Willem Dafoe
William James "Willem" Dafoe (/dəˈfoʊ/ də-FOH; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. Known for his prolific career portraying diverse roles in both mainstream and arthouse films, he is the recipient of various accolades, including a Volpi Cup Award for Best Actor, with... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
Antichrist
2009
The Phoenician Scheme
Wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda appoints his only daughter, a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins.
The Legend of Ochi
In a remote village on the island of Carpathia, a shy farm girl named Yuri is raised to fear an elusive animal species known as ochi. But when Yuri discovers a wounded baby ochi has been left behind, she escapes on a quest to bring him home.
Saturday Night
At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. This is the story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live.
Nosferatu
A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.
Kinds of Kindness
A triptych fable following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
After a family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Betelgeuse, Lydia's life is turned upside down when her teenage daughter, Astrid, accidentally opens the portal to the Afterlife.
Poor Things
Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a debauched lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
Inside
An art thief becomes trapped in a New York penthouse after his heist goes awry. Imprisoned with nothing but priceless works of art, he must use all his cunning and invention to survive.
Asteroid City
In an American desert town circa 1955, the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.
The Northman
Prince Amleth is on the verge of becoming a man when his father is brutally murdered by his uncle, who kidnaps the boy's mother. Two decades later, Amleth is now a Viking who's on a mission to save his mother, kill his uncle and avenge his father.
Lynch/Oz
Victor Fleming’s 1939 film The Wizard of Oz is one of David Lynch’s most enduring obsessions. This documentary goes over the rainbow to explore this Technicolor through-line in Lynch’s work.
Zack Snyder's Justice League
Determined to ensure Superman's ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne aligns forces with Diana Prince with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions.
The French Dispatch
The quirky staff of an American magazine based in 1970s France puts out its last issue, with stories featuring an artist sentenced to life imprisonment, student riots, and a kidnapping resolved by a chef.
The Card Counter
William Tell just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk, a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel. Tell sees a chance at redemption through his relationship with Cirk.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Peter Parker is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a super-hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.
Nightmare Alley
An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychiatrist who is even more dangerous than he is.
Togo
The untold true story set in the winter of 1925 that takes you across the treacherous terrain of the Alaskan tundra for an exhilarating and uplifting adventure that will test the strength, courage and determination of one man, Leonhard Seppala, and his lead sled dog, Togo.
The Lighthouse
Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
Siberia
Clint is a dead man who lives alone in a frozen tundra. However, this isolation cannot bring either evasion or peace. One night, he begins a journey where he must confront his dreams, memories, and visions, crossing the darkness into the light.
Motherless Brooklyn
New York City, 1957. Lionel Essrog, a private detective living with Tourette syndrome, tries to solve the murder of his mentor and best friend, armed only with vague clues and the strength of his obsessive mind…
Manou the Swift
The little swift Manou grows up believing he's a seagull. Learning to fly he finds out he never will be. Shocked, he runs away from home. He meets birds of his own species and finds out who he really is. When both seagulls and swifts face a dangerous threat, Manou becomes the hero of the day.
Love, Antosha
From a prolific career in film and television, Anton Yelchin left an indelible legacy as an actor. Through his journals and other writings, his photography, the original music he wrote, and interviews with his family, friends, and colleagues, this film looks not just at Anton's impressive career, but at a broader portrait of the man.
Vox Lux
In 1999, teenage sisters Celeste and Eleanor survive a seismic, violent tragedy. The sisters compose and perform a song about their experience, making something lovely and cathartic out of catastrophe — while also catapulting Celeste to stardom.
The House That Jack Built
Failed architect, engineer and vicious murderer Jack narrates the details of some of his most elaborately orchestrated crimes, each of them a towering piece of art that defines his life's work as a serial killer for twelve years.
Friedkin Uncut
In this documentary, the hotshot director of The Exorcist (1973) and The French Connection (1971), now 83 years old, is interviewed about his career, and a number of his colleagues and admirers weigh in with reminiscences and tributes.
At Eternity's Gate
Famed but tormented artist Vincent van Gogh spends his final years in Arles, France, painting masterworks of the natural world that surrounds him.
Aquaman
Once home to the most advanced civilization on Earth, Atlantis is now an underwater kingdom ruled by the power-hungry King Orm. With a vast army at his disposal, Orm plans to conquer the remaining oceanic people and then the surface world. Standing in his way is Arthur Curry, Orm's half-human, half-Atlantean brother and true heir to the throne.
What Happened to Monday
In a world where families are limited to one child due to overpopulation, a set of identical septuplets must avoid being put to a long sleep by the government and dangerous infighting while investigating the disappearance of one of their own.
The Florida Project
The story of a precocious six year-old and her ragtag group of friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense of adventure while the adults around them struggle with hard times.
Murder on the Orient Express
Genius Belgian detective Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of an American tycoon aboard the Orient Express train.
Mountain
An epic cinematic and musical collaboration between Sherpa filmmaker Jennifer Peedom and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, that explores humankind's fascination with high places. Narrated by Willem Dafoe.
The Great Wall
The story of an elite force making a last stand for humanity on the world’s most iconic structure.
Finding Dory
"Finding Dory" reunites Dory with friends Nemo and Marlin on a search for answers about her past. What can she remember? Who are her parents? And where did she learn to speak Whale?
Dog Eat Dog
Carved from a lifetime of experience that runs the gamut from incarceration to liberation, Dog Eat Dog is the story of three men who are all out of prison and now have the task of adapting themselves to civilian life.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
A writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.
The Fault in Our Stars
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a patient named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.
John Wick
John Wick is a former hitman grieving the loss of his true love. When his home is broken into, robbed, and his dog killed, he is forced to return to action to exact revenge.
Bad Country
When Baton Rouge police detective Bud Carter busts contract killer Jesse Weiland, he convinces Jesse to become an informant and rat out the South's most powerful crime ring.
A Most Wanted Man
A Chechen Muslim illegally immigrates to Hamburg, where he gets caught in the international war on terror.
Out of the Furnace
Two brothers live in the economically-depressed Rust Belt, when a cruel twist of fate lands one in prison. His brother is then lured into one of the most violent crime rings in the Northeast.
Odd Thomas
In a California desert town, a short-order cook with clairvoyant abilities encounters a mysterious man with a link to dark, threatening forces.
Nymphomaniac: Vol. II
The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adult life and what led to her being in Seligman's care.
Nymphomaniac: Vol. I
A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating.
John Carter
Civil War vet John Carter is transplanted to Mars, where he discovers a lush, wildly diverse planet whose main inhabitants are 12-foot tall green barbarians. Finding himself a prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, who is in desperate need of a savior.
The Hunter
Martin, a mercenary, is sent from Europe by an anonymous biotech company to the Tasmanian wilderness on a hunt for the last Tasmanian tiger.
4:44 Last Day on Earth
A look at how a painter and a successful actor spend their last day together before the world comes to an end.
Miral
A drama centered on an orphaned Palestinian girl growing up in the wake of the first Arab-Israeli war who finds herself drawn into the conflict.
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
For the last 8 years the brothers have been living with their father on a sheep farm deep in isolated Ireland. One day their uncle tells them that they have been framed for the murder of a Bostonian Catholic priest. The boys must return to Boston to not only clear their names but find the men who framed them.
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
Inspired by a true crime, a man begins to experience mystifying events that lead him to slay his mother with a sword.
L'affaire Farewell
The French intelligence service alerts the U.S. about a Soviet spy operation during the height of the Cold War, which sets off an unfortunate chain of events.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Fantastic Mr. Fox bored with his current life, plans a heist against the three local farmers. The farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with the sly fox, seek revenge against him and his family.
Daybreakers
Two-time Academy Award nominee® Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a researcher in the year 2019, in which an unknown plague has transformed the world’s population into vampires. As the human population nears extinction, vampires must capture and farm every remaining human, or find a blood substitute before time runs out.
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
Darren Shan is a regular teenage kid. He and his friend Steve find out about a Freak Show coming to town and work hard at trying to find tickets. They do, and together they go to "Cirque du Freak" where they see many strange acts including a wolf-man and a bearded lady
Antichrist
A grieving couple retreats to their cabin 'Eden' in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.
Fireflies in the Garden
The semi-autobiographical story centers on the complexities of love and commitment in a family torn apart when faced by an unexpected tragedy.
Adam Resurrected
After again attempting to commit murder, a Jewish man with a mysterious past and extraordinary intelligence, charisma, and body control returns to an insane asylum, where he makes a startling discovery.
The Walker
An escort who caters to Washington D.C.'s society ladies becomes involved in a murder case.
Spider-Man 3
In the third film from the Spider-man trilogy Peter Parker has finally decides to reconcile his love for Mary Jane and his job as a superhero. Yet dark clouds are on the horizon for Spider-man and they are not only from villans Sandman and Venom but from within. Spider-man must face a new evil.
Mr. Bean's Holiday
Mr. Bean wins a trip to Cannes where he unwittingly separates a young boy from his father and must help the two come back together. On the way he discovers France, bicycling, and true love, among other things
Go Go Tales
A screwball comedy centered on a Manhattan go-go dancing club, where a financial struggle between the owner, his accountant and his silent partner brother threatens the business's future.
Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence
A collective film of 33 shorts directed by different directors about their feeling about Cinema.
Anamorph
A psychological thriller based on the concept of anamorphosis, a painting technique that manipulates the laws of perspective to create two competing images on a single canvas.
Paris, je t'aime
Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life.
Inside Man
"Inside Man" is the story of a tough cop, Detective Frazier, who matches wits with a clever bank robber. As the dangerous cat-and-mouse game unfolds, a wild card emerges: Madaline, a power broker with a hidden agenda, who injects even more instability into an already volatile situation.
Gedo senki
From Goro Miyazaki, the son of Oscar-winning Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, comes a story of wizards, dragons, princes and witches. Based on Ursula K. Le Guin's "Earthsea" series.
American Dreamz
The new season of "American Dreamz," the wildly popular television singing contest, has captured the country's attention, as the competition looks to be between a young Midwestern gal and a showtunes-loving young man from Orange County.
xXx: State of the Union
Ice Cube stars as Darius Stone, a thrill-seeking troublemaker whose criminal record and extreme sports obsession make him the perfect candidate to be the newest XXX agent. He must save the U.S. government from a deadly conspiracy led by five-star general and Secretary of Defense George Deckert (played by Willem Dafoe).
Ripley Under Ground
Professional swindler hides the death of a famous artist in order to earn money by selling pictures on his own behalf.
Manderlay
In 1933, a young woman and her father discover an Alabama plantation whose inhabitants live as if slavery had never been abolished. Feeling a sense of duty to those behind the heavy gates, she stays to liberate the people and see them through their first harvest.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Wes Anderson’s incisive quirky comedy build up stars complex characters like in ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ with Bill Murray on in the leading role. An ocean adventure documentary film maker Zissou is put in all imaginable life situations and a tough life crisis as he attempts to make a new film about capturing the creature that caused him pain.
The Clearing
As an executive is held captive by an employee, it's up to his wife to deliver the ransom.
The Aviator
Young Hughes directs one of Scorsese's favorite films, Hell's Angels. Hughes was so obsessed with perfection in the aerial sequences that he waits forever for perfect conditions, right down to cloud formations. The Aviator ends in 1946, when Hughes was still a dashing young man and romancing actresses like Ava Gardner and Katharine Hepburn.
Spider-Man 2
Spider-man is in a slump. His superhero career is affecting his everyday life and he decides he’s had enough and puts away his costume. Yet his urge to serve and protect comes back as Dr. Octopus is causing panic in New York City and Spider-Man must return to protect the people he loves.
Control
Lee Ray Oliver, a death row inmate, is given a second chance at life if he agrees to undergo a new chemical treatment used to modify behavior.
The Reckoning
In 14th Century England, this tale of murder and mystery follows a fugitive priest who falls in with a troupe of actors. As they arrive in a small town, the actors encounter a woman being sentenced to death for practicing witchcraft and murder. Discarding the expected bible stories, the actors now stage a performance based on the crime.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Hitman "El Mariachi" becomes involved in international espionage involving a psychotic CIA agent and a corrupt Mexican general.
Finding Nemo
A father-son underwater adventure featuring Nemo, a boy clownfish, captured from his coral reef home. His timid father must venture into the deep ocean and travel to Sydney, Australia to rescue him.
Spider-Man
The first Spider-Man movie from a series by Director Sam Raimi telling the story of how a nerdy high school student turns into a wall climbing muscle packed super human and the beginning of his new hobby/career of stopping crime. Also in this film is the creation of Spiderman’s villain Green Goblin.
Auto Focus
The story of Bob Crane, best know for his role as Hogan on the tv show Hogan's Heroes and his secret life of swinging and his eventual murder.
Pavilion of Women
With World War 2 looming, a prominent family in China must confront the contrasting ideas of traditionalism, communism and Western thinking, while dealing with the most important ideal of all: love and its meaning in society.
Shadow of the Vampire
Director F.W. Murnau (John Malkovich) makes a Faustian pact with a vampire (Willem Dafoe) to get him to star in his 1922 film ``Nosferatu.''
Animal Factory
A young man goes to prison and a tough, older convict takes him under his wing as a mentor.
American Psycho
A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.
eXistenZ
A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.
The Boondock Saints
Fraternal twins set out to rid Boston of the evil men operating there while being tracked down by an FBI agent.
New Rose Hotel
A corporate raider and his henchman use a chanteuse to lure a scientific genius away from his employer and family.
Lulu on the Bridge
This film is about a famous jazz saxophonist, Izzy who's life is forever changed after he is accidentally shot.
Speed 2: Cruise Control
Sandra Bullock and Jason Patric star as a young couple whose dream cruise turns to terror when a lunatic computer genius (Willem Dafoe) sets a new course for destruction.
Affliction
A small town policeman must investigate a suspicious hunting accident. The investigation and other events result in him slowly disintegrating mentally.
The English Patient
The filmed version of the novel by Michael Ondaatje of the same name. This film tells of love stories during the turbulent times of World War 2. Director Anthony Minghella films the biography of Ladislaus Almasy.
Basquiat
Director Julian Schnabel illustrates the portrait of the his friend, the first Afro-American Pop Art artist Jean Michel Basquiat who unfortunately died at a young age and just as he was beginning to make a name for himself in the art world. Along side the biography of Basquiat are the artists and the art scene from the early 1980’s New York.
Tom & Viv
The story of the marriage of the poet TS Eliot to socialite Vivienne Haigh-Wood, which had to cope with her gynaeological and emotional problems and his growing fame.
Riget
The series is set in the neurosurgical ward of Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet, the city and country's main hospital, nicknamed "Riget". "Riget" means "the realm" or "the kingdom" and leads one to think of "dødsriget", the realm of the dead.
Clear and Present Danger
CIA analyst Jack Ryan investigates a murdered businessman tied to Colombian cartels, uncovering a widening crisis where political pressure, criminal power, and national security interests collide.
In weiter Ferne, so nah!
A group of angels look longingly upon the life of humans. Berlin now is a very different place: unified in name but overrun with crime, corruption, and—in what turns out to be a key theme here—Americans.
Body of Evidence
When an elderly millionaire is found dead with cocaine in his system, his will leaves $8 million to Rebecca Carlson, who was having an affair with him. District attorney Robert Garrett decides to prosecute Rebecca, arguing that she deliberately engaged in wild sex with the old man to overexcite him and lead to his premature death.
White Sands
A sheriff in a small southwestern town discovers a corpse in the desert with a suitcase containing $500,000. He assumes the dead man's identity and inadvertently becomes involved in an FBI investigation.
Light Sleeper
John LeTour is a recovering drug user who suffers insomnia and still deals to a high-end New York clientele, even though he’s trying to move on from the business. John’s professional midlife crisis becomes something more acute — and dangerous — when he re-encounters an old flame while a string of seemingly drug-related murders rocks the city.
Flight of the Intruder
After his bombardier is killed, Jake Grafton, a carrier-based Intruder pilot, questions the purpose of Navy bombing missions...
Wild at Heart
Based on the Barry Gifford's novel, Wild at Heart is a road movie cataloging the misadventures of ex-con Sailor and his girlfriend Lula as they head to California.
Cry-Baby
A prim and proper schoolgirl goes against her society grandmother's wishes when she dates a motorcycle-riding juvenile delinquent.
Triumph of the Spirit
Fact based story about a former Greek Olympic boxer who was taken as a prisoner during World war II and placed in the Auschwitz prison camp. There he was permitted to survive as long as he fought for the amusement of his captors. His father and brother were also held as insurance that he would continue to fight.
Born on the Fourth of July
The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.
The Last Temptation of Christ
Jesus, a humble Judean carpenter beginning to see that he is the son of God, is drawn into revolutionary action against the Roman occupiers by Judas -- despite his protestations that love, not violence, is the path to salvation. The burden of being the savior of mankind torments Jesus throughout his life, leading him to doubt.
Off Limits
McGriff and Albaby are probably doing the worst law enforcement job in the world - they are plain clothes U.S. military policemen on duty in war-time Saigon. However, their job becomes even harder when they start investigating the serial killings of local prostitutes. Their prime suspect is high ranking U.S.
Mississippi Burning
Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white. The younger agent trained in FBI school runs up against the small town ways of his former Sheriff partner.
Location Production Footage: The Last Temptation of Christ
Behind the scenes of 'The Last Temptation of the Christ'
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam
Real-life letters written by American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines during the Vietnam War to their families and friends back home. Archive footage of the war and news coverage thereof augment the first-person "narrative" by men and women who were in the war, some of whom did not survive it.
Platoon
Platoon is a war film by Oliver Stone that is set during the Vietnam War and tells the story of young teenage soldier named Chris as he develops into a man.
To Live and Die in L.A.
A Secret Service agent becomes obsessed with catching a ruthless counterfeiter.
Streets of Fire
A successful rock and roll singer (Ellen Aim) is kidnapped by a motorcycle gang. Her ex-boyfriend returns to the town. He's hired by her manager and boyfriend to rescue Ellen.
The Hunger
Five-thousand-year-old vampire Miriam promises her lovers the gift of eternal life. When John, her cellist companion for centuries, discovers that he has suddenly begun growing old, he attempts to seek out the help of Dr. Sarah Roberts, a researcher on the mechanisms of aging.
The Loveless
Trouble ensues when a motorcycle gang stops in a small southern town while heading to the races at Daytona
Heaven's Gate
Harvard graduate James Averill serves as the sheriff of prosperous Jackson County, Wyoming, standing at the center of a conflict between impoverished immigrants and affluent cattle farmers.