American actor, known for his intensity and the icy-calm demeanor which has become his trademark. Malkovich’s well-deserved reputation for innovation established him as one of the leading actors of his generation.
Born in Charleston, Illinois, Malkovich, his older brother and younger sisters, grew up in the nearby coal-mining town of Benton where their parents ran the local newspaper. As a child, he was prone to tantrums; his siblings would lock him out of the house and call him “mad dog.” Despite his family’s intellectual bent, Malkovich was more interested in music and sports, and as an overweight high school freshman, he devised a weight loss regimen and dropped 70 pounds in only a few months. He played the tuba as well as the guitar, and after his physical transformation, he became a star athlete. Following high school graduation, he enrolled at Eastern Illinois University where he studied professional environmentalism, but never a dedicated student, he found theater more to his liking. He co-founded Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre in 1976, and seven years later he won an Obie Award when the production of “True West” went to New York.
Moving on to Broadway, Malkovich appeared with Dustin Hoffman in the 1984 revival of “Death of a Salesman,” and during that same year, he made his film debut in “Places in the Heart,” for which he earned an Academy Award nomination. He also appeared in “The Killing Fields,” in 1984. The candid and often caustic Malkovich was a natural at portraying evil characters, and he appeared in numerous film roles during the 1980s and 1990s, including “The Glass Menagerie,” 1987, “Dangerous Liaisons,” 1988, “In the Line of Fire,” 1993, and “Con Air,” 1997. The most unusual film during his prolific career was “Being John Malkovich,” 1999, when he played himself.
Malkovich was married to the actress Glenne Headly from 8/02/1982 until 1988. Since 1989, he has been in a longtime relationship with Nicoletta Peyran with whom he has two children, Amandine and Leroy . They divide their time between the U.S. and Europe.
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