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]] Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. (born October 20 , 1958 in New York City ) is an American Theater and Movie Actor , poet, musician, photographer and painter. His Danish father and half- Norwegian mother met in Norway . He has a son, Henry Blake, with his ex-wife Exene Cervenka of the band X . Henry and Viggo have done public father/son poetry reading together as recent as March 2006. He is best known for his role as Aragorn in Peter Jackson 's '' The Lord Of The Rings '' film trilogy. He was a last-minute replacement for the role originally meant for Stuart Townsend , and wouldn't have taken the part if it hadn't been for his son's enthusiasm for J. R. R. Tolkien 's trilogy. With part of the money he received for the film he founded the Perceval Press publishing house — named for the knight from the legend of King Arthur — to help other artists by publishing Avant-garde works that might not find a home in more traditional publishing venues. He has spoken out against militarism and U.S. foreign policy. {Link without Title} HISTORY After several years of experience in live theater, he made his first movie appearance playing an Amish farmer in Peter Weir 's '' Witness ''. (Mortensen had actually been cast in two prior films - '' Swing Shift '' and '' The Purple Rose Of Cairo '' - but his scenes in both of these films were deleted from the final cuts.) He has also appeared in Jane Campion 's '' The Portrait Of A Lady '', Sean Penn 's '' Indian Runner '', Brian DePalma 's '' Carlito's Way '', Tony Scott 's '' Crimson Tide '', Ridley Scott 's '' G.I. Jane '', Tony Goldwyn 's '' A Walk On The Moon '', Philip Ridley 's '' Reflecting Skin '', Andrew Davis 's '' A Perfect Murder '', and David Cronenberg 's '' A History Of Violence ''. Mortensen's performance in '' Bent '' at the Coast Playhouse, Los Angeles , won him a Dramalogue Critics' Award. Coincidentally, the play, about Homosexual Concentration Camp prisoners, was originally brought to prominence by Sir Ian McKellen , with whom Mortensen co-starred in ''The Lord of the Rings''. In 2004 , he starred as Frank Hopkins in Hidalgo , the story of a Pony Express courier who travels to Arabia to compete with his horse, Hidalgo, in a dangerous race for a massive contest prize. Mortensen himself is very fond of horses, and shows such in his book ''The Horse Is Good''. In fact, Mortensen bought the horse which played Brego in ''The Lord of the Rings'' movies (Roheryn in the books), which is Aragorn's steed; as well as TJ, one of the horses who played Hidalgo. He also purchased the stallion that played Arwen's horse, and gave it to the stunt woman who rode the horse in place of Liv Tyler . Mortensen is also an Ice Hockey fan, particularly of the Montreal Canadiens . He also likes soccer and is a big fan of the Danish national team and the Argentinian team San Lorenzo De Almagro . In 1992 Viggo went to Ireland during a break in shooting, without the consent of the production company, to watch Denmark play the semi-finals. He is also a fan of the New York Mets In the ''Two Towers'' DVD extras, the film's swordmaster Bob Anderson described Mortensen as "the best swordsman I've ever trained". In the DVD extras for ''A History of Violence'', David Cronenberg relates that Mortensen is the only actor he'd come across who would come back from weekends with his family having bought items to use as props on the set. BIBLIOGRAPHY Includes but is not limited to:
BACKGROUND Mortensen spent some childhood years in Venezuela , Argentina , and his father's native Denmark , before returning to high school in Watertown, New York (where he was captain of the swim team). He graduated from St. Lawrence University in 1980 . He is fluent in English , Spanish and Danish . He also speaks French , Norwegian and Swedish reasonably well. ARTWORK, MUSIC, AND POETRY Mortensen is an artist, photographer, singer, poet, and jazz musician. He experiments with his poetry and music by frequently crossing over the styles. The guitarist Buckethead frequently collaborates on many of his recordings. Mortensen's discography includes: ''Don't Tell Me What to Do'', ''Intelligence Failure'', ''One Less Thing to Worry About'', ''One Man's Meat'', ''Live at Beyond Baroque'', ''The Other Parade'', ''This That and The Other'', ''Live at Beyond Baroque 2'', ''Pandemoniumfromamerica'', and ''Please Tomorrow''. His voice is featured on '''' soundtrack - he sings 'Aragorn's Coronation', the words by Tolkien but the music composed by Mortensen himself. His poems are written in English, Danish (Mortensen has dual citizenship in the US and Denmark) , and Spanish. Mortensen is also a Painter , and Photographer . His paintings are frequently Abstract , and often contain fragments of his poetry in them. His paintings have been featured in galleries worldwide. Several of his paintings appeared in '' A Perfect Murder ''. QUOTES
CD circa 2002]] EXTERNAL LINKS
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