Christopher Walken came into this world as Ronald Walken (named after actor Ronald Coleman) on March 31, 1943. Born the middle child in a family of three boys, he was raised along with his brothers Ken and Glenn, in Queens, New York. Christopher's parents were both immigrants who met in the U.S. as young adults and married in 1936. Walken’s father, Paul, came from Germany and spent a long career as the owner and operator of Walken’s Bakery in Queens. Rosalie, Walken’s mother, emigrated from Scotland and once had her own ambitions for the stage. After she was married, her acting desires were redirected toward her sons and she was quite successful at getting all three of them work starting at a very early age. For instance, one of Chris’ first jobs was posing nude alongside a cat for a baby calendar layout. He was just 14 months old at the time.
The fifties were the golden age of television and there were plenty of employment opportunities for the Walken brothers with over 90 live TV shows being produced in New York City at the time. Walken was often an extra on those live programs, and by the time he was ten years old, Chris had already worked with such greats as Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis, and Sid Caesar. Walken received his childhood education at Professional Children’s School in Manhattan, during which time he trained specifically to be a dancer. The professional school Walken attended was unique in that it catered to children who were actively working in show business with lesson plans tailored around the children’s working schedules. Though Chris was a very busy kid at that time, he still managed to have a good time at school. It was also during his childhood that Walken began to develop his trademark reluctance to follow traditional punctuation. He has said that he sometimes crossed out the punctuation in his text books, just as he sometimes crosses out the punctuation in his scripts today. That avoidance of punctuation, both written and in his speaking rhythm, has since become a integral part of the Walken signature style. A style that has been regularly parodied by impressionists.
"I remember a few years ago I was sitting at home with my wife watching the Oscars. I was sitting on the couch, and suddenly I heard my voice. It’s thrilling. It’s interesting that a lot of guys do me. I have a friend who does me on his answering machine so when I call him I talk to myself. I don’t really know what that comes from. It doesn’t seem to me that I speak in a strange way. My wife says Kevin’s [Kevin Spacey] is the best." -- Chris Walken, UK Empire magazine, March 2002.
After graduating from Children’s Professional School and being handed his diploma from none other than Gypsy Rose Lee, Walken went on to study English Literature at Hofstra University. After less than a year, Chris made the decision to leave college when he was offered a part in a 1963 Broadway musical, Best Foot Forward, which also starred a very young Liza Minelli. Chris continued to work mainly as a dancer in musicals for some time, and it was also at this point in his career that the decision was made to change his name to Christopher. When Walken was offered his first major acting role in 1966, he played the part of King Philip in The Lion in Winter. Chris has said that he was so nervous while he was on stage he almost ended up losing his job early on in the production. Not wanting to give up his chance to become a professional stage actor, Walken convinced the producer to give him just three more days to improve. Chris went on to do so well, he won that year’s prestigious Clarence Derwent Award for his performance in the play. Walken would soon win many other important awards such as an Obie for Kid Champion, and a Theatre World Award for The Rose Tatto. Chris also spent a number of years participating in The Actors Studio where he was taught by legendary drama teachers such as Lee Strasberg.
Early on, Chris continued to work in theater, both on and off Broadway, for years until he landed his first movie role. Though he screen tested for leading roles in such films as Love Story and Star Wars, he didn’t win a significant part in a movie until 1971 when he was chosen to play alongside Sean Connery in The Anderson Tapes. Walken went on from there to star in The Happiness Cage, Next Stop, Greenwich Village, The Sentinel, and Roseland, and was finally seen by the masses when he played Duane Hall, Diane Keaton’s very weird brother, in Woody Allen's production of Annie Hall. Then for his next film, Walken was given the part of Nick in Michael Cimino's masterpiece, The Deer Hunter. For playing his part so well, Walken won the 1978 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and from that moment on, his life would never be the same.
A few years later tragedy struck while Walken was wrapping up work on the film Brainstorm. Natalie Wood, his co-star in the movie, had invited him along on a Thanksgiving weekend boating trip with her and husband, Robert Wagner. On the second night of the trip, while their yacht was anchored off the coast of Catalina Island, Natalie fell overboard and drowned. "It always sounds like we were all alone out on the high seas. We were actually fifty feet off the shore of Catalina, in a harbor with many, many boats around us. The weather was shitty. Everybody was locked inside. There was a sort of cold drizzle. We were partying, there’s no question about it, but very conservatively. Too much to drink. Who knows? In fact I was asleep when it all happened. The fact is when somebody dies it’s a very serious thing. No matter who dies, death gets your attention. You can pass out all you like. You can party. You can do all kinds of things... But don’t die." -- Chris Walken, The Face, February 1985.
Throughout most of his career, Walken has tended to specialize in playing villains and unbalanced types in his film roles, though he has had the opportunity to play different kinds of parts on occasion. For instance, he once played the cat in one of his favorite projects, Puss in Boots, a movie where Chris could be seen singing, dancing, and performing cat-like movements with a feline perfection. Chris also had a chance to show off his dancing talents in the film, Pennies from Heaven, where he stole the show with a top notch dance routine. Later, at one particularly memorable party, Walken was personally praised by both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly for his performance in that film. Most of the world was finally made keenly aware of Walken's exceptional dancing ability when he starred in the Fatboy Slim music video, Weapon of Choice. Finally, an entirely new generation, The MTV Generation, found an opportunity to know Walken in a different light. Instead of the villain, they have been introduced to the song and dance man who has been there all along. In fact, those who pay close attention will notice that Chris often manages to work a few dance steps into most of his movies. He has said that he makes it a point to include those dance steps, scripted or not, as his own personal "Homage to Broadway."
"One of the reasons I can play the people I do is that I have a distance from them. I'm not neurotic. I don't have any paranoias. I never imagine something is happening unless it actually is. I'm positive." -- Chris Walken, Details Magazine, December 1993.