In 2005, Mortensen won critical acclaim for David Cronenberg’s crime thriller A History of Violence. Aside from acting, his other artistic pursuits include fine arts, photography, poetry, and music. His father managed chicken farms and ranches in Argentina. Then, driven by the need for a defining purpose in life, he went to Europe and lived in Spain, England and Denmark, where he took various jobs like a truck driver in Esbjerg, Denmark, and a flower seller in Copenhagen, Denmark, before again returning to the United States two years later to pursue an acting career. During the 1990s, Mortensen appeared in supporting roles in a variety of films, including Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady, Young Guns II, Prison, Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Sean Penn’s The Indian Runner, Carlito’s Way, Crimson Tide, G.I. Jane, Daylight, A Walk on the Moon, American Yakuza, Charles Robert Carner’s remake Vanishing Point, Philip Ridley’s two films The Reflecting Skin and The Passion of Darkly Noon, A Perfect Murder and Gus Van Sant’s Psycho (1998 remakes of two Alfred Hitchcock’s movies Dial M for Murder and Psycho), 28 Days, and The Prophecy, with Christopher Walken. Of these roles, Mortensen was probably best-known for playing Master Chief John Urgayle in G.I. Jane.
