Born: October 20th, 1958 in Manhattan, New York
Children: Henry Blake Mortensen (born 1988)
Viggo Mortensen was born in Manhattan, New York in 1958. He is the oldest of three boys. His mother is American, and his father Danish.
His father travelled a lot in business, so Viggo spent his childhood back and forth between Argentina and Venezuela, till 1969 when his parents divorced. Then he moved to Watertown New York with his mother and two brothers.
He speaks three languages fluently, English, Spanish and Danish but also some French.
Viggo attended Watertown high school in 1972, and marked himself in sport. He was both on the swimming team and the tennis team, and was even the captain for the swimming team. In his spare time, he was wandering around in the streets, with his camera. He says in his book "Recent Forgeries":
"I was taking lots of pictures in the late seventies and used to be really anxious about always having a camera with me. It got a little out of hand. It seemed that there was always something going on that I could be taking picture of, and I suppose I eventually started feeling a little removed from life".
In 1980 he graduated from St. Lawrence University, with degrees in Government and Spanish. He then went to Denmark, and lived there for two years. He had several jobs during his stay there, including waiter, flower seller and fork lift driver.