8/18/2023 0 Comments Green goblin actor side fewEliot, who tries committing his wife (Miranda Richardson) to the insane asylum so he can move on with his poetry career, in "Tom and Viv" (1994). Next he portrayed early 20th century poet T.S. In "Clear and Present Danger" (1994), he was a renegade operative who helps Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) surreptitiously enter Columbia to rescue a secret paramilitary unit trapped after being abandoned by the president's unscrupulous advisors (Harris Yulin and Henry Czerny). After playing a cynical bomadier in "Flight of the Intruder" (1991), he was a lawyer who falls for his client, an alleged murderer (Madonna) in the decidedly limp erotic thriller featuring the infamous candle wax sex scene, "Body of Evidence" (1993). In David Lynch's steamy crime thriller "Wild at Heart" (1990), he had a supporting role as an ex-marine who persuades a violent ex-convict (Nicolas Cage) bedding the daughter (Laura Dern) of a mentally-unstable mother (Diane Ladd) to rob a bank.By this time in his career, Dafoe had the luxury of being able to tackle high-profile leads, compelling supporting roles and showy character turns. Also that year, he starred in "Triumph of the Spirit" (1989), in which he played real-life boxer and Holocaust survivor, Salamo Arouch, who boxed his way to freedom whiles imprisoned at Auschwitz. Reuniting with Stone, the actor saw the other side of the Vietnam War as a paralyzed veteran who shows a deeply scarred Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise) - himself paralyzed from his war wounds - how to live like a man again despite his disabilities in the searing biopic "Born on the Fourth of July" (1989). In one of his most inspiring and controversial performances, he played a tormented Jesus of Nazareth, who fantasizes about living life as a normal man - including having sexual relations with his wife, Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey) - while dying on the cross in Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988). Because of his acclaimed performance in "Platoon," Dafoe was able to transcend his onscreen villainy and focus on more complex roles depicting characters of moral ambiguity or suffering from personal crises. Dafoe next proved his versatility as a sympathetic, by-the-book FBI man in Alan Parker's well-intentioned Civil Rights period-piece, "Mississippi Burning" (1988), which he followed with a turn as a military police officer on the hunt for a serial killer during his last days in war-torn Saigon in the underwhelming crime thriller "Off Limits" (1988). The role earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Barnes (Berenger), which leads to an irreparable rift that divides the rank-and-file. Following two weeks of intense basic Army training in the jungle with his co-stars Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Forest Whitaker and others, Dafoe delivered a measured performance as a compassionate platoon leader who runs afoul of the more pragmatic and amoral Sgt. Elias in the director's stirring Vietnam saga, "Platoon" (1986). That performance attracted the attention of Oliver Stone, who cast the actor to play the almost Christ-like Sgt. Petersen) in William Friedkin's scalding crime thriller "To Live and Die in L.A." (1985). He was decidedly evil as a dangerous counterfeiter being tracked down by a vengeance-minded Secret Service agent (William L. Donning leather once again, Dafoe starred as a vicious gang leader in Walter Hill's oddball rock-n-roll action flick, "Streets of Fire" (1984). Following a small part in the David Bowie vampire flick "The Hunger" (1983), he starred as a streetwise hitchhiker picked up on the road by a straight-laced yuppie in the rather staid action flick, "Roadhouse 66" (1984). Dafoe spent the next few years touring with the group around the United States and Europe, performing in productions of "Offending the Audience," "Phaedre" and "Razor Blades." He left Theatre X and moved to New York City, where he began a long-running association with the Wooster Group after debuting with a performance in "Nayatt School." Meanwhile, he made his feature debut as a leather-clad biker-poet in director Kathryn Bigelow's first feature, "The Loveless" (1981), a clash-of-cultures drama that examined the effects of a rebellious biker gang taking over a small conservative town. After attending Appleton East High School, he studied drama at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, only to leave before graduation in order to join the newly-formed avant-garde group, Theatre X. Born in Appleton, WI, Dafoe was raised by his father, William Sr., a surgeon, and his mother, Muriel, a nurse.
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