Willem Dafoe was born on July 22, 1955 in Appleton, Wisconsin. He was seventh in a line of eight children. While still in school, William began calling himself “Willem” so people wouldn’t shorten his name to Billy.

Willem graduated from Appleton East High School and then enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, studying drama. He left before graduating though, in order to pursue a career on the stage.

Dafoe began his stage career with the group, Theatre X. He toured with the group for years throughout the United States and Europe. Following his four year run with Theatre X, Dafoe joined the Performance Group, which was based in New York City.

While working with the Performance Group Dafoe began professionally collaborating with director, Elizabeth LeCompte. The two began dating and in 1982, their first son, Jack was born.

In 1977 Dafoe co-founded the experimental theatre group, The Wooster Group. He performed with the group internationally over the next two years. It was while performing with the group that Dafoe was offered his first role in a film. 

Dafoe’s first film was Heaven’s Gate (1981), but his small part was cut out during the editing process. The following year he received his first starring role in The Loveless, playing the leader of a motorcycle gang.

Willem’s first notable film was Platoon (1986), which co-starred Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, and John C. McGinley. While on the set, Dafoe came down with Yellow Fever and was delirious for 24 hours. The film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Following his breakthrough performance in Platoon, Dafoe has become successful as a character actor. He often plays the villain in films like the Spider Man trilogy, co-starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. For the film he did almost all of his own stunts as the Green Goblin. He was also considered for the role of the Joker in Batman (1989); the role went to Jack Nicholson instead.

Dafoe has had the luck of playing a wide variety of characters including Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), which was directed by Martin Scorsese and co-starred Harvey Keitel and Barbara Hershey, with an appearance by David Bowie.

In 2000, Dafoe earned his second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Shadow of the Vampire. The film was produced by Nicolas Cage and co-starred John Malkovich, Udo Kier, and Cary Elwes.

In 2005, Dafoe married the Italian actress, Giada Colagrande. Also in 2005, Colagrande and Dafoe collaborated professionally on the film Before it Had a Name. The film was written by Colagrande and Dafoe, both of whom also starred in it. Colagrande directed the film as well. This was Dafoe’s first screenplay.

Dafoe’s current projects include: American Dreamz (2006), co-starring Hugh Grant, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, and Chris Klein. He also had a role in Inside Man (2006) which co-starred Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, and Carlos Andre Gomez. The film was directed by Spike Lee.