Headshot of Willem Defoe - photo by Brad Trent

Willem Dafoe

Actor

Actor in film sequences

Having made over one hundred films in his legendary career, Willem Dafoe is internationally respected for bringing versatility, boldness, and dare to some of the most iconic films of our time. His artistic curiosity in exploring the human condition leads him to projects all over the world, large and small, Hollywood films as well as Independent cinema.

Upcoming projects include Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things as well as And; Saverio Patricia Arquette’s Gonzo Girl;  Robert Costanzo’s Finalmente L’alba; Isaiah Saxon’s fantasy epic The Legend of Ochi; Olmo Schnabel’s Pet Shop Days; Eggers’ Nosferatu, marking his third collaboration with the director, and Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice 2.

Dafoe has been recognized with four Academy Award nominations: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Platoon, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Shadow Of The Vampire, for which he also received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Florida Project, for which he also received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations, and most recently, Best Leading Actor for At Eternity’s Gate, for which he also received a Golden Globe nomination.

Among his other nominations and awards, he has received two Los Angeles Film Critics Awards, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, a National Board of Review Award, an Independent Spirit Award, Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup, as well as a Berlinale Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement.

Throughout his career, Dafoe has collaborated with directors who represent a virtual encyclopedia of modern cinema, coinciding with his natural adventurousness which is evident in his diverse breadth of over one-hundred roles across film, theatre and television.

Dafoe is one of the founding members of The Wooster Group, the New York based experimental theatre collective. He created and performed in all of the group’s work from 1977 thru 2005, both in the U.S. and internationally. Since then, he has performed and collaborated in the works of Richard Foreman, Robert Wilson and Romeo Castellucci.

Last updated: 31st October 2023