Christopher Walken

Ronald "Christopher" Walken (born March 31, 1943) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. Prolific in film, television, and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades. He has earned an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Tony Awards. His films have grossed more than $1.6 billion in the United States alone. In 2003, he was voted Number 34 in Channel 4's countdown of the 100 greatest movie stars of all time.

Walken has appeared in supporting roles in films such as The Anderson Tapes (1971), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), Roseland (1977) and Annie Hall (1977), before coming to wider attention as the troubled Vietnam War veteran Nick Chevotarevich in The Deer Hunter (1978). His performance earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was nominated for the same award for portraying con artist Frank Abagnale's father in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002).

Since his breakthrough, Walken has appeared in films in various genres, both in lead and supporting roles. These include The Dogs of War (1980), Brainstorm (1983), The Dead Zone (1983), A View to a Kill (1985), At Close Range (1986), Biloxi Blues (1988), King of New York (1990), The Comfort of Strangers (1990), Batman Returns (1992), True Romance (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), The Prophecy (1995, and its two sequels), Suicide Kings (1997), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Man on Fire (2004), Wedding Crashers (2005), Hairspray (2007), Seven Psychopaths (2012), A Late Quartet (2012), Percy (2020), and Dune: Part Two (2024). He has also provided voice work for the animated films Antz (1998) and The Jungle Book (2016).

On television, Walken has appeared in films such as Who Am I This Time? (1982), and Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991), for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. More recently, he has starred in television series The Outlaw0s (2021–), and Severance (2022–), the latter of which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series nomination.

As a stage actor, Walken starred with Irene Worth in a 1975 Broadway revival of "Sweet Bird of Youth." Walken has played the lead in the Shakespeare plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Coriolanus. His performance in the original rendition of James Joyce's The Dead (2000), earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical nomination. He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role in Martin McDonagh's A Behanding in Spokane (2010). He also wrote and played the lead role in the 1995 play Him, about his idol Elvis Presley.

He is also a popular guest-host of Saturday Night Live, having hosted 7 times as of April 2008. His most notable roles on the show include record producer Bruce Dickinson (no relation to the singer with the same name) in the "More Cowbell" sketch and multiple appearances as The Continental. A "best of" episode has been dedicated to Walken and has been released on DVD.

Walken has a very distinctive voice, and which is frequently mimicked. He has been portrayed by other actors on the show several times including by Jay Mohr and Kevin Spacey, each of whom has been known for their Walken impressions outside of SNL. On the April 5, 2008 episode which Walken hosted, he appeared in a sketch portraying a Walken family reunion in which almost all of the cast appeared as Walken family members doing Walken impressions.

He cameoed on the October 28, 2023 episode, the third episode and Halloween show of SNL's 49th season, hosted by stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze, with musical guests Foo Fighters, during the "Biden Halloween" Cold Open.