Viggo is the eldest son of Grace and Viggo P. Mortensen. His father, who farmed in Denmark, met his mother, a New Yorker, in Norway. They wed and moved to New York where Viggo Jr. was born, before moving to South America where Viggo Sr. managed chicken farms and ranches in Venezuela and Argentina. Two more sons were born, Charles and Walter, before the marriage grew increasingly unhappy. When Viggo was seven, his parents sent him to a a strict boarding school, isolated in the foothills of the mountains of Argentina. Then, at age eleven, his parents divorced. His mother moved herself and the children back to her home state of New York. Viggo attended Watertown High School and became a very good student and athlete. He graduated in 1976 and went on to St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. After graduation, he moved to Denmark - driven by the need for a defining purpose in life. He began writing poetry and short stories while working many odd jobs, from dock worker to flower seller. But, in 1982, he fell in love and followed his girlfriend back to New York City, hoping for a long romance and a writing career. He got neither.

In New York, Viggo found work waiting tables and bar tending and began taking acting classes. Three years later, he made his film debut with a small part in Witness. Moving to Los Angeles in 1987, he appeared in Salvation! and married his co-star, Exene Cervenka. The two had a son, Henry Mortensen. But after ten years of marriage, the couple divorced. In 1999, Viggo got a phone call about a movie he didn't know anything about: The Lord of the Rings. At first, he didn't want to do it, because it would mean time away from his son. But Henry, a big fan of the books, told his father he shouldn't turn down the role. Viggo accepted the part and immediately began work on the project, which was already underway. Eventually, the success of Lord of the Rings made him a household name - a difficult consequence for the ever private and introspective Viggo.


Hidalgo (2004): $2,000,000

He is the ex-husband of Exene Cervenka, the singer of the punk band X. Speaks fluent English, Spanish, Danish, and French, but he also speaks Swedish and Norwegian reasonably well. He actually painted the large murals in his artist's studio in the film A Perfect Murder (1998). Has been photographing for years, recently debuted with an exhibition at the Robert Mann Gallery in NYC. -- American Photo, July/August 2000. Is also a jazz musician - he has released three CDs so far. Broke a tooth while filming a fight sequence for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002); he asked the crew if they would glue it back on so he could finish the scene. Got so into his character of Aragorn that director Peter Jackson once addressed him as Aragorn for over half an hour, and Mortensen didn't even realize it. Has two younger brothers, Walter and Charles. They are both geologists. An accomplished horseman in his spare time, Mortensen requested that his "Rings" character Aragorn be given more saddle time than was originally scripted. He also kept his on-screen horse nearby during the entire principal photography schedule in order to ride in his off-hours and strengthen his relationship with the horse. Broke two toes during the filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), in the scene where he kicks an Orc helmet. In 2003 he visited Denmark and had a booksigning, an art exhibition opening and The Lord of The Rings premiere. Was in remakes of two Alfred Hitchcock films in the same year: A Perfect Murder (1998) - a remake of Dial M for Murder (1954) - and Psycho (1998). It is well-known that his father is Danish and his mother American, but also his grandmother was from Trondheim, Norway. While filming "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy in New Zealand, he would go surfing with the other actors in their spare time. One day he suffered an accident which left a bruise on the right side of his face. As a result, director Peter Jackson had to shoot only the left side of his face in the entire Moria sequence. Ranked #10 on VH1's Hottest Hotties. Is one of four "Lord of the Rings" stars to star, pre-"Rings," with Harrison Ford. He starred with Ford in Witness (1985). Ford starred with John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Sean Bean (Boromir) in Patriot Games (1992) and Miranda Otto (Eowyn) in What Lies Beneath (2000). He became good friends with the close-knit stunt men on the "Lord of the Rings" films, but they were wary of doing fight scenes with him because, carried away with the intensity of his character Aragorn, he would frequently "really go at them" and leave the other combatants in bruises. Massive actor Lawrence Makoare, playing Lurtz under heaps of make-up which restricted his vision, also got carried away during their fight scene at the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and, for once, Mortensen was left more bruised than the other actor. Although their divorce only became final in 1998, he and his former wife, Exene Cervenka, separated in late 1990/early 1991 after less than 3 years of marriage but remain close friends often working together and co-parenting their son. After his parents divorced when he was eleven, he moved to new York with his mother and two younger brothers. Is a big fan of the New York Mets and the Montreal Canadiens. When filming A History of Violence (2005), he showed up on the Toronto set wearing a Canadiens' jersey. Voted #14 in Elle (France) Magazine's "15 Sexiest Men" poll (June 2007). Choosen by Empire Magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Movie Stars in the world (#69) 2007. Filmed scenes for The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), but they were all cut out. In Eastern Promises (2007) his Russian/Ukrainian dialect coach was Olegar Fedoro. A skilled horseman, he did all his own stunts in Hidalgo (2004), including a breakneck bareback ride that even the stuntman couldn't handle. Wore a Montreal Canadiens jersey under his costume during the filming of The Lord of the Rings films. Replaced Christoph Waltz in the role of Sigmund Freud in A Dangerous Method (2011) after Waltz backed out of the project in order to film Water for Elephants (2011).