Having recently turned 80, the punctuation-averse former lion tamer is still going strong…
Singer-songwriter Courtney Barnet’s Pickles From The Jar is a wryly observed song about two people who are in a relationship but have very different ways of looking at the world. ‘We couldn’t be more contrary if we tried/Oh chalk and cheese, we rarely see eye to eye,’ she sings. But there’s one thing the couple agree on. ‘You love, I love, Christopher Walken/I guess at least we have got one thing in common.’
And let’s face it, when it comes to Christopher Walken there’s so much to love. There’s the pompadour hairstyle he’s sported since the Fifties after seeing Elvis Presley for the first time; his trained-dancer’s poise and grace; the way his face can switch from charming to chilling in a heartbeat; plus, of course, that voice. Walken has revealed he doesn’t pay any attention to the punctuation in scripts, giving free reign to the eccentric cadence he says is the result of him growing up in Queens, New York, with a German father and a Glaswegian mother. Also sprinkled into the mix is the fact that his parents ran a bakery and among the first voices he heard were those of customers who spoke English as a second language. ‘People who have to hesitate and think of the right word,’ he explained. ‘I think it rubbed off.’
The last couple of years have been bumper ones for Walken watchers. We’ve had the bizarre sight of him as an old-school huckster doing community service on the mean streets of Bristol in Stephen Merchant’s excellent BBC comedy-drama The Outlaws, as well as his turn on Apple TV+’s show-of-the-year contender Severance. And later this year, having recently turned 80, he will have a major role in Dune: Part Two on the big screen.
You can never have enough Christopher Walken. So enjoy this Walken Family Reunion sketch from a 2008 episode of Saturday Night Live…
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