I was idly watching YouTube videos late in the evening and bumped into some interviews of Christopher Walkern who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role of Nick in The Deer Hunter. Great part and he deserved it. The first interview I watched took place just before the film was released. He praised De Niro for helping him through the film. He said it was like being in De Niro’s slipstream who pulled him along. A force of nature.
In a second interview, much later with Letterman, he briefly mentioned his cat. As I recall he mentioned that he was being interviewed at home and his cat wandered in with a mouse, dumped it down in front of him and asked him to play with it. He smiled when he recounted the story and was clearly happy about the whole episode. He likes being interviewed which is a little unusual for a high profile actor or actress. It indicates that he is confident in himself.
I tried to find out how many cats he had or has but Google couldn’t help. No one is searching for these details. If they were Google would be on the ball and the information would be out there in the clouds. What I did discover is that was part of a campaign in 2016 to encourage people to adopt cats from shelters. With many other actors and celebs he participated in the Best Friends’ photo campaign. They posed with their personal rescue cats or dogs.
From that information I can say with a bit of confidence that the photo on this page is of Christopher with one of his cats or his only cat at the time. As I said I don’t know if he has more than one cat. Can you help? I know that he moved to the country after 50 years in NYC. Perhaps he kept a house in the city as well. The point is that he has enough space and outside space for more than one cat and perhaps other animals.
Here is the thing: he likes cats and lives with them. This confirms what it looked like in his interviews: he is a decent man. People who genuinely love cats are decent people. I am not saying that people who don’t love cats are not decent. I’m saying it one way. If you really care about animals you have to have a heart. Conversely, if you like to shoot wild animals for fun you are lost to the world of decency and gentleness.
Whenever I find out a talented actor loves cats I admire them more for it.
P.S. Walkern plays a cat whisperer in the film Nine Lives. Perhaps one reason why he was chosen for the role is because he is known in the film industry as a cat lover.
