This is a picture of a 10 year old Christopher Walken (or “Ronnie” Walken as he was known then).
I only found out recently that before finding huge success later on, he was a child actor in the 1950s.
His first role was in a sketch with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis on the show “The Colgate Comedy Hour” in 1954. This led to appearances on other shows such as “The Wonderful John Acton” and “The Motorola Television Hour” among others.
As a teenager Walken worked as a lion tamer in a circus, and in the years leading up to his award winning role as “Nick” in The Deer Hunter (1978), he trained as a dancer and acted on the stage. During this time he also had a steady flow of work appearing in films and TV shows such as Kojak.
Born Ronald Walken, “Ronnie” changed his first name to Christopher in 1964 at the suggestion of Monique van Vooren, a Belgian-American actress and dancer who’s nightclub act Walken was a dancer in. She thought the name suited him better.
Little Ronnie looks like a right character!