The Genius That Is Christopher Walken

Added: 09/19/2007

It is almost impossible to name a bad performance in a movie by Christopher Walken. Like other geniuses such as Willem Defoe or Al Pacino, Christopher Walken takes any movie he is in and instantly elevates it to something watchable and worth paying for. He recently put that reputation to the test in Balls Of Fury and the word is that the only thing worth watching in that movie is Christopher Walken.

Christopher Walken has that magic touch that many actors wish they had and more actors probably need. Not only does he have the ability to go back and forth between television and movies without losing any credibility, but Christopher Walken has such a unique talent and delivery that he is recognizable by merely the sound of his voice. He has taken bad movies and made them watchable and taken good movies and made them great. He does not, and has never had, that leading man look about him that puts him in the heart throb category but his universal appeal is undeniable and he enjoys a reputation as both a comedic actor and an actor with dramatic range as well. He has given classic performances in almost all of the mediums he has performed in and he continues to grow his legacy with each new performance.

Christopher Walken began acting in 1953 at the age of 10 when he appeared on the television show The Wonderful John Acton as the child Kevin Acton. For years Walken worked in television from television movies to soap operas. Then in 1978, at the age of 35, he landed a role in the critically acclaimed movie The Deer Hunter. For his work as Nick Chevotarevich Christopher Walken received the Academy Award for best supporting actor. He would be nominated for an Oscar later in his career, and he would go on to win countless other acting awards, but this Oscar for his work in The Deer Hunter would be the only Oscar he would actually win. So at a time when most actors would be thinking about getting out of the acting game after working 25 years and getting nowhere, Christopher Walken gets the biggest award of his career and his career was just starting to take off.

Walken showed in The Deer Hunter that he had the talent to be in a drama but he always had a part of his heart that wanted to do comedy as well as drama. He began working his way towards comedy with roles in movies such as the James Bond movie A View To A Kill in 1985 where he played crazed corporate mogul Max Zorin. By this time the James Bond movies were as much comedy as they were drama and Walken proved that he could definitely hold his own as a comedy bad guy. Throughout his career Walken would be asked to be a comedy bad guy a few more times. He was the villain in the 1992 movie Batman Returns which turned out to be a comedy even if it didn’t start that way and he was the evil record producer in the very successful 1993 movie Wayne’s World 2. Walken continued to cut his comedy chops in different movies but what he is possibly best known for in comedy is his work as host of Saturday Night Live. He has hosted Saturday Night Live 6 times and each episode contains classic comedy as only Christopher Walken can do it.

Christopher Walken’s acting resume contains hundreds of entries and his career has now spanned 6 decades. With new movies out in 2007 and more to come it does not look like this prolific, and very talented, actor will be slowing down any time soon which is very good news for the rest of the movie going public that loves to see a master like Christopher Walken at work in comedy or drama.

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