Early Life
Named after actor Ronald Colman, Walken was born Ronald Walken in Astoria, Queens. His mother, Rosalie Russell (May 16, 1907 – March 26, 2010), was a Scottish immigrant from Glasgow, and his father, Paul Walken (October 5, 1903 – February 23, 2001), immigrated from Germany in 1928 with his brothers. His father owned and operated Walken's Bakery in Astoria, Queens. He was raised a Methodist.
Influenced by their mother's own dreams of stardom, he and his brothers, Kenneth and Glenn, were child actors on television in the 1950s. As a teenager, he worked as a lion tamer in a circus. Walken studied at Hofstra University on Long Island, but did not graduate. Walken initially trained as a dancer in music theatre at the Washington Dance Studio, before moving on to dramatic roles in theatre and then film.
Read more about this topic: Christopher Walken
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)