortensen had a supporting role as Jerome Stample in the black comedy Salvation! , and played a co-lead role as a convict in the horror film Prison. He also guest starred as a police detective on the hit TV series Miami Vice. 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 the horror film sequel 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. 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.
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. 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.
By the mid-1990s, Mortensen was consistently making several film appearances a year. During this time, Mortensen was frequently cast in crime dramas such as Lalin Miasso in Carlito's Way, Carl Frazer in The Young Americans, Nick Davis in American Yakuza, and Guy Foucard in Albino Alligator.
Other films from that time include Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady, where he played Caspar Goodwood, a love interest of the film's protagonist, Isabel Archer (Nicole Kidman). He also acted in Crimson Tide, Daylight, A Walk on the Moon, The Passion of Darkly Noon, 28 Days, and The Prophecy, with Christopher Walken.
With a budget of $50 million, G.I Jane (1997) was Mortensen's biggest budget film appearance prior to his role in Lord of the Rings. Although the film earned his co-star, Demi Moore, a Golden Raspberry Award for her role, Mortensen's performance as Command Master Chief John James 'Jack' Urgayle was favorably received.
In 1998, Mortensen appeared in remakes of two Alfred Hitchcock movies: Psycho and A Perfect Murder (which was a remake of Dial M for Murder).
2000s: The Lord of the Rings and breakthrough