Known for his prolific career portraying diverse roles in both mainstream and arthouse films, he is the recipient of various accolades , including nominations for four Academy Awards , a British Academy Film Award , and four Golden Globe Awards. He received an Honorary Golden Bear in Dafoe made his film debut with an uncredited role in Heaven's Gate He received Academy Award nominations for playing a compassionate army Sergeant in the war drama Platoon , Max Schreck in the mystery film Shadow of the Vampire , a kindly motel manager in the coming of age film The Florida Project , and Vincent van Gogh in the biopic At Eternity's Gate His other films credits include To Live and Die in L.
Dafoe was a founding member of experimental theater company The Wooster Group. He has also voiced roles in the animated films Finding Nemo , Fantastic Mr. Fox , and The Boy and the Heron William Alfred Dafoe β Following tensions between Schechner and other members after they started staging their own productions outside of the group, Schechner left and the remaining members including LeCompte and her ex-boyfriend Spalding Gray renamed themselves The Wooster Group.
Dafoe made his film debut in a supporting role in Michael Cimino 's epic Western film Heaven's Gate. Following a brief bit part in The Hunger , Dafoe again played the leader of a biker gang in Walter Hill 's action film Streets of Fire. Janet Maslin of The New York Times felt there were no great performances in the film, but praised Dafoe's "perfectly villainous" face. Route Dafoe's sole film release of was Oliver Stone 's Vietnam War film Platoon , gaining him his widest exposure up to that point for playing the compassionate Sergeant Elias Grodin.
You just frame them, give them circumstances, and that character will happen. The film was adapted from the novel of the same name and depicts his struggle with various forms of temptation throughout his life. Like the novel, the film sparked controversy for departing from the biblical portrayal of Jesus and was branded as being blasphemous. In his final release of , Dafoe starred opposite Gene Hackman in the crime thriller Mississippi Burning as a pair of FBI agents investigating the disappearance of three civil rights workers in fictional Jessup County, Mississippi during the civil rights movement.
Variety praised Dafoe's performance, writing, "Dafoe gives a disciplined and noteworthy portrayal of Ward", although they felt it was Hackman "who steals the picture". Dafoe played a paraplegic, wheelchair-using Vietnam veteran who befriends the film's subject Ron Kovic played by Tom Cruise , another paraplegic veteran.
