Christopher Walken's Real Name: Ronald Walken

Quick answer: Christopher Walken was born Ronald Walken on March 31, 1943, in Queens, New York. He started acting as a child as Ronnie Walken and adopted the first name Christopher in 1964. He won an Academy Award for The Deer Hunter (1978) and is known for intense, offbeat roles in films from Annie Hall to Pulp Fiction (Britannica; Library of Congress).

Real name and early life

Britannica gives his original name as Ronald Walken and his birthplace as Queens. The Library of Congress name authority files him as "Walken, Christopher, 1943-," with variants "Walken, Ronald," "Walken, Ronnie," and "Walken, Chris." One LOC citation reads "born Ronald Walken on March 31, 1943 in Queens, N.Y.; alternate names, Chris Walken, Ronnie Walken." Another cites a theater program from a Shady Grove Music Fair performance that credits him as Ronald Walken.

According to Britannica, Walken took dancing lessons as a young child and auditioned for the many bit parts open to children in live television dramas. He attended the Professional Children's School in New York, a school for child performers. That dance training became a signature of his later screen career.

Career highlights

Britannica says Walken began his professional stage career "under the name of Ronnie Walken in 1959" in Archibald MacLeish's J.B. He went on to a 1963 revival of Best Foot Forward and 1966 productions of Measure for Measure, The Rose Tattoo, and The Lion in Winter. "He adopted his stage name in 1964," Britannica notes.

His commercial film debut came in Sidney Lumet's heist film The Anderson Tapes (1971). He drew notice as Diane Keaton's character's unsettling brother in Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977). He then played Nick, a steelworker shattered by the Vietnam War, in Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978), winning the Academy Award for best supporting actor.

He went on to appear in a remarkable number of films. These include The Dead Zone (1983), the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985), King of New York (1990), Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992), True Romance (1993), and Pulp Fiction (1994). He showed off his dancing in Pennies from Heaven (1981) and, in 2001, in Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" music video. His later work includes Catch Me If You Can (2002), which brought him a BAFTA, Wedding Crashers (2005), and the Apple TV+ series Severance. Britannica notes he has been married to Georgianne Walken since 1969.

Name notes for searchers

Ronald is his birth name, and Ronnie was his childhood professional name. He changed his first name to Christopher in 1964; Walken is his family surname. Credits and catalogs may also show "Chris Walken." The occasional misspelling "Christoper" also turns up in library records.