Willem Dafoe has a loving family with his wife Giada Colagrande and son Jack Dafoe. Willem Dafoe was previously linked with director Elizabeth LeCompte.
Willem is an American actor who was born on 22 July 1955 in Appleton, Wisconsin, U.S. He has received various awards including four Academy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, Volpi Cup for Best Actor, and three Golden Globe Awards.
The actor started his film career in 1979 when he was cast in a supporting role in the film Heaven’s Gate. He made his first leading role in the film The Loveless of 1982. He was an early member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group where he made his film debut in Heaven’s Gate but was fired during production.
Dafoe received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the film Platoon. Other Oscar-nominated films consist of The Florida Project, Shadow of the Vampire, and At Eternity’s Gate.
Some of his other films are American Psycho, The English Patient, Antichrist, Murder on the Orient Express, The French Dispatch, Nightmare Alley, The Northman, Out of The Furnace, and others.
Moving toward his education, after he attended Appleton East High School, he then studied drama at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee but left after a year and a half to join the experimental theater company in Wisconsin.
Willem Dafoe Wife
Willem Dafoe wife Giada Colagrande is an Italian film director and actress. Willem and Giada have been married since 2005.
Willem Dafoe and Dafoe Giada Colagrande
Willem Dafoe wife Giada Colagrande exchanged vows on March 25, 2005. They got married one year after they met.
Giada is an Italian film director and actress who was born on 16 October 1975 in Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy. In 2001, she wrote, directed, and starred in her first film Aprimi il Cuore which means Open My Heart. The movie debuted at the Venice Film Festival in 2002.
In 2005 she directed her second feature Before it Had a Name, which she co-wrote and co-starred with her husband.
She made The Woman Dress and completed the feature-length film titled Bob Wilson’s Life and Death of Marina Abramovic in 2012.
Likewise, in 2016 she wrote, directed, and performed in PADRE, presenting Willem Dafoe, Marina Abramovic, and Franco Battiato.
As an actress, she has also performed in the movie 2014 named Pasolini.
Willem Dafoe Giada Colagrande had met each other on the set of Wes Anderson’s film titled The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. William asked Giada to marry him over lunch. The following morning, the duo exchanged vows with their two friends as a witness.
Willem Dafoe and Elizabeth LeCompte
Willem Dafoe Elizabeth LeCompte had a relationship in 1977. Willem and Elizabeth never married and broke their relationship in 2004 after 27 years of togetherness.
They met at The Performance Group and started a personal and professional relationship. The couple has one son, Jack Dafoe who was born in 1982.
Elizabeth is an American director of experimental theatre, media, and dance. She is also the founding member of The Wooster Group.
LeCompte was born on April 28, 1944, in New Jersey, U.S. She had her bachelor’s degree in science and fine arts from Skidmore College.
She has designed, directed, and composed more than forty works for dance, film, theater, and video with The Wooster Group. Along with The Wooster Group, she was a member of the experimental theatre company from 1970 to 1975.
Throughout her career, she has been honored with different awards including the National Endowment for the Arts Distinguished Artists Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater, a United States Artists Fellowship, an Anonymous Was A Woman Award, and many more.
The actor had spoken up to Esquire that how he was struggling in his early days, and he became involved with his Wooster Group theatre director Elizabeth.
Willem Dafoe Children: Son Jack Dafoe
Willem Dafoe children encompass his son named Jack Dafoe. Jack was born in 1982 to Willem and his partner at the time Elizabeth LeCompte.
Despite being the son of the renowned actor, Jack chose not to be in the limelight, preferring to work in public policy.
Willem Dafoe son Jack is an environmentalist. He supports his son’s career. Through the video posted on Youtube 14 years ago, we can get that Jack is listed as a Senior Policy and Research Associate and host of the New York City Apollo Alliance. There he is talking about the importance of labor and how it is related to climate change.
As per Linkedin Jack is an Assistant Attorney General, in Natural Resources Division. He has also an experience as Assistant Attorney General, Natural Resources Division office of the Maine Attorney General, Law Clerk in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Senior Court Counsel in the Palau Supreme Court, and many more.
From 2000-2004 he had his Bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature from Yale University, Then after from 2009-2012 he has his Doctor of Law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. He has also studied at Saint Ann’s School for high school.
Willem Dafoe Siblings
Willem Dafoe siblings comprise two brothers and five sisters. Willem parents together raised eight children.
Willem has seven siblings namely:
- Donald Dafoe
- Richard Dafoe
- Nancy Christiansen
- Jane Lambie
- Diane Fredrickson
- Barbara Dafoe Whitehead
- Sarah Holbrook
Donald Dafoe Is An American Surgeon
Donald Dafoe is a Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of California. He is the eldest son in the family.
In 1967 Dafoe graduated from Appleton West High School in Appleton, Wisconsin where he was on the wrestling and football teams. After this, he joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he received his undergraduate degree in zoology and his medical degree.
After training in surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, he became a transplant surgeon. He now works as a chief of transplantation surgery at the University of California Irvine Medical Centre in Orange, California.
He is the ex-husband of vascular surgeon Dr. Rhoda F. Leichter Dafoe and is the father of two children.
Richard Dafoe Is Another Brother
Richard Dafoe is a brother of Willem who recently resides in Texas and is a father of three children. He is frequently seen with his brothers.
At the 33rd Santa Barbara International Film Festival he has been captured with his brothers Willem and Donald.
Jane Lambie Is A Former Nurse
Jane is a former nurse at Wheeling Hospital in the United States. But now she is retired.
Barbara Dafoe Whitehead Is A Author
Barbara is a recognized author of several books. Barbara is a writer, advocate of family and marriage, and sociologist.
She serves as the coordinator of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University and is active in state and national organizations.
It is known that she is married but there is no information about whether she has children or not.
Nancy Christiansen
Nancy Christiansen is the sister of the actor. She has a low profile and information regarding her personal and professional life.
Diane Fredrickson
Diane is another sister of the actor whose profile is not disclosed properly. She likes to be far away from the limelight.
Sarah Holbrook
Sarah is the seventh sibling of the actor. She is fond of Yoga.
Willem Dafoe Parents
Willem Dafoe parents are father William Alfred Dafoe and mother Muriel Isabel Dafoe.
Father William Alfred Dafoe
William Alfred Dafoe worked as a physician and was highly trained as a surgeon. He was born on July 21, 1917, in Wautoma, as the youngest child of seven children and the only son.
Dafoe graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Harvard Medical School. He got advanced surgical training at the Mayo Clinic.
He spent forty years as an admired doctor to many families in the Appleton area. He was highly trained as a surgeon.
While in medical school, he met the love of his life Muriel and they secretly got married and moved to Minnesota to build a family. His family was his greatest joy with whom he spent quality time.
Sadely, at the age of 97 on November 21, 2015, passed away in Pacific Palisades, California after an illness.
Mother Muriel Isabel Dafoe
Muriel Isabel Dafoe was a nurse by profession. She died in 2012 at the age of 90 in Orlando, Florida.
She was born on November 29, 1921, in Boston. She graduated from Boston Girls Latin School, and later from Boston’s Faulkner Hospital where she earned her registered nurse.
While in nurses’ training, she met William and got married secretly as at that time nurses in training were not allowed to marry before graduation.
She worked as a nurse in her husband’s surgical practice for many years, enjoying the benefit of helping to care for patients.
Moreover, she taught a sex education class at the Congregational Church and encouraged openness in answering teenagers’ questions about sex, romance, and dating.