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| Birth Name(s) : Philip Anthony Hopkins |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
Petronella Barker (1967-1972) |
| Profession:
N/A |
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Full Anthony Hopkins Biography
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, CBE (born December 31, 1937) is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe- and Emmy Award-winning film, stage and television actor. He was born and raised in Wales, but became a U.S. citizen on April 12, 2000.
In 1965, after several years in repertory, he was spotted by Sir Laurence Olivier, who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre. Hopkins became Olivier's understudy, and filled in when Olivier was struck with appendicitis during a production of August Strindberg's The Dance of Death. Olivier later noted in his memoir, Confessions of an Actor, that, "A new young actor in the company of exceptional promise named Anthony Hopkins was understudying me and walked away with the part of Edgar like a cat with a mouse between its teeth".
Despite his success at the National, Hopkins tired of repeating the same roles nightly and yearned to be in movies. In 1968, he got his break in The Lion in Winter playing Richard I, along with future James Bond star Timothy Dalton, who played Philip II of France.
Hopkins has stated that his role as Burt Munro, whom he portrayed in his 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian, was his favourite. He also asserted that Munro was the easiest role that he had ever played because both men have a similar outlook on life.
Hopkins is renowned for his firm preparation for roles. He has confessed in interviews that once he has committed to a project, he will go over his lines as many times as is needed (sometimes upwards of 200) until the lines sound natural to him, so that he can "do it without thinking". This leads to an almost casual style of delivery that belies the amount of groundwork done beforehand. While it can allow for some careful improvisation, it has also brought him into conflict with the occasional director who departs from the script, or demands what the actor views as an excessive number of takes. Hopkins has also stated that after he is finished with a scene, he simply discards the lines, not remembering them later on. This is unlike other actors that usually remember their lines from a film even years later.
Hopkins' most famous role is the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992) opposite Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, who also won for Best Actress. In addition, the film won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. It is the shortest lead performance to win an Oscar, as Hopkins only appears for about seventeen minutes. Hopkins went on to reprise his role as Lecter twice (Hannibal in 2001 and Red Dragon in 2002). His original portrayal of the character in The Silence of the Lambs has been labelled by the American Film Institute as the number-one film villain. At the time he was offered the role, Hopkins was making a return to the London stage, performing in M. Butterfly. He had come back to Britain after living for a number of years in Hollywood, having all but given up on a career there, saying, "Well that part of my life's over; it's a chapter closed. I suppose I'll just have to settle for being a respectable actor poncing around the West End and doing respectable BBC work for the rest of my life."
The character first appeared in the film Manhunter, which was loosely based on Red Dragon. Lecter (spelled "Lektor" in the film) was played by British actor Brian Cox. Since Red Dragon was considered a remake of Manhunter, it allowed Hopkins to play the iconic villain in adaptations of all three of the best-selling Lecter novels by Thomas Harris. The author was reportedly very pleased with Hopkins' portrayal of his antagonist. However, Hopkins stated that Red Dragon would feature his last performance as the character, and that he would not reprise even a narrative role in the latest addition to the series, Hannibal Rising.
Hopkins has been married three times. His first two wives were Petronella Barker (1967–1972) and Jennifer Lynton (1973–2003). He is now married to Colombia-born Stella Arroyave. He has a daughter from his first marriage, Abigail Hopkins (born 1967), an actress and singer.
Hopkins is an acknowledged alcoholic who has been sober since 1975. Hopkins is known to be a joker while on set, lightening the mood during production by barking like a dog when filming for a scene is started, according to a Tonight Show interview broadcast on 9 April 2007.
Hopkins is a fan of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, and once remarked in an interview how he'd love to appear in the series. Writer John Sullivan saw the interview, and with Hopkins in mind created the character Danny Driscoll, a local villain. However, filming of the new series coincided with the filming of The Silence of the Lambs, meaning Hopkins was unavailable. The role instead went to his friend Roy Marsden.
He won Emmy Awards for his roles in The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case and The Bunker, and was Emmy-nominated for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Great Expectations. He won the directing and the acting award, both for Slipstream, at Switzerland's Locarno International Film Festival. |
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