Malkovich, John 1953–

PERSONAL

Full name, John Gavin Malkovich; born December 9, 1953, in Benton (some sources cite Christopher), IL; son of Dan (an environmental management executive and magazine publisher) and Jo Anne (a newspaper executive) Malkovich; married Glenne Headley (an actress), August 2, 1982 (divorced 1988); companion of Nicoletta Peyran (an assistant director and Asian culture specialist; some sources cite name as Nicole Peyran); children: (with Peyran) Amandine, Loewy (some sources spell names Armandine and Lowey). Education: Attended Illinois State University and Eastern Illinois State University. Avocational Interests: Reading, music.

Addresses: Office—Mr. Mudd Productions, 5225 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 604, Los Angeles, CA 90036; Mrs. Mudd, 156 Fifth Ave., Suite 1011, New York, NY 10010. Agent—Jenny Rawlings, Creative Artists Agency, 9830 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90212; (voice work) Special Artists Agency, 9465 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 890, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. Manager—Charles Finch, Finch and Partners, 4-8 Heddon St., London W1B 4B5, England.

Career: Actor, director, producer, sound designer, and writer. Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble, Chicago, IL, cofounder, 1976, worked as actor, director, and set designer through c. 1982; Smith-Malkovich Productions (production company), founder and partner (with Russell Smith), 1994–98; Smith.Malkovich.Halfon, partner, 1998; Mr. Mudd Productions, Los Angeles, CA, cofounder and partner, 1998–. Appeared in commercials and public service announcements and at awards presentations. Worked as a model; partner of the company Mrs. Mudd and a designer for its Uncle Kimono clothing and footwear lines. Co-owner of a discotheque in Lisbon, Portugal. Involved with the Audi 8 campaign and exhibition, 2003. Worked as a school bus driver, dishwasher, house painter, and forest ranger, and worked in retail stores, in the food service industry, and for a landscaping company.

Member: Actors' Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild.

Awards, Honors: Jeff Award, best director, Joseph Jefferson awards Committee, 1981, for Balm in Gilead; Jeff Award, best actor, and Clarence Derwent Award, most promising actor, Actors' Equity Association, both 1982, Obie Award, outstanding performance, Village Voice, Theatre World Award, and Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding actor in a play, all 1983, all for True West; Chicago area Emmy Award, best actor, 1983, for Say Goodnight, Gracie; Drama Desk Award, outstanding featured actor in a play, 1984, for Death of a Salesman; named one of the promising new actors of 1984, John Willis' Screen World, 1984; National Society of Film Critics Award, best supporting actor, 1984, and Boston Society of Film Critics Award, best supporting actor, 1985, both for The Killing Fields and Places in the Heart; National Board of Review Award, best supporting actor, 1984, Academy Award nomination, best actor in a supporting role, 1985, and Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award, best supporting actor, 1985, all for Places in the Heart; Obie Award, direction, Drama Desk Award, outstanding director of a play, and Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding sound design/music in a play, all 1985, for Balm in Gilead; Emmy Award, outstanding supporting actor in a miniseries or movie, and Golden Globe Award nomination, best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, miniseries, motion picture, or special made for television, both 1986, for Death of a Salesman; Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding actor in a play, 1988, for Burn This; named grand marshal of homecoming celebration, Eastern Illinois State University, c. 1990s; Sant Jordi Award, best foreign actor, 1990, for Dangerous Liaisons, The Glass Menagerie, and Death of a Salesman; Independent Spirit Award nomination, best supporting male, Independent Features Project/West, 1992, for Queens Logic; Jury coup de chapeau, Cognac Festival du Film Policier, 1993, for Jennifer Eight; Academy Award nomination, best actor in a supporting role, Golden Globe Award nomination, best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a motion picture, Film Award nomination, best actor in a supporting role, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Saturn Award nomination, best supporting actor, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, and MTV Movie Award nomination, best villain, all 1994, for In the Line of Fire; Golden Globe Award nomination, best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, miniseries, or motion picture made for television, and Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or miniseries, both 1995, for Heart of Darkness; Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award, San Sebastian International Film Festival, 1998; New York Film Critics Circle Award, best supporting actor, 1999, American Comedy Award, funniest supporting actor in a motion picture, Chicago Film Critics Association Award nomination, Sierra Award nomination, Las Vegas Film Critics Society, Southeastern Film Critics Association Award nomination, and Online Film Critics Society Award nomination, all best supporting actor, and Screen Actors Guild Award nomination (with others), outstanding performance by a cast in a theatrical motion picture, all 2000, all for Being John Malkovich; Emmy Award nomination, outstanding supporting actor in a miniseries or movie, 2000, for RKO 281; Special Award, Camerimage, 2001; Emmy Award nomination, outstanding supporting actor in a miniseries or a movie, 2003, for Napoleon; honored as one of the Audi 8 for innovation, 2003; Excellence Award, Locarno International Film Festival, 2005; honorary bachelor of arts degree, Illinois State University, 2005.

CREDITS

Film Appearances:

Extra, A Wedding, Twentieth Century-Fox/Lions Gate Films, 1978.

Alan "Al" Rockoff, The Killing Fields, Warner Bros., 1984.

Mr. Will, Places in the Heart, TriStar, 1984.

Nicholas "Nick" Gage, Eleni, Warner Bros., 1985.

Basie, Empire of the Sun, Warner Bros., 1987.

Dr. Jeff Peters and Ulysses, Making Mr. Right, Orion, 1987.

Tom Wingfield, The Glass Menagerie, Cineplex Odeon, 1987.

Barry Maxwell, Miles from Home (also known as Farm of the Year), Cinecom, 1988.

Vicomte Sebastien de Valmont, Dangerous Liaisons, Warner Bros., 1988.

Port Moresby, The Sheltering Sky (also known as Il te nel deserto), Warner Bros., 1990.

Eliot, Queens Logic, Seven Arts, 1991.

Jake, The Object of Beauty, Avenue Entertainment, 1991.

Agent St. Anne, Jennifer Eight (also known as Jennifer 8), Paramount, 1992.

Clown, Shadows and Fog, Orion, 1992.

Lennie Small, Of Mice and Men, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1992.

Mitch Leary, In the Line of Fire, Columbia, 1993.

(Uncredited) Narrator and Old Carlitos, Alive (also known as Alive: The Miracle of the Andes), Buena Vista, 1993.

Voice, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (animated), Universal, 1993.

Touchstone, 1994.

The director, "The Girl, the Crime," Beyond the Clouds (also known as Al di la delle nuvole, Jenseits der Wolken, Mas alla de las nubes, and Par-dela les nuages), Kidmore/Mercure/Sceneries International, 1995.

Professor Michael Arnold (some sources cite Professor Michael Padovic), The Convent (also known as Le couvent and O convento), Gemini Films, 1995.

To Make a Film Is to Be Alive: The Making of "Beyond the Clouds" (documentary), 1995.

Abel Tiffauges, The Ogre (also known as Der Unhold and Le roi des aulnes), Kino International, 1996.

Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde, Mary Reilly, TriStar, 1996.

General Thomas Timms, Mulholland Falls, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1996.

Gilbert Osmond, The Portrait of a Lady, Gramercy Pictures, 1996.

Himself, Cannes Man (also known as Canne$ Man and Con Man), Vine International, 1996.

Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, Con Air, Buena Vista, 1997.

A Filmmaker's Journey: The Making of Jane Campion's "The Portrait of a Lady" (documentary), 1997.

Athos, The Man in the Iron Mask, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1998.

John Horatio Malkovich (fictionalized version of himself), Being John Malkovich, Propaganda Films, 1998.

Teddy KGB, Rounders, Miramax, 1998.

King Charles VII, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (also known as Joan of Arc and Jeanne d'Arc), Columbia, 1999.

Le Baron de Charlus, Le temps retrouve (also known as Time Regained, Il tempo ritrovato, and O tempo reencontrado), Kino International, 1999.

Roberto Brizzi, Ladies Room, Motion International, 1999.

Friedrich Wilhelm "F. W." Murnau, Shadow of the Vampire (also known as Burned to Light), Lions Gate Films, 2000.

Monsieur Numance, Les ames fortes (also known as Savage Souls), Paramount, 2001.

Omar Johnson, Hotel, 2001, Innovation Film Group, 2003.

John Crawford (film director), Ja rentre a la maison (also known as I Go Home, I'm Going Home, and Vou para casa), Milestone Films, 2002.

(Uncredited) Himself, Adaptation (also known as The Orchid Thief), Columbia, 2002.

Narrator, Hideous Man (short film), Harry Nash Films, 2002.

Teddy Deserve, Knockaround Guys (also known as Dangerous Company), New Line Cinema, 2002.

(Uncredited) Abimael Guzman, The Dancer Upstairs (also known as Pasos de baile), Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2003.

Comandante John Walesa, Um filme falado (also known as A Talking Picture, Un film parlato, and Un film parle), Kino International, 2003.

Pascal Sauvage, Johnny English, Universal, 2003.

Tom Ripley, Ripley's Game (also known as Il gioco di Ripley), Fine Line Features, 2003.

(In archive footage) Himself, Cheshmane John Malkovich 1: Viggo Mortensen, P&P Productions, 2004.

King Charles II, The Libertine, The Weinstein Company, 2004.

Alan Conway, Colour Me Kubrick, EuropaCorp Distribution, 2005.

Humma Kavula, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Buena Vista, 2005.

Gustav Klimt (title role), Klimt, Gemini Films, 2006.

King Galbatorix, Eragon, Fox 2000 Pictures, 2006.

Mort, Drunkboat, Arclight Films, 2006.

Professor Sandiford, Art School Confidential, United Artists, 2006.

Brooks Baekeland, Savage Grace, Killer Films, c. 2006.

Colonel Pavlov, In Transit, Thema Production, 2007.

Constantine, The Mutant Chronicles, Paradox Entertainment, 2007.

Sheriff Tanner Telmah, Texas Lullaby, Alturas Films/Therapy Films, 2007.

Unferth, Beowulf, Sony Pictures Entertainment/Warner Bros., 2007.

Film Executive Producer:

The Accidental Tourist, Warner Bros., 1988.

How to Draw a Bunny, Palm Pictures/Arthouse Films, 2000.

Somewhere Else (short film), 2000.

Art School Confidential, United Artists, 2006.

Drunkboat, Arclight Films, 2006.

Which Way Home (documentary), 2007.

Film Producer:

Ghost World, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 2001.

The Gun Seller, 2001.

The Dancer Upstairs (also known as Pasos de baile), Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2003.

Found in the Street, 2004.

The Libertine, The Weinstein Company, 2004.

Kill the Poor, IFC Films, 2006.

Juno, Mandate Pictures, c. 2006.

Some sources cite Malkovich as the producer of Dear Mr. Capote.

Film Director:

This Lady Behaves (short film), c. 2000.

Hideous Man (short film), Harry Nash Films, 2002.

The Dancer Upstairs (also known as Pasos de baile), Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2003.

Director of the short film Straphangers.

Film Work; Other:

Presenter, The Terrorist (also known as John Malkovich Presents "The Terrorist"), Phaedra Cinema, c. 2000.

Stage Appearances:

Birdbath, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, Chicago, IL, 1976.

The Lover, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1976.

Our Late Night, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1977.

Wesley, Curse of the Starving Class, Goodman Theatre, Chicago, IL, 1978.

The Fifth of July, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1978.

Philadelphia, Here I Come, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1978.

Steve, Say Goodnight, Gracie, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1979.

Waiting for Lefty, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1979.

Biff, Death of a Salesman, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1980.

Lennie Small, Of Mice and Men, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1981.

Mr. James, Big Mother, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, c. 1981.

Lee, True West, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Main-stage Theatre, 1982, then Cherry Lane Theatre, New York City, 1982–84.

Biff, Death of a Salesman, Broadhurst Theatre, New York City, 1984.

Captain Bluntschli, Arms and the Man, Circle in the Square, New York City, 1985.

Pale, Burn This, Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, 1987, Theatre 890, Plymouth Theatre, New York City, 1987, Hampstead Theatre Club and Lyric Theatre, both London, 1990.

Colonel, State of Shock, American Place Theatre, New York City, 1991.

A Slip of the Tongue, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1992, Shaftesbury Theatre, London, 1992.

Libra, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1994.

John Wilmot (earl of Rochester), The Libertine, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1996.

Kristof, Lost Land, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Downstairs Theatre, 2005.

The Birthday Party, American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, MA, c. 2005.

Appeared as Tom, The Glass Menagerie, as the narrator of A Sorrow beyond Dreams, and in A Streetcar Named Desire, all Steppenwolf Theatre Company; appeared in other productions, including The Bacchae, The Collection, and A Slight Ache.

Stage Director:

The Dumbwaiter, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, Chicago, IL, 1976.

The Indian Wants the Bronx, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1976.

The Seahorse, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Main-stage Theatre, 1976.

The Caretaker, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Main-stage Theatre, 1978.

Sandbar Flatland, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1978.

The Caretaker (Remount), Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1979.

Absent Friends, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1980.

No Man's Land, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1981.

Savages, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1981.

The Rear Column, North Light Repertory Theatre, Evanston, IL, c. 1981–82.

Balm in Gilead, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1981, Circle Repertory Company, Minetta Lane Theatre, New York City, 1984–85.

The House, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1982.

A Prayer for My Daughter, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1982.

Arms and the Man, Circle in the Square, New York City, 1985.

Coyote Ugly, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1985, then AT&T Performing Arts Festival, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, 1986, some sources cite a production in New York City.

The Caretaker, Steppenwolf Theatre, 1985, then Circle in the Square, 1986.

State of Shock, American Place Theatre, New York City, 1991.

Libra, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1994.

Hysteria, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, 1999–2000, Theatre Marigny, Paris, France, 2002, and Teatre Victoria, Barcelona, Spain, c. 2004.

Stage Work; Other:

Sound designer, Balm in Gilead, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, Chicago, IL, 1981, Circle Repertory Company, Minetta Lane Theatre, New York City, 1984–85.

Costume designer, The Caretaker, Steppenwolf Theatre, 1985, then Circle in the Square, New York City, 1986.

Costume designer, Lost Land, Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, IL, 2005.

Involved with several Steppenwolf Theatre productions.

Television Appearances; Miniseries:

Javert, Les miserables (also known as Les Miserables—Gefangene des Schicksals and Los miserables), TF1 (France), 2000, English version broadcast on Fox Family Channel, 2001.

Charles Maurice Talleyrand, Napoleon, Arts and Entertainment, 2002.

Television Appearances; Movies:

Gary, Word of Honor, CBS, 1981.

Chicago Story, 1981.

Kurtz, Heart of Darkness, TNT, 1994.

Herman J. "Mank" Mankiewicz, RKO 281 (also known as RKO 281: The Battle over Citizen Kane), HBO, 1999.

Television Appearances; Specials:

American Dream, ABC, 1981.

Say Goodnight, Gracie, WTTW (PBS affiliate), 1983.

Lee, "True West" (also known as "Sam Shepard's 'True West'"), American Playhouse, PBS, 1984.

Biff Loman, Death of a Salesman (also known as Der Tod eines Handlungsreisenden), CBS, 1985.

Ben Stark, "Rocket to the Moon," American Playhouse, PBS, 1986.

Voice of Santa Claus, Santabear's First Christmas (animated), ABC, 1986.

Private Conversations: On the Set of "Death of a Salesman" (also known as Private Conversations and Private Conversations: The Making of the Television Adaptation of "Death of a Salesman" with Dustin Hoffman), PBS, 1986.

Himself, China Odyssey: Empire of the Sun, CBS, 1987.

Voice of Santa Claus, Santabear's High Flying Adventure (animated), CBS, 1987.

(Uncredited; in archive footage) Len Tukwilla, Saturday Night Live: 15th Anniversary, NBC, 1989.

Decade, MTV, 1989.

Host, Red, Hot and Blue, ABC, 1990.

Living in America, VH1, 1991.

Deeley, "Old Times," Performance, BBC, 1991, Bravo, 1993.

Himself, In the Line of Fire: Behind the Scenes with the Secret Service, Showtime, 1993.

Chicago on Stage, PBS, 1995.

Fare un film per me e vivere (also known as Making a Film Is for Me to Live and Faire un film pour moi c'est vivre), 1995.

"Sam Shepard: Stalking Himself," Great Performances, PBS, 1998.

Narrator, Riddle of the Desert Mummies, The Discovery Channel, 1999.

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, History Channel, 1999.

The Kennedy Center Presents: Speak Truth to Power (also known as Speak Truth to Power), PBS, 2000.

John Malkovich: Flipping Uncle Kimono (documentary), Chum Television (Canada), 2005.

Appeared in a short documentary about the Chrysler Building, BBC.

Television Appearances; Awards Presentations:

2000 MTV Movie Awards, MTV, 2000.

8 Innovators (also known as Audi 8 and Audi: Never Follow), Arts and Entertainment, 2003.

Himself, Premio Donostia a Willem Dafoe, 2005.

Television Guest Appearances; Episodic:

Host, Saturday Night Live (also known as NBC's "Saturday Night," Saturday Night, Saturday Night Live '80, SNL, and SNL 25), NBC, 1989 and 1993.

"Wetten, dass …? aus Linz," Wetten, das …?, 1990.

Late Night with David Letterman, NBC, 1991.

The Film Programme (also known as Film '96), BBC, 1996.

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC, 1996.

Lo + plus, 1997.

Mundo VIP, 1997, 1999.

Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher (also known as Politically Incorrect), ABC, 1998.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien, NBC, 1998, 2003.

Charlie Rose (also known as The Charlie Rose Show), PBS, 1998, 1999, 2003.

The Big Breakfast, Channel 4 (England), 2001.

Ombre et lumiere, 2002.

"John Malkovich: Parts 1 & 2," Les feux de la rampe, 2003.

"Malkovich's Mail," The AMC Project, American Movie Classics, 2003.

Rive droite-rive gauche, 2003.

V Graham Norton, Channel 4, 2003.

The Daily Show (also known as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Global Edition), Comedy Central, 2003, 2006.

… Amb Manel Fuentes, 2004.

NY Graham Norton, Channel 4, 2004.

(In archive footage) Himself, Cinema mil, TV3 (Television de Catalunya, Spain), 2005.

(In archive footage) Vicomte Sebastien de Valmont, Cinema mil, TV3, 2005.

Corazon de …, Television Espanola (Spain), 2005.

Double je, 2005.

The Late Show with David Letterman (also known as The Late Show and Late Show Backstage), CBS, 2005.

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (also known as The Late Late Show), CBS, 2005.

"Wetten, dass …? aus Frankfurt," Wetten, das …?, 2006.

Some sources cite an appearance in The Weakest Link, BBC.

Television Producer:

The Loner (series), Bravo, beginning 2001.

Dragans of New York (pilot), CBS, 2002.

"Some Assembly Required," The First Amendment Project (special), Sundance Channel and Court TV, 2004.

Television Director:

Contributed a film essay to a short documentary about the Chrysler Building, BBC.

Radio Appearances; Episodic:

Himself, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, c. 2002.

Internet Appearances:

The Call (short film), Pirellifilm.com, 2006.

RECORDINGS

Videos:

American Arts & Culture Presents John Horatio Malkovich "Dance of Despair & Disillusionment," USA Home Video, 2000.

Revealing "The Dancer Upstairs," Twentieth Century-Fox Home Entertainment, 2003.

Audiobooks:

Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist, Random House Audio, 1986.

Albums; with Others:

(As a saxophone player) Marchand Melcher, Shining Star, Time Is Records, 1992.

Music Videos:

Annie Lennox, "Walking on Broken Glass," 1992.

WRITINGS

Screenplays:

This Lady Behaves (short film), c. 2000.

Hideous Man (short film), Harry Nash Films, 2002.

Author of the short film Straphangers.

Writings for the Stage:

(Adaptor) Libra (based on the novel by Don DeLillo), Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mainstage Theatre, Chicago, IL, 1994.

Teleplays:

Contributed a film essay to a short documentary about the Chrysler Building, BBC.

OTHER SOURCES

Books:

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 3: Actors and Actresses, fourth edition, St. James Press, 2000.

Periodicals:

Cosmopolitan, November, 1992.

Empire, issue 93, 1997, pp. 56-57.

Entertainment Weekly, January 24, 2003, p. 26.

Harper's Bazaar, November, 1987.

Hollywood Reporter, December 19, 1988, p. 4.

Interview, March, 1989.

New Yorker, April 15, 1996.

New York Times, April 26, 2003.

New York Times Magazine, September 15, 1985.

Plays and Players, April, 1992.

Premiere, March, 2003, pp. 80-83, 102; September, 2005, pp. 130-31.

Psychology Today, July/August, 1994.

Variety, March 9, 1998, p. 20; September 21, 1998, p. 80.

Vogue, October, 1985; September, 1993.

Washington Post, May 8, 2003, pp. C1, C8.

MALKOVICH, John

Nationality: American. Born: Christopher, Illinois, 9 December 1953. Education: Attended Eastern Illinois State University; Illinois State University. Family: Married the actress Glenne Headly, 1982 (divorced 1990); one daughter, Armandine, and one son, Loewy, with Nicoletta Peyran. Career: 1976—co-founder of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Group; 1982—New York theatrical debut in True West; 1984—theatrical film debut in Places in the Heart; 1994—director and producer of Libra, Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago. Awards : Best Actor, Obie Award, for True West, 1983; Best Supporting Actor, National Society of Film Critics and National Board of Review, for Places in the Heart, 1984; Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor, for Death of a Salesman, 1986. Agent: Tracy Jacobs, International Creative Management, 8942 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90211, U.S.A. Address: 346 South Lucerne Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90020, U.S.A.

Films as Actor:

1981

American Dream (Damski—for TV) (as Gary); Word of Honor (Damski—for TV)

1982

True West (Sinise and Goldstein—for TV) (as Lee)

1984

Places in the Heart (Benton) (as Mr. Will); The Killing Fields (Joffé) (as Al Rockoff)

1985

Eleni (Yates) (as Nicholas Gage)

1986

Death of a Salesman (Schlöndorff—for TV) (as Biff); Rocket to the Moon (John Jacobs—for TV) (as Ben Stark)

1987

Making Mr. Right (Susan Seidelman) (as Dr. Jeff Peters/Ulysses); The Glass Menagerie (Paul Newman) (as Tom); Empire of the Sun (Spielberg) (as Basie)

1988

Miles from Home (Farm of the Year) (Sinise) (as Barry Maxwell); Dangerous Liaisons (Frears) (as Vicomte de Valmont)

1990

Old Times (Simon Curtis—for TV); The Sheltering Sky (Bertolucci) (as Port Moresby)

1991

Queens Logic (Rash) (as Eliot); The Object of Beauty (Lindsay-Hogg) (as Jake)

1992

Shadows and Fog (Woody Allen) (as a clown); Jennifer 8 (Robinson) (as St. Anne); Of Mice and Men (Sinise) (as Lennie)

1993

In the Line of Fire (Petersen) (as Mitch Leary); Alive (Frank Marshall) (as narrator, uncredited); We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (Zondag and others—animation) (as voice)

1994

Heart of Darkness (Roeg—for TV) (as Kurtz)

1995

Par dela les nuages (Al di la delle nuvole; Beyond the Clouds) (Antonioni and Wenders) (as director); O Convento (The Convent; Le Couvent) (de Oliveira) (as Michael)

1996

Mary Reilly (Frears) (as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde); Mulholland Falls (Tamahori) (as Gen. Thomas Timms); Der Unhold (The Ogre; Le Rois des aulnes) (Schlöndorff); Portrait of a Lady (Campion)

1997

Con Air (West) (as Cyrus "the Virus" Grissom)

1998

Rounders (Dahl) (as Teddy KGB); The Man in the Iron Mask (Wallace) (as Athos)

1999

Le Temps retrouvé (Time Regained) (as Charlus); The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Besson) (Charles VII); Ladies Room (Cristiani) (as Roberto Brizzi); Being John Malkovich (Jonze) (as John Horatio Malkovich); RKO 281 (Ross—for TV) (as Herman Mankiewicz)

2000

Shadow of the Vampire (Merhige) (as F. W. Murnau); Les Misérables (Dayan) (as Javert)

2001

Knockaround Guys (Koppelman and Levien) (as Teddy Deserve)

Other Film:

1988

The Accidental Tourist (Kasdan) (co-exec pr)

Publications

By MALKOVICH: articles—

"The Malkovich Magnetism," interview with Dena Kleiman, in New York Times Magazine, 15 September 1985.

"Between the Lines," interview with Hal Hinson, in Vogue (New York), October 1985.

"Acting's Burning Talent," interview in Harper's Bazaar (New York), November 1987.

"Honest John," interview with Clifford Terry, in Plays and Players (Croydon, Surrey), April 1992.

"Malkovich and Moor," interview with Hamish Bowles, in Vogue (New York), September 1993.

"Character/Actor," interview in Psychology Today (New York), July/August 1994.

"La tournée des géants," interview in Télérama(Paris), 6 September 1995.

On MALKOVICH: articles—

Peck, A. & Ruchti, Isabelle, "John Malkovich ou la séduction du saltimbanque: Une grande méfiance," in Positif (Paris), October 1992.

Gritten, David, "What Is John Malkovich?," in Cosmopolitan (New York), November 1992.

Danel, Isabelle, "L'homme caméléon: Dans la lingne de mire," in Télérama (Paris), 15 September 1993.

Lemon, B., "The Dark Side," in New Yorker, 15 April 1996.

Before he first appeared on movie screens in Robert Benton's Places in the Heart, John Malkovich had already earned a formidable reputation as a stage actor, a director and as a co-founder of the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble in Chicago. In many ways Malkovich is still more identified with the theater than with Hollywood, not only for his considerable successes on the stage, but also for his often disparaging remarks about the film business. (He told Psychology Today he never acts in films for artistic expression, that he does it only "for the money.") Yet with just a few exceptions, his film work seems passionate, daring, and finely crafted. He works in Hollywood films with nary a trace of movie star vanity, disclosing dark and truly unpleasant aspects of his characters in a way that is almost unknown with other "leading men." At the same time Malkovich is able to transcend his rebarbative demeanor and make his flawed, angry characters the emotional center of many of the films he appears in. Despite maintaining this precarious balance in his acting for almost a decade, Malkovich's self-deprecatingly theatrical tendencies have recently shifted him to the place where he has nearly lost his star status to the rank of "character actor" and "heavy"; his recent dual role as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Mary Reilly only exemplifies the conundrum in his acting persona.

John Malkovich's first two theatrical film appearances—in Places in the Heart and The Killing Fields—arrived almost back-to-back in the fall of 1984 and he was singled out for praise with both. Malkovich won multiple awards and nominations for Places in the Heart, yet even in Benton's innocent, rural film—as a gentle, blinded World War I veteran—critics noticed something both exciting and troubling in the actor's work. (Pauline Kael in the New Yorker referred to his "great acting" and almost immediately followed the accolade with the comment "he's so touching he's creepy.") The next year Malkovich had a large film role in Peter Yates's Eleni, but was generally considered miscast in a poorly realized production. In that same year, however, he won recognition doing a radically new interpretation of Arthur Miller's Biff opposite Dustin Hoffman in Death of a Salesman on Broadway. Malkovich's haunted, soft-spoken performance would be recreated for a television version in 1986 and his reputation as a major American actor was secured.

Not surprisingly, Malkovich would distinguish himself most in the coming years in cinematic adaptations of theatrical productions: first, in 1987, as Tennessee Williams's autobiographical Tom in Paul Newman's version of The Glass Menagerie and in 1988 in Stephen Frears's adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play Les Liaisons Dangereuses. In the former Malkovich suggests—not for the first time or the last—a subtle but nearly hypnotic homosexual component to the role. In the latter, as Valmont, the actor triumphs over his seeming miscasting as a sexual games-player who finally falls in love with one of the women he has toyed with. Holding his own against Glenn Close, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Uma Thurman, Malkovich made Dangerous Liaisons his greatest (and almost only real) "star turn" in the cinema.

Subsequently Malkovich has had slightly less good fortune in film. His Port Moresby in Bernardo Bertolucci's problematic The Sheltering Sky was arrestingly smug, self-destructive, and mesmerizing; the film never recovered from the character's death two-thirds of the way through. In The Object of Beauty Malkovich astonished again, this time with his ability to play a (merely) likable would-be sophisticate. The film was much more suitable to his talents than the earlier comedy, Making Mr. Right, and it raised hopes that the actor might become a postmodern Cary Grant, but few people saw the picture. Malkovich's role in Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog in 1992 was nearly a cameo and after all the intelligence and self-loathing he had been showing on-screen up to that point, his Lennie in Of Mice and Men, directed by his Steppenwolf colleague Gary Sinise, rang a bit false.

To date, Malkovich's one great film performance in the 1990s was in Wolfgang Petersen's In the Line of Fire. Playing opposite an iconic Clint Eastwood, Malkovich took the clichéd part of a brilliant assassin and created something so frightening and horrifyingly human, that he single-handedly raised the film out of its genre conventions. From there, though, Malkovich was very nearly over the top as Kurtz in Nicolas Roeg's Heart of Darkness. Oddly, he seemed strangely uninvolved playing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, working with Frears and Hampton again, in Mary Reilly.

—Daniel Humphrey