Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. was born October 20, 1958 in New York City to his Danish father, Viggo and American mother, Grace.  The oldest of three sons, Vig - as he was nicknamed - along with his brothers Charles and Walter had an eclectic childhood.  Vig spent his early years in the Big Apple before his parents moved him to Venezuela and Argentina (where his father managed chicken farms and ranches) and later to Denmark, a place he still visits at least three times a year.

When Vig was 11, his parents divorced and his mother moved him back to New York where he attended Watertown High School and St. Lawrence University in Canton from which he holds a degree in Government and Spanish.  After graduation he moved to Denmark where he began writing poetry and short stories and worked in many odd jobs including dock worker, waiter and flower seller.  In 1982 he fell in love and moved with his girlfriend back to New York where he began his acting career appearing in several plays and movies before eventually splitting with her and moving to Los Angeles.  While in L.A., Vig met actress and singer Exene Cervenka of the punk band X and married her.  They have a son named Henry, who Vig calls his hero, and after 3 years of marriage, Vig and Exene separated and finally divorced 7 years later although they remain close friends.  It is because of Henry, who is a big fan of Tolkein’s that Vig who originally turned down the part, accepted the role of Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings.”

After a 1985 stint on the soap opera “Search For Tomorrow” and a few other television appearances, blonde and blue-eyed Vig started earning parts in motion pictures.  You might remember 1988’s “Fresh Horses” starring Brat Packers Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy or possibly “Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III” in which Vig played Tex?  He appeared in “Young Guns II”, “The Reflecting Skin”, “The Indian Runner” (Sean Penn’s directorial debut co-starring David Morse and Patricia Arquette), “Boiling Point” with Wesley Snipes and Dennis Hopper, “Carlito’s Way”, “The Young Americans” with Harvey Keitel, “Crimson Tide”, “The Passion of Darkly Noon”, and the one that really caught my attention, “The Prophecy.”  Ever since the mid-90’s, Mortensen has created an impressive filmography wracking up memorable roles in “The Portrait of a Lady”, “Albino Alligator” (the especially good directorial debut of Kevin Spacey), “Daylight”, “Vanishing Point”, “G.I. Jane”, “A Perfect Murder”, “Psycho”, “A Walk On The Moon”, “28 Days” and the one that changed his life, “The Lord of the Rings.” 

Since he has become a household name, Vig has awed audiences further with “Hidalgo”, the powerful Cronenberg film, “A History of Violence” in which he was sensational and the 2006 Spanish film “Alatriste.”

The multi-talented Vig speaks English, Danish, Spanish, French, Swedish (he worked as a translator for the Swedish hockey team during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid) and Norwegian and is an accomplished, published poet who penned his first collection of poems, “Ten Last Night” in 1993.  He owns the publishing company Perceval Press (www.percevalpress.com).  I’m always a sucker for an actor who’s also a poet:

INDEPENDENCE

They wound up into the hills, knowing only that they
were climbing away from the city's main drags. Past the
stacks of well-tended and unattended residences;
investments for some and just homes for others.
Irrigated, orderly, protected. Steep driveways twisting
back darkly from jungled gateways, forbidding
entrances hinting at mysterious fruits of mysterious
labours. Not a dog or pedestrian to be seen, only
confident headlights whipping into view out of the
tropical night. With each startling turn of the
pinched road they'd smell a different kind of
flower. They couldn't stop grinning at their great
fortune: these were the homes of movie stars, of 
illicit meetings, intoxicated palm gardens, unknown
phone numbers-the breeding grounds of fame!
Suddenly, they were out in the open again, on a
deserted bend of Mulholland where they hung high
above the fireworked valley. This was better than the
view yesterday from the Griffith observatory-or
maybe just as good, only different. They had driven
up and down the phone-pole filthiness of Santa
Monica Boulevard and found it uplifting. They
had swum in the Pacific Ocean. They had walked
Hollywood Boulevard, in and out of movie theatres
just to look at the posters. Reverent as they examined
the James Dean stores. Wildly exuberant through
humped-up Saturday-night traffic. It was all part of a
wonderful secret, an infinite number of welcoming
gifts that had lain waiting in the sun.

(Reproduced with respect but without permission)

The spiritual Vig is a gifted painter who frequently paints abstracts that include fragments of his poetry in them, some of which were seen in “A Perfect Murder” and a photographer who had his first professional exhibition in 2000 at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York City and has published several books of his photographs.  Soccer and hockey fan (he loves the Montreal Canadiens!) Vig is also an accomplished horseman (he bought the horses he rode in “LOTR” and “Hidalgo”) and jazz musician.  He has collaborated with guitar virtuoso Buckethead on six albums: Don't Tell Me What to Do, Intelligence Failure, One Less Thing to Worry About, One Man's Meat, Live at Beyond Baroque, The Other Parade, This That and The Other, Live at Beyond Baroque 2, Pandemoniumfromamerica, and Please Tomorrow.

"We each have only a limited amount of time here. We have to do more with it--pay attention, explore, be open to all of life. Because we have only one chance, we have to make life seem longer than it really is."

The inspirational and noticeably more rugged-looking Vig has recently been seen at the Toronto International Film Festival promoting David Cronenberg’s latest thriller, “Eastern Promises” co-starring Naomi Watt and Vincent Cassel.  Oscar buzz ensues. 

Fans of the shy, sexy Viggo Mortensen can look forward to two films in 2008 including “Good” co-starring Jason Isaacs and based on the play by C.P. Taylor and Ed Harris’ “Appaloosa” co-starring Harris and Renée Zellweger.  They can also get the scoop on all things Viggolicious (and there’s a lot available!) at www.viggophile.net, www.brego.net, www.viggofanbase.com, www.specialrealms.com, and www.frostyland.com.