Walken Through Life Amazing

I think that if I had been born in the last century and was a Buddhist and had lived several very well-meaning lives that I would have like to have been reincarnated as Christopher Walken.  The veteran actor has long been a favorite of mine, with his spiky hair and uniquely modulated speech.

While IMDB states that Walken "has a reputation for playing mentally unbalanced characters on screen," it was one of his kinder roles that first made me a fan.  Walken played Jacob Witting in the TV Movie "Sarah, Plain and Tall."  Jacob, a farmer in the late 1800's who has lost his wife, places an ad for a wife to help him raise his two small children.  Glenn Close plays Sarah, a spinster from Maine who answers the ad.  It may be hard to imagine Walken as a romantic lead, but he's just that in this quiet, heart-warming story that is as special as it is different from most other Walken roles.

After seeing "Sarah, Plain and Tall" I was definitely on the Walken bandwagon, but I really became a fan after seeing him in "A View to a Kill" and then seeing him dance in the video for Fat Boy Slim's "Weapon of Choice."  This week I was excited to find Walken back in the spotlight as he promotes his latest film "A Late Quartet."  Yesterday while reading an article about Walken I learned something I would have never guessed.

Christopher Walken was once a lion tamer!

I knew he could sing, I knew he could dance, I knew he could act, I knew he was box office gold (minus Gigli - a regrettable error in my opinion), but a lion tamer?!?

Well it is entirely true.  In the September 10, 2012 issue of Vanity Fair Julie Miller interviews Walken.  When asked about being a lion tamer Walken replies,

It was a touring circus that was owned by a man named Terrell Jacobs. It was just one big tent, and he was a lion tamer. He didn’t have any kids, but the bit was that I would dress up as his son in an identical outfit. When he would finish his act, there would be one lion left, and I used to go in and have this lion do tricks. It was a female named Sheba, and she was very sweet. Like a dog, really. I would wave the whip, and she would run and sit up and roll over and do things.

As if all of his other accomplishments weren't enough Christopher Walken can legitimately claim to have been a lion tamer, making him even cooler than I had previously thought.

I'm sure it's just a matter of time before he adds rocket scientist to that resume.

In honor of such a, well, neat person, here's his brilliant dance to "Weapon of Choice."