5' 11'	BORN: Manhattan, 20 October, 1958	DANISH citizen
loved him in GI JANE, PRISON, LORD OF THE RINGS, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, PSYCHO	THANKS TO CATRIANA.COM http://catriana.com/sitebuilder/images/COPYRIGHT_CATRIANA-VIGGO_MORTENSEN-aragorn-cp007G-re-tk-492x386.jpg	breakout performance as Aragorn Strider in LORD OF THE RINGS
ice-hockey fan of Montreal Canadiens	HIS VIEW ON ACTING: "It comes down to the fact that you supply the blue, and they supply the other colors and mix them with your blue, and maybe there's some blue left in the painting and maybe there isn't. Maybe there wasn't supposed to be any there in the first place. So have some fun and make a good blue and walk away."	loves to ride horses. Asked Peter Jackson to let him ride more in LOTR.

JUDY'S COMMENTS:

He’s half Danish, from New York, writes poetry, paints. He’s not just a renaissance man, he’s now THE KING. Why it’s taken so long for Viggo Mortensen to get the recognition he deserves by the general population, is a mystery to me. Since the first time I saw him swagger off a bus, cuffed and chained in Renny Harlan’s first U.S. film, PRISON, I was hooked. He’s just one of those actors who gets better, handsomer, sexier and more mysterious with each passing year. The real bonus is how Viggo can make a seemingly simple character complex as well as unforgettable; vulnerable but tough.

Viggo in A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE.

Viggo Mortensen is Aragorn as I hoped Aragorn would be from the first time, many decades ago, that I first read The Lord of the Rings. A study in contrast, Aragorn is taunted by the misdeeds of his anscestors into turning his back on that very same ancestry. No man or woman in Middle Earth, with the exception perhaps of Gandalf and Galadrial, fears the dark blight more than Aragorn nor bears, unjustifiably, such deep guilt about it. Viggo looks lik Aragorn, sounds like Aragorn and opens up both man and king to a plethora of possibility. He transcends any and every expectation that Tolkien seeded. He is larger than life, as well as no more than a man… every inch a king, though you can practically smell the sweat, feel the bruises and taste the blood on this man king’s lips. In every audience (I’ve seen LOTR six times in the first two weeks) most of the women wanted to have him while most of the men wanted to be like him. Herein follows some of my observations on Viggo Mortensen’s career pre-Middle Earth::

PRISON

Way back when, in this jewel of horror, under the action baton of Renny Harlin, Viggo's youthful boy-next-door busted for grand theft auto--who happens to be the reincarnation of a prisoner executed for a crime he did not commit--touched the audience and the other actors. In this prison, it's retribution time, and only those most worthy of prison residents will be allowed to live. As Burke, the brave, pragmatic hero prisoner, battling fire, evil guards and a warden worthy of any Spanish inquisition, Viggo's youthful appearance and tough-guy leave-me-alone demeanor balance perfectly with the moral backbone of this character--the last rational man is a society and building literally crumbling into dust. I knew he would be a star someday. From the moment I saw him descend the steps of that prison bus.

He can slot easily into any genre… into any era… into any character: hero, anti-hero Satan with a twist of lemon a down dirty and out cripple, a drill sargeant with a manner as barbed as his intellect is sharp. Picture him. Is he blond? Brunette? Blue eyes or hazel. On the tall side of six feet? Sometimes he is a torpedo, already left the tube; sometimes shriveled as old fruit; lithe as a snake or pouting beneath a look of inbred snobbery.

He is all and many, chamelion-like, Viggo molds his muscles and soul into the role while molding the role to his own self. No one does the devil better than he did in THE PROPHECY. He was more tempting than that red apple Eve bit into. He made me want Hell and to Hell with Heaven.

Like Malcovich or Day Lewis he is a thinker. As with Spacey, Pacino

or Hanks, he can turn silence or stillness into revelation. As his characters battle what is moral and righteous with practical survival, Viggo Mortensen is in a class by himself. His ability to comprehend the military mind and reconcile it with the soul of a poet is amply evident in two of his finest performances.

CRIMSON TIDE

As Lieutenant Peter Wepps, weapons officer of the U.S.S. Alabama, he serves as a pivotal character. Obligated by his service oath to support the right and proper chain of command, e.g. his captain, and obligated by his morality to serve his friend, Commander Hunter, Viggo is masterful. Viggo is the man of choice to hold the key to an arsenal of nuclear missiles. Ready to die rather than blindly follow orders he knows should be verified again, Wepps is also thoughtful enough to understand the need for a chain of command while at the same time questioning it. In the nuclei of a lesser actor, Peter Wepps could have been a superficial contrast to Denzel's thinking commander, an obedient follower who passes down orders as the Captain believes a Lieutenant should. Wepps pivots the two diverging methods and moralities of the Captain and the X.O. and triumphs to stand as a fully complete character upon whom the fat eof many rests.

In G.I. JANE he is the tough master chief determined to prepare Demi Moore for any situation
--as horrible as it can get--behind enemy lines. His khakis dominate the scene, his voice leaves no question about who was boss of the SEAL wannabes.

Viggo is the lunch-time snack for a rich woman in A PERFECT MURDER. A struggling artist, violent painting expressing anger. A controlling Wall Street husband had plans for his wife and her lover. Will the lover kill his wife for money? Viggo is superb

Viggo was superb.

So, from the second Armish guy (WITNESS) lost in the background to the major star he is today, he's finally seen daylight.