Schnakenberg Robert - Christopher Walken a to z: the man, the movies, the legend

Copyright 2008 by Robert Schnakenberg

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number: 2008922978

ISBN: 978-1-59474-775-5

Designed by Doogie Horner

Photos courtesy of the Everett Collection

Quirk Books
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Philadelphia, PA 19106

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I am a foreigner in my own country because I come from another country, the country of show business.

Christopher Walken

The one advantage that I have, Christopher Walken once observed, is that if youre looking for a Chris Walken type, you have got to get Chris Walken.

Its true. No other actor embodies the term one of a kind quite so fully as Walken. The ageless wonder from Astoria, Queens is sui generisa self-made cinematic icon whose appeal transcends generations and whose unique persona enlivens whatever genre in which he happens to be working. Hes been called the prince of pallor, the duke of spook. Hes been a Broadway chorus boy, a dramatic leading man, and the hardest-working character actor in show business. Hes played sexy gigolos, power-hungry megalomaniacs, doting fathers, and many, many ruthless gangsters. He even played a singing, dancing cat in a movie adaptation of Puss in Boots. Fittingly, given his idiosyncratic tastes, its one of his favorite roles.

Born Ronald Walken in 1943 to German and Scottish immigrants, Walken worked in his parents bakery and eventually joined his two brothers on the child acting circuit. He parlayed that experience into a career in musical theater in the 1960s, made the transition to the dramatic stage, and appeared in Hollywood films beginning in the early 1970s. His Academy Award-winning performance in The Deer Hunter in 1978 catapulted him onto the A-list, where he has remained (with occasional forays into B movies) ever since. That rare performer who combines celebrity cachet with indie street cred, Walken is also one of the most imitated actors this side of William Shatnerthanks to his incredibly odd speaking pattern.

Through it all, Christopher Walken has not lost his ability to shock, surprise, and defy expectations. Audiences are constantly rediscovering him. Who knew he could dance? some said when they first saw him do so in Pennies from Heaven in 1981, or the video for Fatboy Slims Weapon of Choice in 2000, or in Hairspray in 2007. Others are amazed to learn this two-time Oscar nominee once worked as a lion tamer, had a cable TV cooking show, and used to worship the moon. After all, as Walken himself once wrotein a play about a transvestite Elvis PresleyIf you cant surprise yourself, you cant surprise anyone else.

With so many unexpected twists and turns, the time seemed right for a guidebook to Walkenland. As you leaf through these pages, you will get a sense of the manhis passions, predilections, and personal quirks. You will also have a handy portable cheat sheet as you continue your Walken studies. A star rating guide to every movie in the Walken canon will help you sort through the dreck to find the really essential Walken performances. Wherever possible, Walkens own wordscompiled from the hundreds of interviews hes given over the yearsare reprinted in context to allow his own original personality to shine through. Feel free to read them aloud in your best Christopher Walken voice to achieve the full effect.

Christopher Walken may feel like a foreigner in his own country, but youll emerge from this book feeling like a native inhabitant of his strange and unique world.

WALKEN SURVEYS HIS NATIVE CITY IN ABEL FERRARAS KING OF NEW YORK.

Items in bold face are cross-references to other entries in Christopher Walken A to Z.

A four-star rating system has been provided to help you prioritize your Walken consumption. Each of his films has been rated as follows.

	Prime grade, essential Walken. The ice is gonna break if you dont see this!
	Rent it. This movie is as good as its gonna getand it wont ever get that good again.
	Feel free to skip this one. Needs more Walken!
	Awful. You get ten years in a cell with a psycho gorilla for even thinking of watching this.

Walken attended the January 1982 murder trial of career criminal and literary cause clbre Jack Henry Abbott in New York City. Charged in the stabbing death of a Manhattan waiter, Abbott was found guilty and sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison. He hanged himself in his cell in March 2002.

Abbotts case attracted the attention of author Norman Mailer, who championed Abbotts burgeoning literary career and tried to get his epistolary jailhouse memoir In the Belly of the Beast adapted for the big screen. Walken was briefly under consideration for the role of Abbott, which may explain his presence at the trial. I often go to court to watch peoples emotions, the actor explained to a reporter for the New York Post as he exited the courtroom. Public interest in Abbott receded after his murder conviction, and the film was never made.

Oddly enough, despite ample photographic evidence to the contrary, in subsequent interviews Walken has denied ever having attended Abbotts trial. I asked Mailer if he could get me into the courtroom because I wanted to take a look at the guy, he told interviewers in 1988. He said no. But I must say that I was so turned off that I never followed up on it.

For fifteen years, Walken worked as a janitor at this legendary New York City studio, best known as the birthplace of American method acting. Although not a practitioner of The Method himself, Walken took the opportunitywhen he wasnt building sets, replacing light bulbs, or doing other handiworkto attend acting classes moderated by Elia Kazan, Ellen Burstyn, Al Pacino, and, of course, venerable acting teacher Lee Strasberg. I found [Strasberg] rather severe, Walken later recalled. He had humor, but you rarely saw it. Elia Kazan was the best acting teacher I ever saw. He says such simple things. By contrast, Walken found some of his colleagues and mentors at the Studio full of self-importance. There were these people whod [act like] some kind of Delphic mysteries were being imparted, he has said. Such seriousness. I said to somebody once, Please, Im getting a headache. She said to me, You just dont understand. I havent been there in ten years for that reason.