Biography and Wiki
Mortensen is an American actor, poet, musician, author, photographer, and painter. He is best known for his starring roles in films like The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Captain Fantastic. Born in Watertown, New York, Mortensen is of Danish and American descent. His father, Viggo P. Mortensen Sr., was a Danish farmer who later became an executive for the family farm company, while his mother, Grace Atkinson, was American. Mortensen's early life involved moving between the United States and Denmark, which influenced his cultural background and language skills.
| Occupation | Photographers |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 20 October 1958 |
| Age | 66 Years |
| Birth Place | Watertown, New York, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Libra |
| Country | U.S |
Height, Weight & Measurements
- Height: Viggo Mortensen is approximately 5 feet 11 inches (180 cm) tall.
- Weight: His weight is not publicly disclosed.
- Measurements: Specific body measurements are not widely available.
| Height | 5 feet 11 inches |
| Weight | |
| Body Measurements | |
| Eye Color | |
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Dating & Relationship Status
Mortensen has been married to Ariane Bourgeois since 2009. Prior to this, he was married to Exene Cervenka from 1987 to 1997.
Mortensen gained international attention for his breakthrough role as Aragorn in the fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003). He later starred in several David Cronenberg films including A History of Violence (2005), Eastern Promises (2007), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, and A Dangerous Method (2011). He gained further Academy Award nominations for his leading roles as an anarchist father in Captain Fantastic (2016) and as Tony Lip in Green Book (2018). Mortensen made his directorial debut with Falling (2020), in which he also starred.
(May 8, 1929 – March 2, 2017). His mother was American, while his father was Danish. They met in Norway. His maternal grandfather was a Canadian from Nova Scotia. His paternal grandmother was from Trondheim, Norway.
In 1961, the family moved to Venezuela, then Denmark, and eventually settled in Argentina. They lived successively in the provinces of Córdoba, Chaco, and Buenos Aires. Mortensen attended primary school and acquired a fluent proficiency in Spanish while his father managed poultry farms and ranches. He was baptized Lutheran, the tradition of his father, though he now identifies as an atheist.
When Mortensen was 11 and his brothers 8 and 6, their parents divorced. In 1969, the three boys returned with their mother to the United States, where Viggo spent the rest of his childhood in Northern New York State. He graduated from Watertown High School in 1976. He attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, earning a bachelor's degree in 1980 in Spanish studies and government.
Mortensen's 1987 performance in Bent at the Coast Playhouse, Los Angeles, won him a Dramalogue Critics' Award. The play, which revolves around homosexual prisoners in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany, was known for the leading performance by Ian McKellen, with whom Mortensen later costarred in the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings. The same year, Mortensen starred as Jerome Stample in the black comedy Salvation! alongside Exene Cervenka, and played Burke, a professional car thief in Prison. He also guest starred as a police detective on the hit TV series Miami Vice. In 1988, Mortensen played a minor part as Green, the abusive husband of Jewel (Molly Ringwald), in Fresh Horses. The following year, Mortensen appeared in a minor role as Hans in Tripwire.
Mortensen made three film appearances in 1990: Edward "Tex" Sawyer, a member of a cannibalistic family in Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, John W. Poe in Young Guns II, and Cameron Dove, a military veteran suffering from radiation poisoning in The Reflecting Skin. The Reflecting Skin was Mortensen's first film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The following year, Mortensen starred as Frank Roberts in Sean Penn's directorial debut The Indian Runner. Sandy Dennis, who played Frank Roberts's mother in the film and was a personal friend of Mortensen, was dying of ovarian cancer during filming. Mortensen described the filming experience as having an "undercurrent of loss," and wrote the poem "For Sandy Dennis" in her honor.
After two years, Mortensen returned to theater in 2011, starring in Ariel Dorfman's Purgatorio ("Purgatory") in Madrid. Purgatorio is Mortensen's first play in Spanish. The play is about a man and woman confined either in a psychiatric hospital or prison together. During production, Mortensen's mother became ill and he pulled out of the initial premiere date, the first time he had ever done so for a project. The play premiered from November 4 to December 18.
Mortensen starred in the 2016 film Captain Fantastic, for which he received his second Academy Award nomination. Alonso Duralde of TheWrap praised Mortensen's performance, saying, "The movie really belongs to Mortensen, who allows Ben to be exasperating, arrogant, and impatient but also warm, loving, and caring. He's a tough but adoring father, a grieving widower and a passionate defender of his wife's final wishes, and Mortensen plays all these notes, and more with subtlety and grace".
In 2020, Mortensen released his directorial debut Falling, which he also wrote, produced, composed the score for and starred in alongside Lance Henriksen at the Sundance Film Festival. Mortensen had based the story on his own family's history, including his parents suffering from dementia. The film is dedicated to his brothers, Charles and Walter Mortensen.
Mortensen met singer Exene Cervenka in 1986 on the set of the comedy Salvation! The couple married on July 8, 1987. On January 28, 1988, Cervenka gave birth to their son, Henry, who later played his on-screen son in the film Crimson Tide in 1995. Henry graduated from Columbia University in 2010 with a B.A. in archaeology and has been working at Perceval Press, which was founded by his father. Mortensen and Cervenka lived in Idaho for three years. They separated in 1992 and divorced in 1997. Since 2009, he has been in a relationship with Spanish actress Ariadna Gil. Though the couple reside in Madrid, Mortensen spends much of his time in the United States, and has stated, "I am a citizen and longtime resident of the United States and am attached to its landscapes, history, and people." He has owned property in Sandpoint, Idaho, and spends time there when not filming movies.
Mortensen has talked about his family's struggles with dementia, seeing both of his parents, three of his four grandparents, aunts, uncles, and his stepfather battle the condition. In 2016, Mortensen traveled to New York to take care of his father, who died a year later. Two years earlier, Mortensen's mother had also died from complications of the condition.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Exene Cervenka (m. 1987-1997) |
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Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Viggo Mortensen's net worth is estimated to be about $40 million. His income primarily comes from his acting career, with notable roles contributing significantly to his earnings. For example, for his role in Hidalgo (2004), he reportedly earned a salary of $2 million.
With part of his earnings from The Lord of the Rings, Mortensen founded the Perceval Press publishing house—named after the knight from the legend of King Arthur—to help other artists by publishing works that might not find a home in more traditional publishing venues. Perceval Press is also the home of Mortensen's many personal artistic projects in the area of fine arts, photography, poetry, song, and literature.
Business and Investments
Mortensen is involved in a variety of creative ventures beyond acting. He is a poet, musician, and author, and he has published several books of poetry. Additionally, he is a photographer and painter. He has also been involved in film production, both as a producer and director.
After graduating, Mortensen moved to Europe and lived in the United Kingdom and Spain before returning to Denmark. There he took various jobs such as driving trucks in Esbjerg and selling flowers in Copenhagen. In 1982, he returned to the United States to pursue an acting career.
His first onscreen appearance was playing an Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness. He was cast because the director thought he had the right face for the part. Although he was simultaneously cast as a soldier in Shakespeare in the Park's production of Henry V, he chose to work on Witness instead, citing a desire to try something new. Mortensen credited that decision and the positive experience on the film as the start of his film career. Also in 1985, he was cast in the role of Bragg on the TV series Search for Tomorrow.
In 1992, Mortensen starred in Ruby Cairo alongside Liam Neeson and Andie MacDowell. Although Ruby Cairo was Mortensen's highest-budget film at this point in his career, it was a commercial failure, bringing in only 608,000 on its 24 million dollar budget. The next year, the film was recut and given the title Deception. Several scenes were reshot for Deception, including a sex scene between Mortensen and MacDowell, which was removed and replaced with a less intimate dialogue on a balcony.
Mortensen starred in David Cronenberg's 2005 film A History of Violence as a family man revealed to have had an unsavory previous career. He was nominated for a Satellite Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for this role. In the DVD extras for A History of Violence, Cronenberg related that Mortensen is the only actor he had come across who would come back from weekends with his family with items he had bought to use as props on the set.
During the press tour for Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, which occurred between the September 11 attacks and the Second Gulf War, Mortensen appeared in an interview wearing a t-shirt on which he had written, "No More Blood for Oil." In 2009, Mortensen signed a protest stating that the Toronto International Film Festival's "Spotlight on Tel Aviv" program implicitly condoned the Israeli occupation and marginalization of Palestinians. In 2015 he donated $1,000 to Irish political party Sinn Fein.
Mortensen has received numerous accolades throughout his career. His portrayal of Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings trilogy earned him nominations for the SAG Award for Outstanding Cast, winning for the final installment The Return of the King (2003).
Social Network
Viggo Mortensen is not very active on mainstream social media platforms. However, he is known to be involved in various cultural and artistic projects, which might be shared through his personal or professional networks.
In 2004, Mortensen starred as Frank Hopkins in Hidalgo, the story of an ex-army courier who travels to Arabia to compete with his horse, Hidalgo, in a dangerous desert race for a contest prize.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, Mortensen along with fellow Lord of the Rings actors Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban, Elijah Wood, writer Philippa Boyens, and director Peter Jackson joined actor Josh Gad's YouTube series Reunited Apart, which reunites the cast of popular movies through video-conferencing, and promotes donations to non-profit charities.
Education
Mortensen attended St. Lawrence University in New York, where he studied government and Spanish literature. He graduated in 1980.
With a budget of $50 million, G.I Jane (1997) was Mortensen's biggest budget film appearance prior to his role in Lord of the Rings. Although the film earned his co-star, Demi Moore, a Golden Raspberry Award for her role, Mortensen's performance as Command Master Chief John James 'Jack' Urgayle was favorably received.
Conclusion
Viggo Mortensen's wealth and career success are a testament to his versatility as an artist and his dedication to his craft. Beyond his acting achievements, he has explored multiple creative fields, contributing to his enduring presence in the entertainment industry.
