John Gavin Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois, to Joe Anne , taking the story to Africa as it was originally written. Malkovich has periodically returned to Chicago to both act and direct.
Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1984" in John Willis Screen World, Vol. 36.
The costume he wore in the Annie Lennox video, "Walking On Broken Glass" was borrowed from the set of Dangerous Liaisons
Education: Eastern Illinois University, Illinois State University.
Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#70).
His paternal grandparents, Michael "Mike" Malkovich and Goldie Stanisha, were Croatian. His mother had French, German, Scottish, and English ancestry, and his maternal grandparents were Stephen Choisser and Edna Alice Johnson.
Parents ran and owned local newspaper in his hometown Benton, Illinois.
Children with Nicoletta Peyran : daughter Amandine and son Lowry.
Has developed a great passion for Portugal, where he has filmed some movies recently. He also keeps a house here, as he co-owns a disco in Lisbon.
Legend has it that he was told by the head of the Theatre Department at Illinois State University that he would not have a career as an actor. Even though he did not graduate from ISU (he never took the constitution test), the Theatre Department still claims him as an alumnus. On April 4, 2005, he returned to visit the Theatre Department where he was presented with an official diploma for his bachelors degree in theatre.
When he was a teenager, he decided to get his excessive weight under control and lost 70 pounds by eating nothing but Jell-O for four months.
In 1976, he quit college in order to work at Chicagos Steppenwolf Theater.
His favorite films include: Citizen Kane , Its a Wonderful Life , High Noon (1952) , Les quatre cents coups , La battaglia di Algeri , Il conformista and This Is Spinal Tap .
Won a Village Voice Obie for his performance in "True West" in 1984.
Won a second Village Voice Obie this time for Direction for "Balm in Gilead" in 1985.
Attended college with Joan Allen who was occasionally a scene partner of Malkovichs in their acting classes. Later attended another acting class years with John Mahoney. He encouraged both actors to join the Steppenwolf Theater Company, which they did.
First actor to win a major award (New York Film Critics) for portraying himself in a movie (non-cameo role). The film was Being John Malkovich .
His performance as himself in Being John Malkovich is ranked #90 on Premiere Magazines 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
Frequently visits Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia).
Offered the role of Green Goblin/Norman Osborn in Spider-Man .
He dropped out of Crazy People after around two weeks of filming and was replaced by Dudley Moore.
He co-owns a restaurant/nightclub in Portugal.
He was nominated for a 1980 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in the play, "Say Goodnight, Gracie", at the Travel Light Productions Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
He was awarded the 1981 Joseph Jefferson Award for Director of a Play for "Balm in Gilead", at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois.
He was awarded the 1982 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play for "True West", at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois.
He was nominated for a 1985 Joseph Jefferson Award for Director of a play for "Coyote Ugly", at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois.
He was nominated for a 1996 Joseph Jefferson Award for Director of a Play for "The Libertine", at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois.
Good friend of Grard Depardieu. They worked together on several projects: The Man in the Iron Mask , "Les misrables" and "Napolon" .
Lost an undisclosed amount of money in the Bernard Madoff scandal.
He turned down the role played by Timothy Dalton in La putain du roi .
He has worked with 8 directors who have won a Best Director Oscar: Robert Benton , Steven Spielberg , Bernardo Bertolucci , Woody Allen , Robert Zemeckis , Clint Eastwood , and Joel Coen & Ethan Coen.
Fluent in French, and lived in France for almost 10 years. He left in 2003.
(October 2008) He moved outside Boston, Massachusetts.
As of 2014, has appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: The Killing Fields , Places in the Heart and Dangerous Liaisons .
He was awarded the 1987 Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Performance for "Burn This" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
[on Being John Malkovich (1999) ] When I first looked at the,script, the title seemed like a one-line joke, but it turned out to be,a 100-page joke.
The other day I was walking down the street in the rural town where we,live (in France) and a truck hit me, rather hard, going fairly fast.
I probably know a lot more technically than most film actors about,lenses and lights and things like that, but basically to be effective I,need the sequence of events behind me. I get that in the theatre every,night, which I find freeing in a way.
I like design, I like details, to me it is just another form of self-expression.
Well, I design costumes because I started with the theater in Chicago, but somehow a few lines just sort of fell to me to do it. And I studied it in school and I always liked it.
