John Gavin Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois, to Joe Anne (Choisser), who owned a local newspaper, and Daniel Leon Malkovich, a state conservation director. His paternal grandparents were Croatian. In 1976, Malkovich joined Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, newly founded by his friend Gary Sinise. After that, it would take seven years before Malkovich would show up in New York and win an Obie in Sam Shepard's play "True West". In 1984, Malkovich would appear with Dustin Hoffman in the Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman", which would earn him an Emmy when it was made into a made-for-TV movie the next year. His big-screen debut would be as the blind lodger in Places in the Heart (1984), which earned him an Academy Award Nomination for best supporting actor. Other films would follow, including The Killing Fields (1984) and The Glass Menagerie (1987), but he would be well remembered as Vicomte de Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons (1988). Playing against Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close in a costume picture helped raise his standing in the industry. He would be cast as the psychotic political assassin in Clint Eastwood's In the Line of Fire (1993), for which he would be nominated for both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe. In 1994, Malkovich would portray the sinister Kurtz in the made-for-TV movie Heart of Darkness (1993), taking the story to Africa as it was originally written. Malkovich has periodically returned to Chicago to both act and direct.

Nicoletta Peyran (20 September 1989 - present) ( 2 children)

Trivia

Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1984" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 36.
The costume he wore in the Annie Lennox video, "Walking On Broken Glass" was borrowed from the set of Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Education: Eastern Illinois University, Illinois State University.
Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#70). [1995]
His paternal grandparents, Michael "Mike" Malkovich and Goldie Stanisha, were Croatian. His mother had French, German, Scottish, and English ancestry, and his maternal grandparents were Stephen Choisser and Edna Alice Johnson.
Parents ran and owned local newspaper in his hometown Benton, Illinois.
Children with Nicoletta Peyran: daughter Amandine (b. 1990) and son Lowry (b. 1992).
Has developed a great passion for Portugal, where he has filmed some movies recently. He also keeps a house here, as he co-owns a disco in Lisbon.
Legend has it that he was told by the head of the Theatre Department at Illinois State University that he would not have a career as an actor. Even though he did not graduate from ISU (he never took the constitution test), the Theatre Department still claims him as an alumnus. On April 4, 2005, he returned to visit the Theatre Department where he was presented with an official diploma for his bachelor's degree in theatre

[on Being John Malkovich (1999)] When I first looked at the script, the title seemed like a one-line joke, but it turned out to be a 100-page joke.
[Spike Jonze wanted to borrow photographs from his childhood for Being John Malkovich (1999)] "I gave them my mother's phone number and told them to tell her that I'm an actor and it was for a film. I don't think my parents know what I do."
"I want to be successful. I would like it to be a success with something that doesn't make me want to vomit all over the screening room after I've seen it." (1980s quote)
I'm not terribly articulate in many ways and particularly when it comes to what I do. And, at the risk of sounding like Holden Caulfield, I don't know if I would talk about it even if I could.
[on Dangerous Liaisons (1988)] The movie should appeal to everyone. It's sleazy, elegant, vicious and mean, and it's about people doing hideous things to each other. If that weren't enough, it has a tragic end. What more could people ask for?
I'm not cynical. I'm merely stating a fact. Most filmmakers' entire body of knowledge is of other movies. When they describe things, they describe them in relation to other movies. That's why we have so many cyclical movies that look like other movies. But I'm not cynical. I even go to some of those movies.
I probably have more female friends than any man I've ever met. What I like about them is that almost always they're generally mentally tougher, and they're better listeners, and they're more capable of surviving things. And most of the women that I like have a haunted quality - they're sort of like women who live in a haunted house all by themselves.