Happy Birthday, Christopher Walken: His Funniest Film Roles

You see the name, and you can hear the distinctive voice. The stilted, elongated vowels, the New York accent that’s a little off-kilter. Happy birthday to Christopher Walken, who turns 78 today. 78 may not be one of those fancy round number birthdays, but we’re living in a fucking weird world, so it’s worth celebrating every little victory.

Walken’s career has certainly been a triumph to date. From his Oscar-winning performance in The Deer Hunter to his Tony Award-nominated stint in the musical James Joyce’s The Dead, there’s no denying the Queens native’s formidable talent. His comedic chops are undeniable—he’s hosted Saturday Night Live seven times and turned out some of their most iconic sketches—and he’s also unpretentious. One year he’s in the critically acclaimed Catch Me If You Can, the next he appears in Kangaroo Jack, described by critic Nathan Rabin as “some of the longest 90 minutes ever committed to film.” Dude just loves to act.

Let’s raise a glass to Walken, his incredible head of hair and his lengthy career with some of the actor’s best comedic film roles.

Blast from the Past (1999)

With a killer cast and concept, Blast from the Past has the makings of something great. During the Cold War, a nutty scientist (Walken) mistakenly thinks a nuclear bomb has gone off, so he takes his pregnant wife (Sissy Spacek) down to their fallout shelter. She soon gives birth to Adam, and the three live a ‘60s lifestyle entirely underground until their now-grown son (Brendan Fraser) ventures out for supplies after the bomb shelter unlocks in 1997. Adam has a love interest, of course—Eve (Alicia Silverstone)—and the film spends most of its time pointing out how drastically culture changed between the ‘60s and the ‘90s. Its lackluster script makes this film hardly a classic in the larger sense, but Walken is perfectly cast as the paranoid scientist, working well against Spacek’s harried housewife energy.

Hairspray (2007)

Walken’s turn as Wilbur Turnblad opposite John Travolta as Edna in Hairspray is a real treat. His dancing is a bit awkward, like seeing your dad bust a move out on the dancefloor at a wedding, but you can tell he’s having a hell of a time as the two tango through lines of drying laundry (and he’s not half bad at singing, either). Walken’s comparatively placid presence provides an excellent foil for Michelle Pfeiffer’s villainous vixen Velma to play off of, and his chemistry with Travolta is undeniable.

Mouse Hunt (1997)

Eccentricity comes easily to Walken. Case in point: his character Caesar in Mouse Hunt, the diabolical exterminator determined to remove the pesky rodent from Ernie (Nathan Lane) and Lars Smuntz’s (Lee Evans) house. Caesar is all intensity as he pursues the titular mouse, narrowing his eyes like a cowboy eyeing up his enemy in a final shootout. From his goofy gear (sorry, the Squeak Seeker 2000) to Walken’s hilarious slapstick as the mouse unceremoniously drags him down a staircase, it’s a bit role that Walken eats up… much like a mouse would eat cheese. I dunno, just trying to make rodent puns.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Three words: gold watch monologue.