Biography

John Malkovich

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Overview

Born
December 9, 1953 · Christopher, Illinois, USA
Birth name
John Gavin Malkovich
Height
6′ (1.83 m)

Mini bio

John Gavin Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois, to Joe Anne (Choisser), who owned a local newspaper, and Daniel Leon Malkovich, a state conservation director. His paternal grandparents were Croatian. In 1976, Malkovich joined Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, newly founded by his friend Gary Sinise. After that, it would take seven years before Malkovich would show up in New York and win an Obie in Sam Shepard's play "True West". In 1984, Malkovich would appear with Dustin Hoffman in the Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman", which would earn him an Emmy when it was made into a made-for-TV movie the next year. His big-screen debut would be as the blind lodger in Places in the Heart (1984), which earned him an Academy Award Nomination for best supporting actor. Other films would follow, including The Killing Fields (1984) and The Glass Menagerie (1987), but he would be well remembered as Vicomte de Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons (1988). Playing against Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close in a costume picture helped raise his standing in the industry. He would be cast as the psychotic political assassin in Clint Eastwood's In the Line of Fire (1993), for which he would be nominated for both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe. In 1994, Malkovich would portray the sinister Kurtz in the made-for-TV movie Heart of Darkness (1994), taking the story to Africa as it was originally written. Malkovich has periodically returned to Chicago to both act and direct.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents

Trademark

Often plays menacing, sadistic villains
Soft mellow voice

Trivia

When he was a teenager, he decided to get his excessive weight under control and lost 70 pounds by eating nothing but Jell-O for four months.
Fluent in French, and lived in France for almost 10 years. He left in 2003.
He co-owns a restaurant/nightclub in Portugal.
First actor to win a major award (New York Film Critics) for portraying himself in a movie (non-cameo role). The film was Being John Malkovich (1999).
His performance as himself in Being John Malkovich (1999) is ranked #90 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

Quotes

[on Being John Malkovich (1999)] When I first looked at the script, the title seemed like a one-line joke, but it turned out to be a 100-page joke.
[Spike Jonze wanted to borrow photographs from his childhood for Being John Malkovich (1999)] "I gave them my mother's phone number and told them to tell her that I'm an actor and it was for a film. I don't think my parents know what I do."
"I want to be successful. I would like it to be a success with something that doesn't make me want to vomit all over the screening room after I've seen it." (1980s quote)
I'm not terribly articulate in many ways and particularly when it comes to what I do. And, at the risk of sounding like Holden Caulfield, I don't know if I would talk about it even if I could.
[on Dangerous Liaisons (1988)] The movie should appeal to everyone. It's sleazy, elegant, vicious and mean, and it's about people doing hideous things to each other. If that weren't enough, it has a tragic end. What more could people ask for?