Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen was born on October 20, 1958 in New York City. His American mother, Grace Gamble (née Atkinson), and Danish father, Viggo Peter Mortensen, Sr., met in Norway. His maternal grandfather was from Nova Scotia, Canada. His family moved to Venezuela, Argentina, and Denmark, settling in Argentina, in Chaco, Córdoba, and Buenos Aires, where he learned Spanish. His father managed chicken farms and ranches in Argentina. They remained there until Mortensen was eleven, when his parents divorced and his mother moved back to New York. He moved with his father to Copenhagen, Denmark. Mortensen and his father eventually went back to the United States, where Mortensen graduated from Watertown High School in Watertown, New York. After high school, he returned to Denmark and became a truck driver in Esbjerg, Denmark, before again returning to the United States to pursue an acting career. He attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, earning a bachelor’s degree in Spanish. He chose that subject because he could get good grades without a lot of study, leaving him free to be in a lot of plays. At his commencement, he refused to wear an academic gown because they were made by sweatshop workers. However, after the Lord of the Rings trilogy, when he was granted an honorary doctorate by his alma mater, he did appear in the appropriate robes.
Mortensen has a son, Henry Mortensen, with ex-wife Exene Cervenka, singer in the punk band X. Henry and Viggo have done public father/son poetry readings together as recently as April 2006. Mortensen is fluent in English, Danish, and Spanish, and conversant in Norwegian. He also speaks French, Italian, Catalan and Swedish reasonably well.
Mortensen is an ice hockey fan, particularly of the Montreal Canadiens. He wore a classic Canadiens logo t-shirt underneath his armour all through the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He also loves football and is a fan of Argentine star Diego Maradona, Héctor “Bambino” Veira, and both the Argentine and Danish national teams as well as Argentine club San Lorenzo de Almagro. In 1993, Mortensen went to Ireland during a break in shooting (without the consent of the production company) to watch Denmark play in a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification match. He is also a fan of the New York Mets, and recently appeared in an interview promoting 2009 film “The Road” wearing apparel indicating his support of the Australian Football League’s Collingwood Magpies football club..
He has spoken out against militarism and U.S. foreign policy. In continuing with his opposition to the Bush administration’s foreign policy, he participated in a series of fundraisers for the Congressional candidate from the Watertown, New York area, Bob Johnson, in September 2006. In January 2008, he publicly supported Dennis Kucinich for U.S. president, speaking alongside him in a number of public appearances.. Later he endorsed Barack Obama for the presidency. In Denmark, Mortensen is known for his support for the Freetown Christiania and criticism against the Danish participation in the Iraq war. He was also one of the signees of the so called “Toronto Declaration” protesting against spotlighting Tel-Aviv at the TIFF in 2009.
Mortensen has owned property near Sandpoint, Idaho, since the mid-1980s and spends time there when not filming movies.
