Viggo Mortensen is a real-life Renaissance man whose abilities transcend his chiseled leading man looks. Mortensen is a painter, a published poet, a talented photographer and an actor of vast range, with roles encompassing an Amish farmer ("Witness," 1985), a king of Middle-Earth ("The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, 2001-2003), an assassin of mobsters ("A History of Violence," 2005) and a tattooed undercover Russian officer whose naked violent bathhouse brawl is one of the most memorable scenes in modern film history ("Eastern Promises," 2007). The latter role earned Mortensen an Academy Award nomination for best actor. Despite his successes, Mortensen believes that his most challenging performance has been portraying a starving father who...