American actor, highly prolific in character roles, who has received multiple awards and nominations, including four Academy Award nominations. Dafoe has frequently collaborated with filmmakers Paul Schrader, Abel Ferrara, Lars von Trier, and Wes Anderson.
Dafoe chose his roles based on artistic merit rather than box office potential, and as a result, he appeared in many different types of films. He starred as a FBI agent in “Mississippi Burning,” 1988, and later that year, he portrayed “Jesus” in Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ.” In 1992, he starred with Madonna in “Body of Evidence” and allowed hot wax to be dripped on his naked body. His lean, sharp features and seductive, serpentine smile helped him become a sought-after character actor during the 1990s, but he landed several leading roles as well. He appeared in “The English Patient,” 1996, and in “Shadow of the Vampire,” 2000.
The son of a surgeon, Dafoe was the second youngest of eight children. He attended Einstein Junior High School where he was called “Billy,” but in high school, he was given the nickname “Willem,” and it stayed with him. The only member of his family with an artistic bent, he began acting as a teenager but got off to a rocky start with his role in a soft-porn video; as a result, he was suspended from school. At age 17, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee where he took drama classes. Bored with his studies there, he joined Milwaukee’s experimental Theatre X-troupe, and with that group, he toured the U.S. and Europe. In 1977, he settled in New York and landed a role with the Performance Group. When he showed up at rehearsal, he discovered that the artistic director, Elizabeth LeCompte, had given his role to another actor; despite this inauspicious beginning, they were soon embroiled in both a personal and professional relationship, and together they founded the avant-garde Wooster Group.
Although Dafoe quickly became known for his ability to portray darkly eccentric characters, his film debut in 1981 was forgettable, in more ways than one. He landed a minor role in Michael Cimino’s film, “Heaven’s Gate.” Dafoe’s screen time was cut from the film before it made its appearance at the box office; this saved him the embarrassment of appearing in a film with such disastrous reviews. With his appearance in “The Hunger,” 1983, his performance actually made it to the big screen.
Although Dafoe feels he has missed out on more conventional roles, he adds that because he’s a “regular guy in real life,” he wants to be a bit reckless in his work. He studiously guards his privacy and stays out of the Hollywood limelight, often working in small theatre productions.
His son Jack was born with in 1992 with his long-time companion, stage actress Elizabeth LeCompte. By 2000, they celebrated 24 years together. Dafoe married Italian actress, director and screenwriter Giada Colagrande on 25 March 2005, a year after the two had met in Rome at the premiere of one of her films.
Dafoe is a vegetarian and avoids eating meat “because animal farms are one of the main causes of the destruction of the planet”. He practices ashtanga yoga every day.
Link to Wikipedia biography