Viggo Mortensen

He is the ex-husband of Exene Cervenka , the singer of the punk band X.

Had a book of poetry printed before he was known. The title: "Ten Last Night."

Speaks fluent English, Spanish, Danish, and French, but he also speaks yet not fluently Catalan, Swedish and Norwegian.

Became a father for the 1st time at age 29 when his [now ex] wife Exene Cervenka gave birth to their son Henry Mortensen on January 28, 1988.

He actually painted the large murals in his artists studio in the film A Perfect Murder .

Lived in South America from age 2 to age 11.

Has been photographing for years, recently debuted with an exhibition at the Robert Mann Gallery in NYC. -- American Photo, July/August 2000.

Writes poetry in his spare time.

Is also a jazz musician - he has released three CDs so far.

Worked as a truck driver while living in Denmark

Broke a tooth while filming a fight sequence for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ; he asked the crew if they would glue it back on so he could finish the scene.

Replaced Stuart Townsend in the role of Aragorn/Strider in The Lord of the Rings, after filming began.

Got so into his character of Aragorn that director Peter Jackson once addressed him as Aragorn for over half an hour, and Mortensen didnt even realize it.

Was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People Magazine in 2002.

Has two younger brothers, Walter and Charles. They are both geologists.

Graduated from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York in 1980 with a degree in Government and Spanish.

An accomplished horseman in his spare time, Mortensen requested that his "Rings" character Aragorn be given more saddle time than was originally scripted. He also kept his on-screen horse nearby during the entire principal photography schedule in order to ride in his off-hours and strengthen his relationship with the horse.

As Viggo lived in Argentina as a child, he is a fan of Argentine soccer team San Lorenzo (real name of the team: "San Lorenzo of Almagro", from Buenos Aires City).Viggo usually wear clothes and accessories with this teams colors (red & blue) the last time in public, at the Rome Festival, in the "Alatriste" Premiere.

Broke two toes during the filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers , in the scene where he kicks an Orc helmet.

Owner of publishing company Perceval Press.

In 2003 he visited Denmark and had a booksigning, an art exhibition opening and The Lord of The Rings premiere.

In 1998, he appeared in two remakes of Alfred Hitchcock films: A Perfect Murder , a remake of Dial M for Murder , and Psycho , a remake of Psycho .

Purchased the horses he rode in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and Hidalgo after the films were completed.

His father is Danish. His mother is American, and has English, and more distant Scottish, ancestry. His maternal grandfather was from Nova Scotia, Canada, and his maternal grandmother was from New York.

Worked as a translator for the Swedish hockey team during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid and was at the miracle game between the Soviet Union and United States.

While filming "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy in New Zealand, he would go surfing with the other actors in their spare time. One day he suffered an accident which left a bruise on the right side of his face. As a result, director Peter Jackson had to shoot only the left side of his face in the entire Moria sequence.

Was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2004.

Ranked #10 on VH1s Hottest Hotties.

At first, turned down the part of Aragorn of Lord of the Rings. His son convinced him to do the part.

Is one of four "Lord of the Rings" stars to star, pre-"Rings," with Harrison Ford. He starred with Ford in Witness . Ford starred with John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , Sean Bean (Boromir) in Patriot Games and Miranda Otto (Eowyn) in What Lies Beneath .

While working on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he asked writer/director Peter Jackson to revise scripts so that his character Aragorn would be speaking in the Elvish language in several scenes of all three movies.

He became good friends with the close-knit stunt men on the "Lord of the Rings" films, but they were wary of doing fight scenes with him because, carried away with the intensity of his character Aragorn, he would frequently "really go at them" and leave the other combatants in bruises. Massive actor Lawrence Makoare , playing Lurtz under heaps of make-up which restricted his vision, also got carried away during their fight scene at the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and, for once, Mortensen was left more bruised than the other actor.

Ranked #19 on Tropopkins Top 25 Most Intriguing People [Issue #100]

Although their divorce only became final in 1998, he and his former wife, Exene Cervenka , separated in late 1990/early 1991 after less than 3 years of marriage but remain close friends often working together and co-parenting their son.

His fathers name is also Viggo. His mothers name is Grace.

After his parents divorced when he was eleven, he moved to new York with his mother and two younger brothers.

He received the scar on his upper lip after scratching his face on a barbed wire fence at a Halloween party.

Is a big fan of the New York Mets and the Montreal Canadiens. When filming A History of Violence , he showed up on the Toronto set wearing a Canadiens jersey.

Voted #14 in Elle (France) Magazines "15 Sexiest Men" poll (June 2007).

Older brother of Walter Mortensen.

Choosen by Empire Magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Movie Stars in the world (#69) 2007.

Admitted in an interview that when he first started out as an actor his agents encouraged him to change his name to "Vic Morten", obviously he refused.

Filmed scenes for The Purple Rose of Cairo , but they were all cut out.

Spent a couple weeks in Russia prior to filming Eastern Promises to research his role and better understand his character.

In Eastern Promises his Russian/Ukrainian dialect coach was Olegar Fedoro.

For his role in Eastern Promises , he stated that part of his performance was inspired by Russian hockey player Alexei Kovalev.

A skilled horseman, he did all his own stunts in Hidalgo , including a breakneck bareback ride that even the stuntman couldnt handle.

His grandfather was from Canada.

Wore a Montreal Canadiens jersey under his costume during the filming of The Lord of the Rings films.

On December 4th, 2009, for the Montral Canadiens centennial celebration at the Bell Center, Viggo Mortensen - a long-time Canadiens fan - came out in his red Habs jersey to introduce Guy Lafleur, "my all-time hero," in French.

Replaced Christoph Waltz in the role of Sigmund Freud in A Dangerous Method after Waltz backed out of the project in order to film Water for Elephants .

Met ex-wife Exene Cervenka on the set of Salvation!: Have You Said Your Prayers Today? .

Was on April 16th 2010 knighted by Queen Margarethe II of Denmark. He is now one of five knights from The Lord of the Rings production; the others being Ian Holm , Ian McKellen , Christopher Lee and Peter Jackson.

He did all of his own stunts in the 1988 horror thriller "Prison". Stunt coordinator Kane Hodder even gave him a "Stunt Crew" t-shirt after filming wrapped.

(November 2005) Visited Denmark to attend the A History of Violence premiere.

(November 2005) He visited Argentina for five days.

(January 2008) Filmed several readings for "The Peoples History" (a miniseries based on the books by Howard Zinn) in Boston, Massachusetts.

(November 2012) Istanbul, Turkey: Filming The Two Faces of January

(November 2003) He visited Argentina for four days

(September 2006) Hes in Spain to promote and attend to the premiere of his film Alatriste .

(October 2008) At Rome film Festival to promote his 2 new movies: Appaloosa and Good . He is here between 23rd and 28th October.

(August 2012) Buenos Aires, Argentina, to promote the thriller Todos tenemos un plan in which he plays twins.

(February 2004) Arrived in Toronto to promote Hidalgo on the 2nd.

(March 2007) Appeared at the Miami International Film Festival with Ariadna Gil and Augustin Diaz Yanes at the showing of Alatriste , where they all answered questions from the audience, afterward.

(August 2009) Presented a book by Perceval Press on Argentine poetry at the Cultural Center of Spain in Buenos Aires on August 11, 2009, and, together with the featured poets, autographed books afterwards.

(April 2005) Filming Alatriste in Spain.

(November 2006) In London shooting the movie Eastern Promises by David Cronenberg.

Has worked with the two actors who have played the character of Magneto in the X-Men saga, Ian McKellen (the Lord of the Rings) and Michael Fassbender ( A Dangerous Method ).

He is an avid NY Mets fan.

As of 2016, he has appeared in four films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: Witness , The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring , The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King , with the latter being a winner in the category.

His Lord of The Rings co-star Billy Boyd described him as mad as a fish.

Elijah Wood said of him "Everyone talks about how much integrity he has and how brilliant he is. And its true. Hes also completely insane.".

Hes made movies where he spoke in English, Danish, French, Spanish and Arabic.

Mortenson did not participate in the pre-production stunt and sword training given to the actors in the Lord of the Rings trilogy as he was cast as a replacement only two days prior to the start of filming. However, at the end of filming, the films swordmaster, the legendary Bob Anderson, stated that Mortenson was the best swordsman hed ever trained.

Quentin Tarantino offered him the role of Jody Domergue in The Hateful Eight , but he had to decline because of scheduling conflicts.

Photography, painting or poetry those are just extensions of me, how I,perceive things, they are my way of communicating.

Seeing who you are playing with is a relief. In The Lord of the Rings we,did a lot of things when there was nothing there.

There is no star in LOTR. The Fellowship is a union.

And I went to Russia as well. I read and listened to and looked up,anything I could that had to do with Russians even loosely connected,with this story. The more Russian I could be and seem authentically,the better it would be.

That should have been a fifteen million dollar movie. The special,effects thing, the genie, was out of the bottle, and it has him.

I always think of movie-making as a team sport.

We all experience many freakish and unexpected events - you have to be open to suffering a little. The philosopher Schopenhauer talked about how out of the randomness, there is an apparent intention in the fate of an individual that can be glimpsed later on. When you are an old guy, you can look back, and maybe this rambling life has some through-line. Others can see it better sometimes. But when you glimpse it yourself, you see it more clearly than anyone.

Life is short and the older you get, the more you feel it. Indeed, the shorter it is. People lose their capacity to walk, run, travel, think, and experience life. I realise how important it is to use the time I have.

I like the detail work of telling a story in small pieces, as is done in movie-making, and also the long leap of faith needed to see a theatre performance through each night. Both require focus and self-discipline.

Photography, painting or poetry - those are just extensions of me, how I perceive things; they are my way of communicating.