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"Christopher Walken was born Ronald Walken on March 31, 1943,[4] in Astoria, New York, the son of Rosalie (née Russell; May 16, 1907 – March 26, 2010), a Scottish immigrant from Glasgow, and Paul Wälken (October 5, 1903 – February 23, 2001), a German immigrant from Gelsenkirchen[5][6] who owned and operated Walken's Bakery in Astoria.[7][8] Walken was named after actor Ronald Colman. He was raised Methodist.[9] He and his brothers, Kenneth and Glenn, were child actors on television in the 1950s, influenced by their mother's dreams of stardom.[8][10] When he was 15, a girlfriend showed him a magazine photo of Elvis Presley, and Walken later said, "This guy looked like a Greek god. Then I saw him on television. I loved everything about him." He changed his hairstyle to imitate Presley and has not changed it since.[11] As a teenager, he worked as a lion tamer in a circus.[12] He attended Hofstra University but dropped out after one year, having gotten the role of Clayton Dutch Miller in an off-Broadway revival of Best Foot Forward alongside Liza Minnelli.[13] Walken initially trained as a dancer at the Washington Dance Studio before moving on to dramatic stage roles and then film."
