It’s no surprise that a man who grew up to be an eccentric like Walken lacked some of the traditional principles of childhood. This definitely works out pretty well for him, considering he’s a hugely successful Oscar-winning actor. Walken seems to look back on his time as a child actor with great fondness in Vanity Fair, where he makes nostalgia for a very different time when he appears.
“The interesting thing about my career is that I was part of something that doesn’t exist anymore, the early days of television after the Second World War, when television was born, in the late ’40s and early ’50s. You have one TV, and everyone will go to the man’s house to watch the TV. There are no videotapes, so if you don’t see Uncle Miltie on a certain night, you miss it. You can’t watch it anymore. It was on television, all just once. In New York, there are 90 live shows from New York every week. They use a lot of kids, and I was there for that. And that’s definitely gone.”
It is true that television culture has changed drastically since Walken’s childhood. It seems fitting that the circumstances that gave birth to such a unique individual may never be imitated, just as Christopher Walken was not. Yes, unless you’re one of the millions who think they have a good impression of him.