Willem Dafoe

Born in Appleton, Wisconsin, on July 22, 1955, Dafoe started in experimental theater with The Wooster Group before slipping into film with an uncredited bit in Heaven's Gate (1980). His breakout came as the compassionate sergeant in Platoon (1986), the first of four Academy Award nominations that would also include Shadow of the Vampire (2000), The Florida Project (2017), and At Eternity's Gate (2018), where he played van Gogh. He became a founding collaborator for directors across every register - Ferrara, Lanthimos, Anderson, Eggers - and carved a second legacy as Norman Osborn in Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, a role he reprised two decades later in No Way Home (2021). Between the cape films came Antichrist, The Lighthouse, Poor Things, Nosferatu, and a voice turn as a clownfish in Finding Nemo. He collected a Volpi Cup and an Honorary Golden Bear along the way, never once repeating himself.