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William "Willem" Dafoe Jr. (born July 22 , 1955 ) is a versatile, award-winning American actor. He is a founding member of the Experimental Theatre company The Wooster Group . BIOGRAPHY Born in Appleton, Wisconsin , the seventh of eight children, he acquired the nickname "Willem" in childhood. After graduating from Appleton East High School , he studied Drama at the University Of Wisconsin , but left before graduation in order to join the newly formed avant-garde group Theatre X . After touring with Theatre X for four years in the United States and Europe , he moved to New York City and joined The Performance Group , where he met director Elizabeth LeCompte . LeCompte and Dafoe left the Performance Group together became professional collaborators, and began a relationship. Their son, Jack, was born in 1982 . Dafoe married Italian actress Giada Colagrande on March 25 , 2005 . CAREER Dafoe's film career began in 1981 , when he was cast in '' Heaven's Gate '', but his role was removed from the film during editing. A year later he starred as the leader of a Motorcycle Gang in '' The Loveless '', but his first breakthrough film role was as the compassionate Sergeant Elias in '' Platoon '' ( 1986 ). He has since become a popular Character Actor ; due to his harsh facial features, he is often typecast as unstable or villainous characters, most recently the Green Goblin in the '' Spider-Man '' movies. He also played Jesus in '' The Last Temptation Of Christ '' ( 1988 ), which moved Sergio Leone to exclaim, "This is the face of a murderer, not of Our Lord!" He once remarked "To this day, I can't believe I was so brazen to think I could pull off the Jesus role," though Dafoe received acclaim despite the controversy surrounding the film. Twice he has played peculiar detectives, once in '' The Boondock Saints '' ( 1999 ), and again in '' American Psycho '' ( 2000 ). He was nominated for the Academy Award For Best Supporting Actor in 1986 for '' Platoon '' and 2000 for '' Shadow Of The Vampire ''. After ''Spider-Man'', Dafoe had a rare opportunity to play a heroic film role when he provided the voice of Gill in the animated movie '' Finding Nemo ''. He worked briefly as a Model in a 1990 Prada campaign. In 2004 , Dafoe lent his likeness and voice for the highly successful James Bond Video Game '' Everything Or Nothing '' as villain Nikolai Diavolo. FILMOGRAPHY
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