MILWAUKEE _ Willem Dafoe, the veteran actor receiving critical acclaim and award nominations for his role in “The Florida Project,” studied acting at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee more than 40 years ago. UWM recently unearthed several archived videotapes of some of his earliest performances.
UWM has available digitized video clips and photos of Dafoe in UWM productions from 1973 and 1974 and from a 1975 Theatre X production. In addition, Corliss Phillabaum, an emeritus professor of theater who directed those UWM productions, is available to interview. Quotes from Dafoe are available below.
Dafoe is widely considered a strong contender to land a best supporting actor Oscar nomination on Jan. 23, when nominations are announced in Los Angeles. In “The Florida Project, Dafoe plays a hard-bitten but ultimately tender-hearted manager of a rundown motel in the shadow of Disney World. He becomes something of a guardian to some of the children living there on the edge of poverty. The film is drawing very strong reviews, many focusing on Dafoe and his work with an almost entirely novice cast.
Dafoe attended UWM for a year and a half, and had major roles in two productions.
“I was young and very unsophisticated, but eager to train and perform,” Dafoe said in an email. “I was totally involved and spent most nights on a couch in the theatre because I was always working and studying and didn’t want to go home.”
Even then, his teachers and fellow students saw he could be something special.
Corliss Phillabaum, professor emeritus of theater at UWM, directed Dafoe in two plays – Jean Racine’s 17th century French drama “Phaedra” and Eugene O’Neill’s “Moon for the Misbegotten” – during the fall of 1973 and spring of 1974.
In “Moon for the Misbegotten,” Dafoe, then listed as William Dafoe, was cast in a small but important role as Mike Hogan. “He was very, very good in a role that only appears in the first 10 minutes of the play,” said Phillabaum. “And then in ‘Phaedra,’ which was a very challenging role for a young actor, he was really quite remarkable.”
Phillabaum, who taught at UWM for 40 years, recalled Dafoe as “a delight to work with and a wonderful team member of a cast.” Both “Moon for the Misbegotten” and “Phaedra” were plays that required very close ensemble work, he recalled, and Dafoe was part of a team of actors “who really worked together and made something out of challenging plays.”
Dafoe moved to Milwaukee from Appleton and crashed on a friend’s couch, he recalled in his email. “I intended to pursue a liberal arts education, but I dropped all my basic study and just went to theatre classes and got involved in productions at school,” Dafoe said. “I was very excited by the eclectic, passionate faculty and the production-based teaching.”
Dafoe left UWM after a year and a half to become part of Theatre X, which started as a UWM faculty-student workshop and then became an independent experimental theater company.
After moving to New York to continue stage work, he started his film career with “Heaven’s Gate” in 1980, and went on to establish himself as an actor who could tackle a wide variety of roles. His extensive film credits include “To Live and Die in LA,” “Mississippi Burning,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “The English Patient,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Spider-Man” and numerous others. He has also done voice roles for such animated films as “Finding Nemo” and its sequel, “Finding Dory.”
Dafoe has already received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild best supporting actor nominations for “The Florida Project.” He has been nominated for an Oscar twice previously, for the 1986 film “Platoon” and 2000’s “Shadow of the Vampire.”
He appeared in five films in 2017 and has three others in production, according to imdb.com.
Critic Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praised Dafoe’s work in “The Florida Project” as “a very intelligent and subtle performance from one of the best American actors working today.”
Dafoe, who came back to Milwaukee for a Milwaukee Film Festival Retrospective and reconnected with Phillabaum 10 years ago, remembers UWM fondly.
“My time at UWM was a very formative and positive experience.”
Available Dafoe material:
UWM Report story on Willem Dafoe: https://uwm.edu/news/acclaimed-actor-willem-dafoe-remembers-time-uwm/
YouTube playlist of Dafoe videos: These include full performances of a UWM production of “Phaedra” and a Theatre X production, “Civil Commitment Hearings,” as well as shorter highlight reels of each:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLylbcMvk6V54c9e4T5TD5GZcKNyMUIET8
Raw video files are available here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcyyvatuvvrrb0i/AAD6LorBjARIKRBXFBaxpWQca?dl=0
A gallery of photos from two UWM productions, “Phaedra” and “Moon for the Misbegotten,” in 1973 and 1974:
https://uwm.edu/news/gallery/willem-dafoe-uwm-student-award-winning-actor/
A Dropbox link to those photos, plus some additional images available for download:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cdb13iupvt9g17p/AAD5x5QinvAZBdDuv7kR_k1Ha?dl=0
(Note: Photos and video from 1973 and 1974 should be credited to UWM, courtesy of Corliss Phillabaum. Movie stills from “The Florida Project” should be credited to A24. And the photo of the professor and his wife is courtesy of Corliss Phillabaum.)
For more information, contact John Schumacher, 414-229-6778 or schuma63@uwm.edu, or Kathy Quirk, 414-229-3144 or kquirk@uwm.edu.
About UWM
Recognized as one of the nation’s 115 top research universities, UW-Milwaukee provides a world-class education to 25,000 students from 91 countries on a budget of $653 million. Its 14 schools and colleges include Wisconsin’s only schools of architecture, freshwater sciences and public health, and it is a leading educator of nurses and teachers. UW-Milwaukee partners with leading companies to conduct joint research, offer student internships and serve as an economic engine for southeastern Wisconsin. The Princeton Review named UW-Milwaukee a 2018 “Best Midwestern” university based on overall academic excellence and student reviews, and the Sierra Club has recognized it as Wisconsin’s leading sustainable university.