Biography

Viggo was born in Manhattan, New York on October 20th 1958 to a Danish father and an American mother. Viggo and his younger brothers (who are both now geologists) lived with his parents in South America (Argentina and Venezuela) until 1969, when his parents divorced. Viggo and his brothers then 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. In 1980, he graduated from St. Lawrence University with degrees in Government and Spanish and then went to live in Denmark, where he had spent many happy holidays on his grandfather's farm, and supported himself with various jobs, including waiter and flower-seller.

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, A Walk on the Moon and of course, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. During this time, Viggo's non-acting career has taken off too - with exhibitions of his photographs and paintings, and many books of poems. although the recent rush of media attention following the huge success of The Lord of the Rings has been rather harrowing for the shy and 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".