Bio
John Malkovich is an American actor, producer and director known for his work in such films as The Sheltering Sky, In the Line of Fire, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, Ripley's Game and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Malkovich's more recent film roles include that of 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.
He also appeared in Michael Bay's third installment of the 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 re-teamed with Clint Eastwood and co-starred with Angelina Jolie and Amy Ryan in the critically acclaimed film The Changeling, produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment.
He can also be seen in Diego Luna's Cesar Chavez, a biopic starring Michael Peña, Rosario Dawson and America Ferrera that tells the story of the titular famed civil rights leader and labour organiser.
Following that, he starred in Matt Shakman's feature directorial debut, Cut Bank, a crime thriller also starring Liam Hemsworth and Teresa Palmer. Based on a 2009 Black List script written by Sons of Anarchy scribeRobert Patino, the film centres on a former athlete-turned-auto-mechanic who dreams of getting out of Cut Bank, Montana. His efforts to do so start a deadly chain of events that alter his life and the town forever.
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, 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.
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 Russell Smith to create the production company Mr. Mudd, whose debut film was the celebrated feature Ghost World directed by Terry Zwigoff. He followed up in 2003 with his own feature directorial debut, The Dancer Upstairs starring Academy 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 an Academy Award 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.
Malkovich's other 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.
Other Mr. Mudd credits include The Libertine starring Johnny Depp and Samantha Morton and Art School Confidential, also directed by Zwigoff and written by screenwriter-cartoonist Dan Clowes.
Malkovich also served as executive producer on the documentary How to Draw a Bunny, a cinematic portrait of artist Ray Johnson that 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 an Independent Spirit Award for best documentary in 2003.
Malkovich and the team at Mr. Mudd also executive produced the 2009 HBO documentary Which Way Home. Directed by Rebecca Cammissa, 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.
Malkovich's mark in television includes his Emmy Award-winning performance in the telefilm Death of a Salesman, directed by Volker Schlöndorff and co-starring Dustin Hoffman. This role also earned him a Golden Globe nomination.
He received subsequent Golden Globe nominations for In the Line of Fire in 1994 in the category of Best Performance by an Actor in Supporting Role in a Motion Picture; and for Heart of Darkness in 1995 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV.
Other notable credits include the miniseries Napoleon and the acclaimed HBO telefilm RKO 281, both of which garnered John separate Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Support Actor in a Miniseries or Movie.
He also had a starring role as the legendary pirate Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach in the short-lived NBC drama series Crossbones, in 2014.
As a guiding member of Chicago's landmark Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Malkovich has undoubtedly 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 Lanford Wilson's Burn This in New York, London and Los Angeles.
Malkovich has directed numerous plays at Steppenwolf, including the celebrated Balm in Gilead in Chicago and Off-Broadway, The Caretaker in Chicago and on Broadway and Libra, which he adapted from Don DeLillo's novel.
His 2003 French stage production of Hysteria was honoured with five Moliere Award nominations including Best Director.
In addition to his film directorial debut on The Dancer Upstairs, Malkovich has directed three fashion shorts (Strap Hangings, Lady Behave, Hideous Man) for London designer Bella Freud. He received a Best Director Moliere Award for his production of Zach Helm's The Good Canary in Paris.
In addition to his many accolades in the world of the performing arts on stage, on the big and small screens, and behind the camera, Malkovich has also delved into the worlds of opera and fashion design.
He 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. The production toured through Europe and also showed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's 29th Annual Next Wave Festival.
Malkovich is also the creative force behind the menswear line Technobohemian by John Malkovich. He resides with his family in both the U.S. and France.