Viggo was born in Manhattan, New York on October 20th 1958 to a
Danish father and an American mother, who met and married in Holland. Viggo and
his younger brothers lived with his parents in South America (Argentina &
Venezuela) until 1969, when his parents divorced. Viggo & his brothers went
to live with their mother in Watertown, New York.
Viggo inherited from his father a love of travel and a gift for
languages. He
speaks Spanish and Danish fluently, and French, Italian, Swedish and Norwegian
to a lesser degree. Viggo attended Watertown High
School, and was on both the swimming and tennis
teams. He also developed a love of photography, and could be found wandering
around the streets of his neighbourhood taking pictures. When he was 17, an
incident with "a fist and a barbed wire fence" resulted the
scar on his lip. In 1980, he
graduated from St. Lawrence
University with degrees in Government and Spanish and then went to live in
Denmark, where he had spent many happy holidays on his grandfather's farm, and
supported himself with various jobs, including waiter and flower-seller.
In 1982, Viggo moved back to New York and attended the Warren Robertson Acting
Workshop for two years. He acted in several plays and even a couple of films,
although his performances were edited out of both. Eventually he moved to Los
Angeles, where he won a Drama-logue Critic's Award for his performance in
Bent. His film career proper started in 1985, with a performance in
Witness, followed by over 25 other films in the next decade. Sadly,
most of his performances produced more acclaim than money, and Viggo was again
forced to support himself with odd-jobs.
In 1987, during filming of Salvation, he met and married Christine
Cervenka who was lead singer with X, and in 1988 they had Viggo's only child,
Henry, moving soon afterward to Idaho to bring up their son out of the
spotlight of fame. The marriage broke up in 1997, but he and Cervenka remain
close and share custody of Henry.
Since the latter part of the 90's, Viggo's career has been on an upward spiral,
with excellent performances in G.I. Jane,
with Demi Moore;
A Perfect
Murder, with
Gwyneth Paltrow
and A Walk on the Moon,
with the Canadian actor, Jim Carey. And of course, the
Lord of the
Rings trilogy, which has brought Viggo to the attention of many more adoring
female fans. He got the role of the enigmatic king-in-exile Aragorn at short
notice, replacing Stuart Townsend (who would have been SO wrong for the part!)
who left because of "creative differences". He had only a day to
decide whether to take the part (and spend over a year filming in New Zealand)
and luckily for us, at the urging of his son, he made the right decision. Can
anyone imagine a more perfect Aragorn?
During this time, Viggo's non-acting career has taken off too - with
exhibitions of his photographs and paintings, and two books of poems.
Fortunately, he has no intention of giving up his acting career, although the
recent rush of media attention following the huge success of The Lord of the
Rings has been rather harrowing for the shy & private Viggo, who has been
quoted as saying that he is happy to spend days with just his own company and
is happier "among trees than around people". Here's hoping that once
the media moves on, Viggo will be allowed to settle back his former quiet life,
producing the art and poetry that he loves, and bringing to his film roles that
particular viggo-ness that is, after all, the reason we love him.
Facts
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Viggo Means:
The name Viggo gives him a clever mind, good business judgment, a sense of responsibility, and an appreciation of the finer things of life. He is serious-minded and not inclined to make light of things even in little ways, and in his younger years, he had more mature interests than others his age. Home and family mean a great deal to him and it is natural that he should desire the security of a peaceful, settled home environment where he can enjoy the companionship of family and friends. Whatever he set out to accomplish he does his very best to complete in accordance with what he considers to be right. In the home he assumes his responsibilities capably, having the self-confidence to form his own opinions and make his own decisions. Others can rely on him; once he have given his word, he will do his utmost to fulfill a responsibility. However, there is a tendency to be a little too independent in his thinking and it is difficult for him to accept the help of others when he should. Due to his strong sense of responsibility, he could experience worry and mental turmoil through assuming more responsibility than he should. Friction could arise through others feeling that he were interfering with their rights and privileges, even though he is only trying to help.
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