Meet Willem Dafoe’s son: Jack Dafoe is an environmental activist who stays out of the public eye – and his mum, Elizabeth LeCompte, is the director of renowned theatre company The Wooster Group

Oct 9 , 2024

Willem Dafoe’s son Jack Dafoe is an environmentalist and lawyer who prefers to keep his personal life private. Photo: Getty Images

Willem and Elizabeth were together for 27 years and raised their son together; Jack prefers to shun the limelight to focus on his activism, his wife and his young children

Hollywood legend Willem Dafoe is known for playing quirky on-screen characters, but the Poor Things star recently broke the internet by strutting the runway at Paris Fashion Week to close Miu Miu’s spring/summer 2025 show. In a masterstroke, Miuccia Prada sent Dafoe down her runway looking dapper in a white button-down shirt topped with a navy blue sweater and coat, and paired with grey trousers and black boots.

The actor is hardly a stranger to fashion shows though. He famously strutted his stuff down the catwalk for Prada’s autumn/winter 2012 show, alongside other actors – including Gary Oldman, Adrien Brody and Eli Roth – in a brilliant showing that became known as The Villains’ Runway.

Willem Dafoe walks the runway for Miu Miu at Paris Fashion Week this month. Photo: Invision/AP

Off the runway – and despite his reputation as an iconic antagonist on the silver screen – the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star is a doting dad. He shares his only son, Jack Dafoe, with his ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth LeCompte. The former couple split in 2004 after 27 years together; Dafoe met his current wife, actress Giada Colagrande – who is 21 years his junior – shortly afterwards.

So what do we know about Willem Dafoe’s son Jack Dafoe?

His mum’s a famous theatre director

Elizabeth LeCompte is director of The Wooster Group, an experimental theatre company. She is also Jack Dafoe’s mum and Willem Dafoe’s ex. Photo: @thewoostergroup/Instagram

Jack Dafoe’s mother, Elizabeth LeCompte, is a renowned director of experimental theatre and dance. Willem Dafoe started dating LeCompte in 1977 after joining The Performance Group, an experimental theatre troupe. Their son Jack was born in 1982. “She’s the mother of my son, but we never married because to her marriage represented ownership, and I respected that,” Dafoe shared in a recent interview with The Guardian.

LeCompte is a founding member of the performing arts company The Wooster Group and currently serves as its director. She has also taught at prestigious institutions like the Yale School of Drama, Columbia University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University.

Meet Willem Dafoe’s son: Jack Dafoe is an environmental activist who stays out of the public eye – and his mum, Elizabeth LeCompte, is the director of renowned theatre company The Wooster Group

Willem and Elizabeth were together for 27 years and raised their son together; Jack prefers to shun the limelight to focus on his activism, his wife and his young children

His mum’s a famous theatre director

He’s an environmental activist