Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen
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Viggo Mortensen

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Viggo Mortensen

Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. R (Danish: [ˈviko ˈmɒːtn̩sn̩]; born October 20, 1958) is an American and Danish actor and filmmaker. He has received 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.

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; 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. 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.

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