Viggo Mortensen

Viggo Mortensen was born in Manhattan, New York on October 20th 1958 to a Danish father and an American mother, who met in Oslo. Viggo and his younger brothers (who are both now geologists) lived with his parents in South America (Argentina & Venezuela) until 1969, when his parents divorced. Viggo & his brothers went to live with their mother in Watertown, New York.

Viggo inherited from his father a love of travel and a gift for languages. He speaks Spanish and Danish fluently, and French, Italian, Swedish and Norwegian to a lesser degree.

Viggo attended Watertown High School, and was on both the swimming and tennis teams. He also developed a love of photography, and could be found wandering around the streets of his neighbourhood taking pictures.

His film career proper started in 1985, with a performance in "Witness", followed by over 25 other films in the next decade. Sadly, most of his performances produced more acclaim than money, and Viggo was again forced to support himself with odd-jobs.

In 1987, during filming of "Salvation", he met and married Christine Cervenka who was lead singer with X, and in 1988 they had Viggo's only child, Henry, moving soon afterward to Idaho to bring up their son out of the spotlight of fame. The marriage broke up in 1997 but he and Cervenka remain close and share custody of Henry.

Since the latter part of the 90's, Viggo's career has been on an upward spiral, with excellent performances in "GI Jane", "A Perfect Murder" and "A Walk on the Moon". And of course, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which has brought Viggo to the attention of many more adoring female fans.

During this time, Viggo's non-acting career has taken off too - with exhibitions of his photographs and paintings, and two books of poems. Fortunately, he has no intention of giving up his acting career, although the recent rush of media attention following the huge success of The Lord of the Rings has been rather harrowing for the shy & private Viggo, who has been quoted as saying that he is happy to spend days with just his own company and is happier "among trees than around people". Here's hoping that once the media moves on, Viggo will be allowed to settle back his former quiet life, producing the art and poetry that he loves, and bringing to his film roles that particular viggo-ness that is, after all, the reason we love him.