Willem Dafoe

It is believed that a person can be taught anything - to sing, paint, cook, build houses, drive vehicles, play sports and much more. It is also known that most people have a predisposition to certain activities - such people are usually said to be simply made for this. This statement is very suitable for the American Willem Dafoe, an actor with a textured appearance and undeniable charisma.

The future actor was born in the small town of Appleton, located on the Fox River, 160 kilometers north of Milwaukee, the administrative center of Wisconsin. It happened on July 22, 1955.

William (the boy received this name at birth) is the seventh of 8 children of the surgeon William Alfred Dafoe and the nurse Muriel Isabel (nee Spriseller), five daughters and one son have already been born before him. The last child was also a boy.

William differed from his brothers and sisters in character - they were sedate and slow, and the future actor from the cradle showed excessive activity and artistry. Later, the young boy's restless character made itself felt - for filming pornographic films, William was kicked out of school. By the way, then a version of the name Willem appeared, which has Scottish roots (like the actor himself) - Defoe did not like it when he was called Billy.

After school, Willem moved to Milwaukee, where he entered drama courses at the University of Wisconsin. However, Dafoe did not last until the end of the course, going on a tour with Theater X, one of America's oldest experimental theaters, which existed until 2004.

With Theater X, Willem traveled the United States and Europe and 4 years later, in 1976, he returned to America and settled in the United States. Then he became a member of another theatrical troupe - The Perfomance Group, led by Richard Schechner. Later, some of the actors under the leadership of Elizabeth LeCompte left The Perfomance Group, organizing their own troupe - The Wooster Group. Dafoe was part of The Wooster Group until the mid-2000s. During this time, the other children of William Alfred Dafoe and Muriel Isabelle were studying to be doctors and lawyers.

For the first time, Willem took part in the filming of a movie in 1980. His debut was supposed to be a film by Michael Cimino "The Gates of Heaven", but due to a quarrel with the director, all episodes with Defoe's participation were cut out. Willem later admitted that he did not regret it, because the picture of Cimino became a major Hollywood box office failure.

The real debut on the wide screen took place only 2 years later. Defoe played the role of the leader of the biker gang from the group "Outlaw" in the film "Without Love". After 2 years, he starred in a similar role in Walter Wesley Hill's film Streets on Fire.

A year earlier, Dafoe starred in the cult vampire film Hunger by Tony Scott, starring David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve. In 1984, Willem played the lead role for the first time, starring in the crime comedy "Snack on Highway 66". In 1985 he played in the film "To Live and Die in Los Angeles" directed by William Friedkin ("The Exorcist", "The French Messenger", "The Wizard").

The real fame came to the actor in 1986, when the first film of the Vietnamese trilogy by Oliver Stone "Platoon" was released. Defoe played the minor role of Sergeant Elias Grodin (for which he was first nominated for an Oscar), and the main role was entrusted to Charlie Sheen.

In 1988 he played the role of Jesus Christ in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, which is a screen version of the work of the same name by Nikos Kazantzakis. Director Sergio Leone expressed his dissatisfaction with the appointment of Defoe for this role, stating that a man who had played the role of the messiah could not be a person who had played before bikers, bandits and soldiers. A similar situation happened at one time with the Russian actor Sergei Bezrukov, when he played the role of Christ (Yeshua Ha-Notsri) in the film adaptation of The Master and Margarita.

Also, 1988 was marked for Dafoe by participating in the film Mississippi on Fire directed by Alan Parker (Midnight Express, Angel Heart, The Life of David Gale). The film was about the real-life murders of civil rights fighters in Mississippi in June 1964. In addition to Dafoe, Gene Hackman and Frances McDormand starred in the film.

In 1989, Willem again collaborated with Oliver Stone. The result of this collaboration is the second film from the Vietnamese cycle - "Born on the Fourth of July". The main roles were played by Tom Cruise and Kira Sedgwick. From the previous film, in addition to Defoe, Tom Berenger was also involved.

At the same time, "Batman" by Tim Burton is released. Initially, the role of the main villain, nicknamed the Joker, was supposed to be played by Willem - in fact, screenwriter Sam Hamm wrote this role under Defoe, but something did not work out and Jack Nicholson played the Joker. In 1990 he starred in the film Crybaby, in which the then young Johnny Depp played the main role.

In the same year he took part in the filming of the film Wild at Heart by David Lynch. His partners on the set were Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern. A year later, John Milius ("Conan the Barbarian", "Red Dawn") "Flight of the Intruder" was released. In this tape, Defoe played the role of Lieutenant Virgil "Tiger" Cole. Willem was accompanied by Danny Glover and Rosanna Arquette.

In 1993, Uli Edel's film Body as Evidence was released. The film contained many explicit scenes, which is why it was credited with the genre of soft porn. In addition to Defoe, Madonna, Julianne Moore, Joe Mantegna, Frank Langella and Jurgen Prochnoff played in the film.

1994 was marked for Defoe with the release of the film adaptation of Tom Clancy's novel "Direct and Obvious Threat", which tells the story of special agent Jack Ryan, played by Harrison Ford. The film was directed by Philip Noyce, director of the films Sliver, The Power of Fear and Salt.

Two years later, the film "The English Patient", directed by Anthony Minchella ("The Talented Mr. Ripley", "Cold Mountain"), based on the novel of the same name by Michael Ondaatje, was released. The film won 9 Oscars, 6 BAFTAs, 4 Screen Actors Guild Awards, 2 Golden Globes and 1 Grammy. The main roles were played by Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.

1998 and 1999 are the years of cyberpunk in Dafoe's work. In 1998, the film adaptation of William Gibson's story "The New Rose Hotel", directed by Abel Ferrara, was released. In 2011, Dafoe will star in his film 4:44. The Last Day on Earth ”, and in 2014 - in“ Pasolini ”.

Besides Willem, Christopher Walken and Asia Argento played in the film. In 1999, the film by David Cronenberg ("Fly", "Videodrome", "Scanners", "The Dead Zone") "Existence" with Jude Law and Jennifer Jason Leigh in the lead roles was released.

Also in 1999, another cult film with the participation of Dafoe was released - "The Boondock Saints" by Troy Duffy. In addition to Willem, who plays FBI agent Paul Slicker, the film also stars Sean Patrick Flannery and The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus. Together with them, Defoe starred in the sequel.

In 2000, "American Psycho" by Mary Harron and "Shadow of the Vampire" by Edmund Elias Meridge were released, in which Defoe played not the last roles (the vampire Max Shrek aka Nosferatuiz Willem turned out to be really menacing, even though he was 178 centimeters tall).

In 2002, Spider-Man appeared on the world screens, giving a new start to films about superheroes. This project began to be developed back in 1986. At various times, directors James Cameron, M. Night Shyamalan, Roland Emmerich, Jan de Bont, Chris Columbus and David Fincher were involved in the adaptation of the comic. The final nominee was Sam Raimi, who directed the Evil Dead trilogy and the superhero film Man of Darkness, starring Liam Neeson.

The main villain in Spider-Man's life in the film was supposed to be the Green Goblin. This role was offered to many actors, including John Malkovich and Nicolas Cage, with whom Defoe had previously starred. Willem's own candidacy was not considered, but this role was so captivated by the actor that he recorded his test of the role on camera and passed it on to Raimi, who appreciated the actor's skills. As a result, Defoe starred in all three parts of the film about Spider-Man.

After working with Sam Raimi Defoe starred in "Aviator" (2004) by Martin Scorsse, "Not Caught - Not a Thief" (2006) by Spike Lee, "Antichrist" (2009) by Lars von Trier, "Warriors of Light" (2010) by the Spirig brothers, John Carter (2012) by Andrew Stanton, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) by Wes Anderson, John Wicke (2014) by Chad Stahelski and David Letch, and many other films.

We should also mention the short film "The Smile Man", filmed by Russian novice director Anton Lanshakov, a participant in the Kevin Spacey competition "Jameson first shot". In total, the actor has almost 200 films. Also, Willem did not stop working as an actor in the theater.

In 1982, Willem's common-law wife Elizabeth LeCompte (head of The Wooster Group theater) gave birth to the actor's son Jack. At the beginning of the 2000s, the couple broke up.

On March 25, 2005, Defoe married Italian actress Jada Colangrande, with whom he starred in the films Black Widow (2005), Woman (2010) and Pasolini (2014).

In 2017, three tapes with the participation of Defoe should be released at once. The first of these was the adaptation of the Death Note anime released by the streaming service Netflix. In this film, Willem played the role of the god of death named Ryuk.

The next appearance of the actor should take place in the film adaptation of Agatha Christie's detective novel Murder on the Orient Express directed by Kenneth Branagh (Kenneth himself will play the role of Hercule Poirot).

The third tape, in which Defoe will be involved - "Justice League". This time, the actor will play the DC comic character Nuidis Valko (Green Goblin was the brainchild of Marvel). By the way, his Spider-Man colleague Jonathan Kimble Simmons will also star in this film. There are already photos from the filming of this film on the Internet.

1982 - "Without Love" 1985 - "Live and Die in Los Angeles" 1986 - "Platoon" 1988 - "The Last Temptation of Christ" 1993 - "Body as Evidence" 1996 - "The English Patient" 1999 - "The Boondock Saints" 2000 - "Shadow of the Vampire" 2002 - "Spiderman" 2004 - "Aviator" 2006 - "Not Caught - Not a Thief" 2009 - "Antichrist" 2012 - "John Carter" 2014 - "John Wick"

Willem Dafoe 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Willem Dafoe in 2020?

Willem Dafoe Net Worth 2021

Willem Dafoe 's revenue is $1.1M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Willem Dafoe and could vary in the range between $622.4K - $1.9M.

Willem Dafoe Net Worth 2020

Willem Dafoe 's revenue is $1.3M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Willem Dafoe and could vary in the range between $920.2K - $1.5M.

Willem Dafoe Net Worth 2019

Willem Dafoe 's revenue is $1.7M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Willem Dafoe and could vary in the range between $567.5K - $1.6M.

Willem Dafoe Net Worth 2018

Willem Dafoe 's revenue is $2M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Willem Dafoe and could vary in the range between $658.7K - $1.1M.

Willem Dafoe Net Worth 2017

Willem Dafoe 's revenue is $1.7M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Willem Dafoe and could vary in the range between $578.5K - $1.5M.

Willem Dafoe Net Worth 2016

Willem Dafoe 's revenue is $1.1M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Willem Dafoe and could vary in the range between $885.1K - $1.1M.

Willem Dafoe Net Worth 2015

Willem Dafoe 's revenue is $1.7M in 2015. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Willem Dafoe and could vary in the range between $616.2K - $1M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Willem Dafoe. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Willem Dafoe make a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Willem Dafoe' projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.