Born Ronald Walken on March 31, 1943 in Queens, New York, Christopher Walken is a multi-awarded film and theater actor whose career spanned 50 years and more than 100 movie and television roles. Among the most memorable include Batman Returns, Pulp Fiction, and Catch Me If You Can. He enjoyed a massive cult following in the 1980s after the release of the first three The Prophecy movies and his hosting Satruday Night Live. His films have grossed over $1.8 billion.
Born to Methodist parents, Walken’s mother was a Scottish immigrant while his father emigrated from Germany. Both were bakers. As a child, he worked after school in the family bakery located in the Astoria neighborhood of queens, New York. He was childhood friends with a young immigrant girl who was interested in learning all about the food business. She would grow up to become TV cooking show host Lidia Bastianich. Upon the prodding of their mother, all three brothers, Christopher, Ken and Glenn became child actors on television in the 1980s. Christopher was an undergraduate at Hofstra University on Long Island. His training was mainly in dance and musical theater before he ventured into theater and film.
Christopher Walken started off as a child extra in several anthologies and variety shows. He appeared in a sketch with Martin and Lewis on The Colgate Comedy Hour, which eventually inspired him to become an actor. He made his feature film debut in 1971 opposite Sean Connery in the film The Anderson Tapes. His first starring role came in the 1972 sci-fi The Mind Snatchers. He went on to appear in Annie Hall, Shoot the Sun Down, and The Deer Hunter, which gave him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Walken went on to return to stage in the 2000 staging of The Dead on Broadway and a music video performance in Fat Boy’s Slim’s Weapon of Choice the next year. He then appeared in Catch Me If You Can, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His other screen credits include The Rundown, Click, Man of the Year, Balls of Fury, and Hairspray, where he danced a romantic duet with John Travolta.