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 Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. was born on October 20, 1958 in New York City to Grace Gamble and Viggo Peter Mortensen Sr. His American mother and Danish father met in Norway. One of three siblings, Viggo and his brothers moved around with their parents during their childhood, living in such places as Venezuela, Argentina and Denmark, eventually settling in Argentina, where his father managed chicken farms and ranches. They remained there until Mortensen was age eleven, when his parents divorced and his mother moved back to New York. He moved with his father to Copenhagen, Denmark. Mortensen and his father eventually went back to the United States where Mortensen graduated from Watertown High School, Watertown, New York. After high school, he returned to Denmark and became a truckdriver in Esbjerg, Denmark, before, again, returning to the United States to pursue an acting career. He attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, earning a bachelor's degree in Spanish. He chose that subject because he could get achieve good grades without much studying, leaving him free to be act in several plays. At his commencement, he refused to wear an academic gown because they were made by sweatshop workers. It was only after The Lord of the Rings trilogy, when he was granted an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, that he appeared in the appropriate robes.
 During his early acting years, Mortensen studied under acting legend Warren Robertson and moved to Los Angeles, acting in several noted plays, including Bent (1987) at the Coast Playhouse, which earned him a Dramalogue Critic's Award. Coincidentally, the play, about homosexual concentration camp prisoners, was originally brought to prominence by Sir Ian McKellen, with whom Mortensen would later co-star in The Lord of the Rings.
After several years working in live theater, Mortensen made his first movie appearance playing an Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness (1985), starring Harrison Ford. Though he had actually acted in two prior films, Swing Shift (1985) and The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), his scenes were cut from the films. In 1985, Mortensen also made his television debuts on ABC Afterschool Specials and Search For Tomorrow.
 In the 1990s, Mortensen appeared in supporting roles in a variety of films including Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990), Young Guns II (1990), Carlito's Way (1993) with Al Pacino, American Yakuza (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Philip Ridley's two films The Reflecting Skin (1990) and The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995), The Prophecy (1995) with Christopher Walken, The Portrait of a Lady (1996), Daylight (1996), and Charles Robert Carner's televised remake of Vanishing Point (1997). His high-profile work in Sean Penn's directorial debut The Indian Runner (1991) and Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane (1997) lead to more leading male roles in films like A Perfect Murder (1998) with Michael Douglas, Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake of Psycho, A Walk on the Moon (1999), and 28 Days (2000) with Sandra Bullock.
Mortensen's major breakthrough came in 1999 with his casting as Aragorn in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy (released in 2001, 2002 and 2003). Mortensen was actually a last-minute replacement for Stuart Townsend and only accepted the part based upon his son's enthusiasm for the J. R. R. Tolkien trilogy. His intense dedication to the project was evident from his acting to the physical demands of the role. Mortensen performed all of his own stunt work and sword fights for the films, bringing authenticity to his scenes and enthusiasm to the crews he worked with. The Lord of the Rings triliogy went on to be a box office sensation, earning critical acclaim and even earned a Best Picture Academy Award for Return of the King (2003). The achievement affected Mortensen's career immensely, pushing him into leading role status.
 With the success of Lord of the Rings, Mortensen chose Hildago (2004) as his next project. Starring as Frank Hopkins, an ex-army courier, the film tells the story of one man's travels through Arabia in competion with his horse, Hidalgo, in a dangerous race for a massive contest prize. The film received legit success and proved Mortensen's popularity and appeal to audiences in carrying a movie.
In 2005, Mortensen starred in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence. In addition to receiving glowing reviews from the critics, the film also earned Mortensen Golden Globe and Satellite Award nominations for his dark performance. The following year, Mortensen took another interesting turn and starred as Captain Diego Alatriste in Alatriste (2006), an entirely Spanish-speaking film and, reportedly, the most expensive Spanish-language movie ever made.
 In 2007, Mortensen reteamed with director David Cronenberg in the critically-acclaimed Russian mob picture Eastern Promises. Mortensen's performance was applauded across the boards, his nude fight scene in a steam room praised by Roger Ebert: "Years from now, it will be referred to as a benchmark." The film earned Mortensen a Best Actor Award from British Independent Film Awards, as well as nominations from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTAs and the Academy Award nomination. The film marks the first Oscar nominations of Mortensen's career.
In addition to being an actor, Mortensen is also a poet, musician, painter and photographer. His paintings are frequently abstract and often contain fragments of his poetry. They have been featured in galleries worldwide and even appear in his film A Perfect Murder (1998), in which he portrays a self-employed artist. Mortensen experiments with his poetry and music by mixing the two art forms. He has collaborated with guitar virtuoso Buckethead on seven albums. His discography includes: Don't Tell Me What to Do, Intelligence Failure, One Less Thing To Worry About, One Man's Meat, Live At Beyond Baroque, The Other Parade, This That and the Other, Live At Beyond Baroque 2, Pandemoniumfromamerica, Please Tomorrow, and At All. His latest CD/DVD, 3 Fools 4 April, documents the poetry readings given on April Fool's Day 2006 at the Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice, California. Mortensen's singing is featured on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) soundtrack in which he sings "Aragorn's Coronation", the words by Tolkien but the music composed by Mortensen himself. In the extended DVD edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), he sings the song "The Lay of Beren and Luthien". His poems are written in English, Danish, and Spanish.
 Mortensen has a son, Henry Blake Mortensen (born January 28, 1988), with ex-wife Christine "Exene" Cervenka of the band X. The couple met on the set of Salvation! (1987) and married soon-after. They then moved to Idaho for a few years but returned to Los Angeles when they divorced in 1997. He and his son, Henry, have done several public father/son poetry readings together. Mortensen is fluent in English, Danish, and Spanish and conversant in Norwegian. He also speaks French, Italian, and Swedish. When not working, Mortensen divides his time between California and his native Denmark. |
