'''John Gavin Malkovich''' (born December 9, 1953) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor, producer and director.
Biography
Early life
John Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois, to father Daniel Malkovich, a state conservation director and publisher of a conservation magazine, and Joe Anne, who owned the Benton Evening News in Benton, Illinois, as well as the Outdoor Illinois.
Because of his father's work, the Malkovich family is widely acknowledged as one of the founding families of the environmental movement in Illinois. By high school, he had transformed himself physically and was a star athlete. He transferred to Illinois State University from Eastern Illinois University, with an interest in ecology, but he soon changed his major to theater.
Career
Shortly after dropping out of college, Malkovich took on a series of odd jobs to make ends meet: school bus driver, house painter, office supply store employee, and landscaping. In 1976, Malkovich became a charter member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois. He moved to New York City in 1983 and appeared in the play ''True West''. He appeared on Broadway with Dustin Hoffman in ''
Death of a Salesman'' (1984). Malkovich won an Emmy Award for this role when the play became a television movie. One of his first forays into film was as an extra alongside Terry Kinney, George Wendt, Joan Allen, and Laurie Metcalf in Robert Altman's ''A Wedding'' (1978).
He made his film debut in ''
Places in the Heart'' (1984) for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He got fame in 1988 playing the leading part of Valmont in Stephen Frears' adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' Dangerous Liaisons.
In 1994, he was nominated for an Oscar in the same category for ''
In the Line of Fire'' (1993). Malkovich also plays the main villain Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom in the movie "Con Air." Though he played the title role in the Charlie Kaufman-penned ''
Being John Malkovich'', he is playing a slight variation of himself, as indicated by the character's middle name of "Horatio". Malkovich has a cameo in the movie ''Adaptation.''—also written by Kaufman—appearing as himself during the filming of ''
Being John Malkovich''. ''The Dancer Upstairs'', Malkovich's directorial debut, was released in 2002. He recently appeared in ''
Art School Confidential'' (2006) as a pompous art professor.
Of the many people he has worked with, Malkovich is often associated with Gary Sinise, a fellow Steppenwolf alum. Also, Joan Allen was a fellow drama student at Eastern Illinois University whom Malkovich brought into Steppenwolf. He
