Willem Dafoe

Acting

Willem Dafoe

Born 1955-07-22 · Appleton, Wisconsin, USA

William James "Willem" Dafoe (/dəˈfoʊ/ də-FOH; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. Known for his prolific career portraying diverse roles in both mainstream and arthouse films, he is the recipient of various accolades, including a Volpi Cup Award for Best Actor, with nominations for four Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, and four Golden Globe Awards. He received an Honorary Golden Bear in 2018. Born in Appleton, Wisconsin, Dafoe made his film debut with an uncredited role in Heaven's Gate (1980). He is known for collaborating with both mainstream and auteur filmmakers, including Paul Schrader, Abel Ferrara, Sam Raimi, Yorgos Lanthimos, Lars von Trier, Julian Schnabel, Andrew Stanton, Wes Anderson, and Robert Eggers. He received Academy Award nominations for playing a compassionate army sergeant in the war drama Platoon (1986), Max Schreck in the mystery film Shadow of the Vampire (2000), a kindly motel manager in the coming-of-age film The Florida Project (2017), and Vincent van Gogh in the biopic At Eternity's Gate (2018). His other films credits include To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Wild at Heart (1990), The English Patient (1996), American Psycho (2000), Animal Factory (2000), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Antichrist (2009), The Hunter (2011), John Carter (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), John Wick (2014), The Lighthouse (2019), Togo (2019), Poor Things (2023), and Nosferatu (2024). Dafoe was a founding member of experimental theatre company The Wooster Group. He portrayed Norman Osborn in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy (2002–2007) and reprised the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). He has also voiced roles in the animated films Finding Nemo (2003), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), and The Boy and the Heron (2023). Description above from the Wikipedia article Willem Dafoe, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Spider-Man: No Way Home poster
7.9

Peter Parker is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a super-hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

2021

Spider-Man poster
7.4

After being bitten by a genetically altered spider at Oscorp, nerdy but endearing high school student Peter Parker is endowed with amazing powers to become the superhero known as Spider-Man.

Spider-Man

2002

Spider-Man 3 poster
6.5

The seemingly invincible Spider-Man goes up against an all-new crop of villains—including the shape-shifting Sandman. While Spider-Man’s superpowers are altered by an alien organism, his alter ego, Peter Parker, deals with nemesis Eddie Brock and also gets caught up in a love triangle.

Spider-Man 3

2007

Finding Nemo poster
7.8

Nemo, an adventurous young clownfish, is unexpectedly taken from his Great Barrier Reef home to a dentist's office aquarium. It's up to his worrisome father Marlin and a friendly but forgetful fish Dory to bring Nemo home -- meeting vegetarian sharks, surfer dude turtles, hypnotic jellyfish, hungry seagulls, and more along the way.

Finding Nemo

2003

Zack Snyder's Justice League poster
8.1

Determined to ensure Superman's ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne aligns forces with Diana Prince with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions.

Zack Snyder's Justice League

2021

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice poster
6.9

After a family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Betelgeuse, Lydia's life is turned upside down when her teenage daughter, Astrid, accidentally opens the portal to the Afterlife.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

2024

Poor Things poster
7.6

Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.

Poor Things

2023

American Psycho poster
7.4

A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.

American Psycho

2000

Spider-Man 2 poster
7.3

Peter Parker is going through a major identity crisis. Burned out from being Spider-Man, he decides to shelve his superhero alter ego, which leaves the city suffering in the wake of carnage left by the evil Doc Ock. In the meantime, Parker still can't act on his feelings for Mary Jane Watson, a girl he's loved since childhood. A certain anger begins to brew in his best friend Harry Osborn as well...

Spider-Man 2

2004

The Grand Budapest Hotel poster
8.0

The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune and the slow and then sudden upheavals that transformed Europe during the first half of the 20th century.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

2014

Nosferatu poster
6.7

A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.

Nosferatu

2024

Aquaman poster
6.9

Half-human, half-Atlantean Arthur Curry is taken on the journey of his lifetime to discover if he is worth of being a king.

Aquaman

2018

John Wick poster
7.5

Ex-hitman John Wick comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from him.

John Wick

2014

The Phoenician Scheme poster
6.5

Wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda appoints his only daughter, a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins.

The Phoenician Scheme

2025

Nightmare Alley poster
6.9

An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dangerous than he is.

Nightmare Alley

2021

The Aviator poster
7.2

A biopic depicting the life of filmmaker and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes from 1927 to 1947, during which time he became a successful film producer and an aviation magnate, while simultaneously growing more unstable due to severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The Aviator

2004

Murder on the Orient Express poster
6.7

Genius Belgian detective Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of an American tycoon aboard the Orient Express train.

Murder on the Orient Express

2017

Kinds of Kindness poster
6.5

A triptych fable following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.

Kinds of Kindness

2024

Clear and Present Danger poster
6.6

Agent Jack Ryan becomes acting Deputy Director of Intelligence for the CIA when Admiral Greer is diagnosed with cancer. When an American businessman, and friend of the president, is murdered on his yacht, Ryan starts discovering links between the man and drug dealers. As former CIA agent John Clark is sent to Colombia to kill drug cartel kingpins in retaliation, Ryan must fight through multiple cover-ups to figure out what happened and who's responsible.

Clear and Present Danger

1994

Nymphomaniac: Vol. II poster
6.7

The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adult life and what led to her being in Seligman's care.

Nymphomaniac: Vol. II

2013

Finding Dory poster
7.0

Dory is reunited with her friends Nemo and Marlin in the search for answers about her past. What can she remember? Who are her parents? And where did she learn to speak Whale?

Finding Dory

2016

Platoon poster
7.8

As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.

Platoon

1986

The Northman poster
7.0

Prince Amleth is on the verge of becoming a man when his father is brutally murdered by his uncle, who kidnaps the boy's mother. Two decades later, Amleth is now a Viking who's on a mission to save his mother, kill his uncle and avenge his father.

The Northman

2022

Fantastic Mr. Fox poster
7.8

The Fantastic Mr. Fox, bored with his current life, plans a heist against the three local farmers. The farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with the sly fox, seek revenge against him and his family.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

2009

Behind the camera