Willem Dafoe honored with first Hollywood Walk of Fame star: 2024

This year’s first celebrity to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is actor Willem Dafoe. According to CNN, Dafoe, who has acted in nearly 150 films, received recognition on Monday afternoon in California. Along with his friends and former co-stars Pedro Pascal, Patricia Arquette, Mark Ruffalo, and Camila Morrone, he was accompanied at the event by his wife, Giada Colagrande.

During his speech, he expressed gratitude for being part of a community of artists and entertainers.
He said, “I just want to say it’s wonderful to be part of this community of artists and entertainers, people that — by sharing their experience, imagining others’ perspectives, telling stories, and musing on what is, was, and most importantly could be. They make us feel closer to each other and connect us, creating an important dialogue particularly needed in these detached, technology-driven and divisive times.”
Willem continued. “So I’m glad to be with people like this and hopefully we’re making this a better world somehow.”

The actor acknowledged his wife and director Giada Colagrande as he concluded his remarks. He concluded, “Finally, thank you to my wife Giada Colagrande, who teaches me gratitude and reminds me not to spit on my luck.” Padre, A Woman, Before It Had a Name, and the documentary Bob Wilson’s Life and Death of Marina Abramovic are the four films that Dafoe and Giada Colagrande have collaborated on. Famous Hollywood actors Pedro Pascal and Patricia Arquette honoured Dafoe’s generosity and skill at the event; Pascal called him “the greatest American actor of our lifetime,” according to CNN.

Having played a range of characters, including a talkative lighthouse keeper in “The Lighthouse,” a criminal in David Lynch’s “Wild At Heart,” and Vincent van Gogh in “At Eternity’s Gate,” Dafoe is among Hollywood’s most versatile performers. According to CNN, he most recently portrayed a rebel scientist in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things.” Four Oscar nominations have been extended to him: three for best supporting actor, one for best actor for his portrayal of Van Gogh.