(Oscars fun fact: Walken starred in two back-to-back Best Picture winners: Annie Hall in 1977 and The Deer Hunter in 1978).

The following year, The Deer Hunter stormed into theaters and the world was properly introduced to Walken, who shocked and awed, and eventually snagged the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role of the quietly maniacal Nick Chevotarevich. All true - but it’s a classic, not only because of its aforementioned merits, but because of a man by the name of Christopher Walken.īefore he was the “more cowbell” instigator on Saturday Night Live, the do-your-best-impression go-to, the cultural icon he is today, Walken paid his dues appearing in TV movies and bit parts through the mid-’70s - until his first break in Annie Hall (1977) as the titular heroine’s psychopathic brother.

Michael Cimino’s classic Vietnam exploration is, perhaps, best remembered as the Russian roulette how-to starring Robert De Niro, that also earned Meryl Streep her first Oscar nomination.

The deer hunter cast