Full Metal Jacket (1987) as Pvt. Leonard 'Gomer Pyle' Lawrence
Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001-2011) as Robert Goren
Men in Black (1997) as Edgar
Jurassic World (2015) as Hoskins
Short Info
Net Worth
$40 Million
Date Of Birth
June 30, 1959
Mark
Towering height and rotund frame
Fact
Gained a world record 70 pounds for his role in Full Metal Jacket (1987).
Vincent D’Onofrio is an American actor, producer, and director. He is known for his roles in Full Metal Jacket, Men in Black, and The Magnificent Seven. He has also appeared in television shows such as Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Daredevil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mKGv2KSPSo
D’Onofrio was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1959. His parents, Gennaro and Antoinette, were both Italian immigrants. He has two sisters, Antoinette and Elizabeth. D’Onofrio was raised in a Catholic household. He attended the High School of Performing Arts in New York City.
D’Onofrio’s first acting role was in the play The Great White Hope. He made his film debut in 1981’s Full Metal Jacket. He has since appeared in such films as Men in Black, The Cell, and The Break-Up. He has also appeared in television shows such as Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Daredevil.
D’Onofrio has been married twice. His first wife was Carin van der Donk, with whom he has two children, Elias and Lily. His second wife is Elizabeth Olsen, with whom he has one child, Rosemary.
D’Onofrio stands at 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs approximately 300 pounds.
To me the definition of true masculinity - and femininity, too - is being able to lay in your own skin comfortably.
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When you're a child you're able to assimilate so easily into any situation. You even start talking like the people you're around. I wasn't conscious that I was so good at that until I started to truly feel like an actor.
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It's like why people read scary books or go see scary movies. Because it creates a distance. They're scared, but they're not going to get hurt.
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When you are a character actor they trust you will go in and give them a full character and leave.
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The more you are known, the more difficult it is to hide behind characters.
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When I was younger I used to pick things just to face the fear.
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With [Robert] Altman, he does discuss everything with you, but then leaves you to it and gives you full rein and lets you improvise and create a character while the camera is rolling.
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What kind of recognition do I deserve? I don't deserve any recognition.
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Acting is not a mystery. There's nothing that I know that other actors don't know. We all act, we're all actors, we all know the same thing. The only thing that separates us is experience.
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The minute you start feeling like you've got it down, you know what you're doing, you're dead in the water.
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The most fun you can possibly have as an actor is to walk that line between what's real and what's interesting.
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Unless you look like Brad Pitt, it's really hard to have full control of your character.
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[on playing real-life characters] There's a lot of shame that goes on when you're playing someone who has really lived and has passed. You're struggling with it all the time. I am, anyway. When I played Robert Howard in The Whole Wide World (1996), I was struggling with it. There's this dual thing where you feel real good about being able to play this juicy part, and then there's constant shame: "Who am I to pretend to know who this guy was? Who am I to represent this guy for people who never knew him?" The pressure is unbelievable, I can't tell you.
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[on his role in Ed Wood (1994)] I never was happy with the job I did in "Ed Wood". Even though [Tim Burton] was, I wasn't. Because it's not what I wanted, it's not what I wanted. First of all, the company, for whatever reason, not Tim, but the company took a very long time to hire me and I was busy doing another project. I eventually only ended up with three weeks to prepare for it and that bothered me. But, you know, I had to be brave and I had to do it the best I could. It was too much of a caricature. I didn't like it. It was too surface of a performance.
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[on being a "Method" actor] The thing is, it's the research that you do that is exhausting. That's what always affects you. When I did The Cell (2000)--no matter what you think of that movie, because I have my opinions of it, too--it was, you know, I still have nightmares from the research that I did. Not from playing the part, just from the research. There was stuff that I should have never looked at, that I should have never gone anywhere near. As a father, I can't imagine going to that place again. I'm not saying I wouldn't, I'm just saying it was too much.
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I'm not gonna make excuses for other actors. I'm just talking about myself. The good actors that I've met - I've met some of the best actors that we'll ever see - and I know for sure the one thing that we all have in common when we all look in each other's eyes, is that we're all struggling to achieve 100%. That's all I see when I see another artist. All of us are trying to achieve 100% in our work. That's all we struggle to do. We never do, but we never stop trying until the day we die. It's that struggle to achieve 100%, that's where our performance lies, that's what the audience gets. They get the struggle.
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I am a method actor, but I'm also a film actor as well as a method actor. Characters that don't have humility, whether they are heroes or villains, are hard to relate to. All characters in every aspect of what we do should have humility. If they don't, then they're a cartoon character. I know that during actual performance scenes, what I need to trigger myself off, and I know how to trigger it off so that it will trigger you off, which will also influence how you feel when I'm expressionless.
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[on his career choices] It's something that I've been saying for years when people ask me how I pick the things that I do. I pick the things that scare me the most. You have to like the story first. I'm not gonna play a part that doesn't instill some kind of fear in me. If I read a part, and suddenly, I'm thinking halfway through, "I'm not sure I could get away with this", I think of everything I can think of to keep me from doing it, that's the one I should do.
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I took a route of acting, rather than starmaking, so it cost me a lot financially.
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[on acting] Some scenes you juggle two balls, some scenes you juggle three balls, some scenes you can juggle five balls. The key is always to speak in your own voice. Speak the truth. That's Acting 101. Then you start putting layers on top of that.
Was considered for the role of Knuckles in Suburban Commando (1991).
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Coincidentally, he played Moriarty in the TV movie Sherlock (2002) while he starred as Robert Goren in Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001), whose character is based on Sherlock Holmes.
One of the founders of the River Run Film Festival (Winston-Salem, North Carolina), along with his sister, Elizabeth D'Onofrio, and their father, Gene D'Onofrio.
