John Malkovich

John Gavin Malkovich, born December 9, 1953, in Christopher, Illinois, is an American actor, producer, and director whose career spans stage, film, and television. He grew up in Benton, Illinois, where his father, Daniel Leon Malkovich, served as a state conservation director and published the conservation magazine Outdoor Illinois, and his mother, Joe Anne, owned the Benton Evening News and Outdoor Illinois. Malkovich has an older brother, Danny, and three younger sisters, Amanda, Rebecca, and Melissa. His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Croatia from the vicinity of Ozalj, and his other ancestry includes English, Scottish, French, and German descent. He attended Logan Grade School, Webster Junior High School, and Benton Consolidated High School, where he participated in plays and the musical Carousel and sang with a folk gospel group at churches and community events. After graduating in 1972, he enrolled at Eastern Illinois University before transferring to Illinois State University, where he majored in theater but did not complete his degree. He subsequently studied acting at the William Esper Studio.

Malkovich began his professional theater career in 1976 as a charter member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, founding the company alongside Joan Allen, Gary Sinise, and Glenne Headly. One of his earliest film appearances was as an extra in Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978), alongside Allen, Terry Kinney, George Wendt, and Laurie Metcalf. In 1980, he moved to New York City to perform in a Steppenwolf production of Sam Shepard's True West, directed by Sinise, earning an Obie Award for the role. In early 1982, he appeared in A Streetcar Named Desire with Chicago's Wisdom Bridge Theatre. He subsequently directed a Steppenwolf co-production of Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead in 1984, receiving a second Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award for that work.

Malkovich's Broadway career ran from 1984 to 1987. He made his Broadway debut as Biff in the revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman in 1984, appearing alongside Dustin Hoffman as Willy, and received a Theatre World Award in 1983 and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play in 1984. He also appeared on Broadway in George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man and starred in Lanford Wilson's Burn This in 1987. In 1986, he directed Harold Pinter's The Caretaker. When the Death of a Salesman production was adapted for television by CBS in 1985, Malkovich reprised his role and received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

His feature film debut came in 1984 as Sally Field's blind boarder Mr. Will in Places in the Heart, a performance that earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. That same year he portrayed Al Rockoff in Roland Joffé's The Killing Fields. In 1987, he appeared in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun as Basie and in the film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie as Tom Wingfield. He gained considerable critical recognition for his portrayal of Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), directed by Stephen Frears, and later reprised the role in Annie Lennox's music video for "Walking on Broken Glass." His second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor came for his performance as a disillusioned former CIA agent in Wolfgang Petersen's In the Line of Fire (1993). Additional film credits include The Killing Fields (1984), Of Mice and Men (1992), in which he played Lennie opposite Gary Sinise, Con Air (1997), Rounders (1998), Being John Malkovich (1999), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Ripley's Game (2002), in which he played Patricia Highsmith's antihero Tom Ripley, Johnny English (2003), Burn After Reading (2008), and Red (2010). He made his directorial film debut with The Dancer Upstairs in 2002. As a producer, his credits include Ghost World (2001), Juno (2007), and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012).

On television, beyond his Emmy-winning turn in Death of a Salesman, Malkovich received additional Emmy nominations for portraying Herman J. Mankiewicz in RKO 281 (1999) and Charles Talleyrand in Napoléon (2002). His other television appearances include Crossbones (2014), Billions (2018–19), The New Pope (2020), and Space Force (2020–2022). He has also hosted three episodes of Saturday Night Live, first in January 1989 with musical guest Anita Baker, again in October 1993 with musical guest Billy Joel, and a third time in December 2008 with musical guest T.I. with Swizz Beatz. Among his other accolades are nominations for two Actor Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.