Oscar Actors: Malkovich, John, 2 Supp. Actor Noms–Background, Career, Awards (Cum Advantage, Two-Time Oscar Nominee, Emmy Nom)

With a body of work spanning over three decades, John Malkovich is one of the most compelling and respected character actors in Hollywood.

His celebrated performances span every genre, and range from roles in thought-provoking independent films to those in big budget franchises.  Malkovich is also a director, producer, clothing designer, and artist.

On the big screen, Malkovich’s recent roles include that of the voice of ‘Dave’ in DreamWorks Animation’s Penguins of Madagascar ; ‘Sherriff Vogel’ in Matt Shakman’s Cut Bank opposite Teresa Palmer, Liam Hemsworth, Bruce Dern and Billy Bob Thornton; zany ex-CIA agent ‘Marvin Boggs’ in Summit Entertainment’s Red and Red 2 opposite Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren; and famed racehorse trainer ‘Lucien Laurin’ in Disney’s Secretariat opposite Diane Lane.

John Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor, the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Oscar Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

My Oscar Book:

Malkovich started his career as charter member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 1976. He moved to New York City acting in a Steppenwolf production of the Sam Shepard play True West (1980).

He made his Broadway debut as Biff in the revival of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman (1984). He directed the Harold Pinter play The Caretaker (1986), and acted in Lanford Wilson’s Burn This (1987).

Malkovich has received two Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations for Places in the Heart (1984), and In the Line of Fire (1993).

Other notable film roles include in The Killing Fields (1984), Empire of the Sun (1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Of Mice and Men (1992), Con Air (1997), Rounders (1998), Being John Malkovich (1999), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Ripley’s Game (2002), Burn After Reading (2008), and Red (2010).

He has also produced films Ghost World (2001), Juno (2007), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012).

For his work on TV he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor for Death of a Salesman (1985).

His other Emmy-nominated roles were for portraying Herman J. Mankiewicz in RKO 281 (1999) and Charles Talleyrand in Napoléon (2002). Other television roles include in Crossbones (2014), Billions (2018–19), The New Pope (2020), and Space Force (2020–2022).

Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois, on December 9, 1953. He grew up in Benton, Illinois. His father, Daniel Leon Malkovich, was a state conservation director, who published the conservation magazine Outdoor Illinois. His mother, Joe Anne (née Choisser), owned the Benton Evening News daily newspaper and Outdoor Illinois.

He grew up with an older brother, Danny, and three younger sisters, Amanda, Rebecca, and Melissa. In a May 2020 interview, he revealed that Melissa is his only surviving sibling.

His paternal grandparents were Croatian immigrants from the vicinity of Ozalj; his other ancestry includes English, Scottish, French, and German descent. Malkovich attended Logan Grade School, Webster Junior High School, and Benton Consolidated High School. During his high-school years, he appeared in various plays and the musical Carousel. He was also active in a folk gospel group, with whom he sang at churches and community events. As a member of a local summer theater project, he co-starred in Jean-Claude van Itallie’s America Hurrah in 1972.

After graduating from high school in 1972, Malkovich enrolled at Eastern Illinois University. He then transferred to Illinois State University, where he majored in theater, but dropped out. He studied acting at the William Esper Studio.

In 1976, Malkovich, along with Joan Allen, Gary Sinise, and Glenne Headly, became a charter member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. He moved to New York City in 1980 for the Steppenwolf production of the Sam Shepard play True West, for which he won an Obie Award.

One of his first film roles was as extra alongside Allen, Terry Kinney, George Wendt, and Laurie Metcalf in Altman’s A Wedding (1978).

In 1982, he appeared in A Streetcar Named Desire with Chicago’s Wisdom Bridge Theatre. Malkovich then directed a Steppenwolf co-production, the 1984 revival of Lanford Wilson’s Balm in Gilead, for which he received second Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award.

He made his feature debut as Sally Field’s blind boarder Mr. Will in Places in the Heart (1984). For his portrayal of Mr. Will, Malkovich received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He also portrayed Al Rockoff in Roland Joffe’s epic film The Killing Fields (1984).

His Broadway debut that year was as Biff in Death of a Salesman alongside Dustin Hoffman as Willy. Malkovich won an Emmy Award for this role when the play was adapted for television by CBS in 1985.

He appeared in Empire of the Sun, directed by Spielberg, and the film adaptation of Williams’s The Glass Menagerie (both 1987) directed by Paul Newman (who appeared in the film) and Joanne Woodward.

He then starred in Making Mr. Right (also 1987), directed by Susan Seidelman.

Malkovich gained significant critical and popular acclaim when he portrayed the sinister and sensual Valmont in the film Dangerous Liaisons (1988), a film version of the play Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton, who had adapted it from 1782 novel of the same title by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. He later reprised this role for the music video of “Walking on Broken Glass” by Annie Lennox.

He played Port Moresby in The Sheltering Sky (1990), directed by Bertolucci and appeared in Shadows and Fog (1991), directed by Woody Allen.

In 1990, he recited in Croatian verses of Croatian national anthem Lijepa naša domovino (Our Beautiful Homeland) in Nenad Bach’s song “Can We Go Higher?”

Malkovich starred in the 1992 film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men as Lennie alongside Gary Sinise as George. He was nominated for another Oscar, again in the Best Supporting Actor category, for In the Line of Fire (1993).

He was the narrator in Alive (1993) and starred in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998).

Malkovich has hosted three episodes of the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live. The first occasion was in January 1989 with musical guest Anita Baker, the second in October 1993 with musical guest Billy Joel (and special appearance by former cast member Jan Hooks), and the third in December 2008 with musical guest T.I. with Swizz Beatz.

Malkovich was directed for second time (after Dangerous Liaisons) by Stephen Frears in Mary Reilly (1996), adaptation of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tale, co-starring Julia Roberts.

Malkovich also appeared in The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), directed by Luc Besson, playing the French king-to-be Charles VII.

Though he played the title role in the Charlie Kaufman-penned Being John Malkovich (1999), he played a slight variation of himself, as indicated by the character’s middle name of “Horatio”.

Directing Debut

Malkovich’s directorial film debut, The Dancer Upstairs, was released in 2002.

He played Patricia Highsmith’s antihero Ripley in Ripley’s Game (also 2002), the second film adaptation of Highsmith’s 1974 novel, the first being Wim Wenders’ 1977 film The American Friend.

Malkovich’s other film roles include The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Eragon (2006), Beowulf, Colour Me Kubrick (both 2007), Changeling (2008), Red, Secretariat (both 2010), Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), and Red 2 (2013).

In 2000, Malkovich was approached to play Green Goblin in Spider-Man (2002), but he passed due to scheduling conflicts, Willem Dafoe was cast in the role.

In 2001, Michael Cimino had also approached Malkovich to star in his never filmed 3-hour long epic of André Malraux’s Man’s Fate, alongside Johnny Depp, Uma Thurman, Daniel Day-Lewis and Alain Delon.

In 2009, Malkovich was cast for the role of the Marvel Comics villain Vulture in the unproduced Spider-Man 4. Malkovich in 2014 was the voice actor of Dave the Octopus in Penguins of Madagascar movie.

In 2008, Malkovich directed in French a theater production of Good Canary written by Zach Helm, with Cristiana Realli and Vincent Elbaz in the leading roles. Malkovich won the Molière Award for best director for it. In 2011, he directed Julian Sands in A Celebration of Harold Pinter in the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

In 2012, he directed a production newly adapted French-language version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the Théâtre de l’Atelier in Paris. The production had limited engagement in July 2013 at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

He returned to theatre, directing Good Canary in Spanish in Mexico, then in English at the Rose Theater in London in 2016. Malkovich won the Milton Schulman Award for the best director at the Evening Standard Theater Awards in 2016.

Malkovich wrote and starred in he movie 100 Years (2016), directed by Robert Rodriguez. The movie is locked in vault in the south of France, not to be seen before 2115.

In 2018, Malkovich appeared in three-part adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The A.B.C. Murders co-starring Rupert Grint for BBC TV, playing the fictional Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

In 2019, Malkovich performed in London’s West End, starring in David Mamet’s new play Bitter Wheat.

He also starred as the title character in the HBO drama series The New Pope (2020). On September 26, 2019, it was announced that Malkovich had been cast as Dr. Adrian Mallory in the current Netflix comedy series Space Force.

Filmography

Places in the Heart (1984)
The Killing Fields (1984)
The Glass Menagerie (1987)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Shadows and Fog (1992)
Of Mice and Men (1992)
In the Line of Fire (1993)
Mary Reilly (1996)
The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
Con Air (1997)
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
Rounders (1998)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
Adaptation (2002)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Eragon (2006)
Beowulf (2007)
Burn After Reading (2008)
Changeling (2008)
Secretariat (2010)
RED (2010)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
Warm Bodies (2013)
RED 2 (2013)
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
Bird Box (2018)
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)
Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

Television
Selected credits:

Word of Honor (1981)
True West (1984)
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Heart of Darkness (1993)
RKO 281 (1999)
Les Misérables (2000)
Napoléon (2002)
Crossbones (2014)
Billions (2018-2019)
The New Pope (2020)
Space Force (2020-2022)

Malkovich also appeared in Michael Bay’s third installment of Transformers franchise, Transformers: Dark of the Moon , and in the Coen brothers’ comedy Burn After Reading opposite Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton. He also re-teamed with Clint Eastwood in the critically acclaimed film The Changeling , alongside Angelina Jolie and Amy Ryan, produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment.

Previous film acting credits include Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich ; Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons ; Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady ; Wolfgang Petersen’s In The Line Of Fire ; Gary Sinise’s Of Mice and Men ; Sean McGinly’s The Great Buck Howard , 4 which had its premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival; Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf opposite Angelina Jolie; Raoul Ruiz’s Klimt ; Liliana Cavani’s Ripley’s Games ; Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Sheltering Sky ;  Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun ; Paul Newman’s The Glass Menagerie ; Roland Joffe’s The Killing Fields ; and Robert Benton’s Places in the Heart .

Oscar Nominations

Malkovich has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, once for Places in the Heart (1985) and then again for In the Line of Fire (1994).

His performance in Places in the Heart also earned him the Best Supporting Actor Award from the National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review. In 1999, he won New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor for Being John Malkovich .

In 1998, Malkovich joined producers Lianne Halfon and Russ Smith to create production company Mr. Mudd, whose debut film was the celebrated feature Ghost World directed by Terry Zwigoff.

Malkovich followed up in 2003 with his own feature directorial debut, The Dancer Upstairs , starring Oscar Award winner Javier Bardem. A few years later, Mr. Mudd landed its biggest box office and critical success with indie hit Juno , starring Ellen Page, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman.

The film, distributed through Fox Searchlight, received Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Diablo Cody) and three nominations for Best Motion Picture, Best Actress (Ellen Page) and Best Director (Jason Reitman).

The film also won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature in 2008, and is considered the third-biggest indie release of all time.

Malkovich’s recent producing credits with Mr. Mudd include Stephen Chbosky’s coming of age story The Perks of Being A Wallflower starring Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, and Ezra Miller; the Duplass brothers’ comedy Jeff, Who Lives at Home, staring Ed Helms and Jason Segel, and Jason Reitman’s Young Adult , written by Diablo Cody and starring Charlize Theron, Patton Oswald and Patrick Wilson.

Reitman’s Labor Day, a drama starring Tobey Maguire, Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin; and Diego Luna’s Chavez , a biopic starring Michael Peña, Malkovich, Rosario Dawson and America Ferrera.

Other credits include The Libertine starring Johnny Depp and Samantha Morton and Art Scho ol Confidential also directed by Zwigoff and written by screenwriter/cartoonist Dan Clowes.

Malkovich also served as Exec Producer on the documentary How to Draw a Bunny, a portrait of artist Ray Johnson, which won the Jury Prize at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and the Prix de Public at the famed Recontre Film Festival in Paris. The film was also nominated for Independent Spirit Award for best documentary in 2003.

Malkovich and team at Mr. Mudd also executive produced the 2009 HBO documentary Which Way Home. Directed by Rebecca Camissa, the film shows the personal side of immigration through the eyes of several unaccompanied children as they endeavor to make it to the United States. The film was nominated for several awards, including a 2010 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Film, and three Emmy® Awards for Cinematography, Editing, and Research.

Emmy

Malkovich gave Emmy winning performance in the telefilm Death of a Salesman, directed by Volker Schlöndorff and co-starring Dustin Hoffman.

Oscar Roles

Other notable credits include the miniseries Napoleon and the acclaimed HBO telefilm RKO 281, both of which garnered separate Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Support Actor in a Miniseries or Movie.

Screen Image:

Malkovich has built his image (and appeal) on the notion of perversity, silken voice, malevolence, and taunting humor.

He likes to keep the audience in a state of suspense and mystery, off-balance, unable to predict the progress (or lack of) of his character–and acting.

This may partly explain his legendary status as an actor whose style is incomparable because it rests on his idiosyncratic personality, which has enabled him to play convincingly both heroes and villains.

As guiding member of Chicago’s landmark Steppenwolf Theatre, Malkovich had a profound impact on the American theatre landscape. Between 1976 and 1982, he acted in, directed or designed sets for more than fifty Steppenwolf productions.

His debut on the New York stage in the Steppenwolf production of Sam Shepard’s “True West” earned him an Obie Award. Other notable plays include “Death of a Salesman;” “Slip of the Tongue;” Sam Shepard’s “State of Shock;” and Landford Wilson’s “Burn This” in New York, London and Los Angeles.

Malkovich has directed plays at Steppenwolf, including “Balm in Gilead” in Chicago and Off-Broadway; “The Caretaker” in Chicago and on Broadway; and “Libra,” adapted from Don LeLillo’s novel.

Malkovich’s 2003 French stage production of “Hysteria” was honored with five Moliere Award nominations including Best Director.

His film directorial debut was “The Dancer Upstairs,” and he directed 3 fashion shorts (“Strap Hangings,” “Lady Behave,” “Hideous Man”) for London designer Belle Freud.

He recently received Moliere Award as Best Director for his production of Zach Helm’s Good “Canary in Paris.”

In addition to accolades for stage, big and small screens, and behind the camera – Malkovich has also delved into opera and fashion design. He recently starred as infamous 18th century lothario Giacomo Casanova in a touring production of the opera “The Giacomo Variations,” and in 2011 he reprised his role as famed Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger in “The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer,” a monologue interspersed with operatic arias.

Malkovich resides with his family in both the U.S. and France.