Christopher Walken And Wife Of 53 Years Chose Cats Over Children And It Helped Propel Their Careers

Nov 11, 2022

Christopher Walken has long been regarded as one of the best actors in the world. He's known for his intensity and quirky looks. Christopher's most memorable roles have included a Bond villain and a caring dad in “Catch Me If You Can,” as well as many other performances in movies including “The Deer Hunter,” “Pulp Fiction” and “The Jungle Book.”

Christopher was born on March 31, 1943, in Queens, New York. The star found a love for performing early on as he and his brothers were child actors on television during the 1950s. Influenced by the looks of Elvis Presley, Christopher changed his appearance during his teenage years and has continued to flaunt his styled hair ever since.

While he had intentions of pursuing higher education, that went out the window when Christopher landed the role of Clayton Dutch Miller in the off-Broadway production of “Best Foot Forward,” acting alongside Liza Minnelli. He has since become a huge star, appearing in productions on stage, in films and in television series.

So it’s not surprising that Christopher has been honored with several awards and nominations over the years, receiving great praise from fans and critics alike during his illustrious career. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as Primetime Emmy Award and Tony Award nominations. 

While these are very laudable facts about Christopher, what may surprise many is how he has been married to the love of his life, Georgianne Walken (née Thon), for more than half of his lifetime. But unlike many other celebrities in Hollywood, the couple opted for a rather unconventional approach to family life. Read on to learn more about Christopher and Georgianne's family. 

While embarking on a tour for “West Side Story,” Christopher met Georgianne, who was also a member of the touring production, in which she played Graziella. The two played onstage as the Jets' infamous dancing couple. 

"She was a fox. She is a fox. We loved each other right away,” Christopher said about his then-girlfriend, now-wife Georgianne in his book “Christopher Walken A to Z: The Man, the Movies, the Legend.”

Georgianne, responding lovingly to her husband’s cheeky confession, expressed how smitten she was at the time. 

“When you met him, you knew he had this future,” Georgianne recalled. “He was good, and he was gonna be better … I had never met anybody like that in my life.”

After professing their love for each other, their union culminated in marriage when they tied the knot in 1969, five years after they met. 

Shortly after being wed, Georgianne made one of the biggest decisions in her life and quit acting in order to support Christopher's career. However, that pause wasn’t the end of her professional career, in fact, it was the start of a rather decorated one. 

Georgianne took a backseat in front of the camera and worked on casting the best people possible for television. According to her IMDb page, Georgianne has over a hundred casting credits to her name, with the oldest stemming back to 1989. 

She has flourished and went on to reap a total of nine nominations for being a casting director, primarily for HBO productions like “Hysterical Blindness,” “Entourage” and “The Sopranos,” the latter of which earned her an Emmy in 1999. 

With Georgianne focused on her television production work and Christopher on his acting career, many were surprised to know that the couple never had any children. 

According to The Sun, Christopher, along with his wife, had been fairly open about their decision of choosing to not have any children of their own. 

Commenting on his robust filmography, Christopher, in an interview with The Guardian, expounded on how his extraordinary roles in the film industry were the opposite of how he lived his life: "Well, my life is really quite conservative. I've been married nearly 50 years. I don't have hobbies or children.” Elsewhere in the interview, Christopher was asked whether he would have achieved all his accolades if he had chosen to have children. 

“Absolutely not. I'm sure many of the kids I knew as a child would have continued in showbusiness, but they had kids of their own and had to do something dependable. I didn't, so I could get by even in periods of unemployment," Christopher simply told the outlet.

But despite having no children in their rural home in Connecticut, the couple of more than 50 years instead developed an affinity and love for cats — becoming “fur parents” in their own rights. 

According to The Talks, the couple had two cats named Bowtie and Flapjack. As if Christopher's love for felines wasn’t enough, interestingly, he's played roles in three different films that were in some way connected to the four-legged mammal: “Puss in Boots,” “Batman Returns” and most notably, “Nine Lives.”

Christopher underscored his reasoning for being childless in a Golden Globes interview: 

“I do like to work as much as I can because I don't have children, I don't have hobbies, I don't do anything else. And I'm glad that I don't have children. I have two brothers, and they have plenty of children, they come to my house, and I am always very glad when they leave,” he shared. 

Isn’t Christopher Walken and his wife’s love story adorable? What are your thoughts on their decision to be child-free? Let us know, and be sure to pass this on to your family, friends and other loved ones!