Willem Dafoe hallucination. The cameo was suggested by Dafoe, comparing it to the ghost of Hamlet's father visiting his son to ask him to avenge his death. Dafoe was next seen in the comedy-drama "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004), his first of three films with director Wes Anderson. He played the "hilariously doltish" German first mate of a research vessel owned by the eponymous lead character, who is played by Bill Murray. Dafoe then had a small role as a tabloid magazine editor in Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator" (2004), a biographical film about Howard Hughes starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Also in
Robert Yeoman films including Gus Van Sant's "Drugstore Cowboy" — for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography — Noah Baumbach's "The Squid and the Whale", and Roman Coppola's "CQ". He has worked on every live action film by Wes Anderson, including "Bottle Rocket" (1996), "Rushmore" (1998), and "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001) as cinematographer, as well as "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004), "The Darjeeling Limited" (2007), "Moonrise Kingdom" (2012) and "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (2014), credited as director of photography. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on "The Grand Budapest