Anthony Hopkins

Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor widely regarded as one of Britain's most familiar and hardworking performers, with a career spanning stage and screen. His many honors include two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Laurence Olivier Award. He also received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2005 and the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2008. In 1993, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for his contributions to drama.

Hopkins graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 1957 and later trained at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Laurence Olivier noticed him and invited him to join the Royal National Theatre in 1965. There, he performed in productions such as *King Lear*, *Coriolanus*, *Macbeth*, and *Antony and Cleopatra*. In 1985, he won a Laurence Olivier Award for his role in David Hare's play *Pravda*. His final stage performance was in the West End production of *M. Butterfly* in 1989.

His early film work includes *The Lion in Winter* (1968), *A Bridge Too Far* (1977), *Magic* (1978), and *The Elephant Man* (1980). He won his first Academy Award for Best Actor for playing Hannibal Lecter in *The Silence of the Lambs* (1991) and his second for portraying an elderly man with dementia in *The Father* (2020). He also earned Oscar nominations for *The Remains of the Day* (1993), *Nixon* (1995), *Amistad* (1997), and *The Two Popes* (2019). Other notable films include *84 Charing Cross Road* (1987), *Howards End* (1992), *Bram Stoker's Dracula* (1992), *Shadowlands* (1993), *Legends of the Fall* (1994), *The Mask of Zorro* (1998), and the Marvel Cinematic Universe films *Thor* (2011), *Thor: The Dark World* (2013), and *Thor: Ragnarok* (2017).

On television, Hopkins won a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his role in *War and Peace* (1972). He received two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for *The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case* (1976) and *The Bunker* (1981). Other notable TV projects include the BBC film *The Dresser* (2015), PBS's *King Lear* (2018), and the HBO series *Westworld* (2016–2018).

Born in the Margam district of Port Talbot, Wales, on 31 December 1937, Hopkins is the son of Annie Muriel (née Yeates) and baker Richard Arthur Hopkins. One of his grandfathers came from Wiltshire, England. He has said his father's working-class values have always grounded him, recalling his father's "hardened, broken hands." His school years were unproductive; he preferred painting, drawing, and playing the piano to studying. In 1949, his parents sent him to Jones' West Monmouth Boys' School in Pontypool to instill discipline. After five terms, he attended Cowbridge Grammar School in the Vale of Glamorgan. In a 2002 interview, he said, "I was a poor learner, which left me open to ridicule and gave me an inferiority complex. I grew up absolutely convinced I was stupid."

Hopkins was inspired by fellow Welsh actor Richard Burton, whom he met at age 15. He later called Burton "very gracious, very nice" but clarified, "I don't know where everyone gets the idea we were good friends. I suppose it's because we are both Welsh and grew up near the same town. For the record, I didn't really know him at all." He enrolled at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, graduating in 1957. He met Burton again in 1975 when Burton took over Hopkins's role as the psychiatrist in Peter Shaffer's *Equus*. Hopkins said, "He was a phenomenal actor. So was Peter O'Toole – they were wonderful, larger-than-life characters." He completed his national service with the British Army's Royal Artillery regiment from 1958 to 1960, then moved to London to study at RADA, graduating in 1963.

Hopkins made his first professional stage appearance in 1960 at the Palace Theatre in Swansea, performing in Swansea Little Theatre's production of *Have a Cigarette*. After several years in repertory, Laurence Olivier spotted him in 1965 and invited him to join the Royal National Theatre in London. Hopkins became Olivier's understudy and stepped in when Olivier had appendicitis during a 1967 production of August Strindberg's *The Dance of Death*. Olivier wrote 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." Until that night, Hopkins had always been nervous before going on stage, but he later quoted Olivier's advice: "He said: 'Remember: "nerves" is vanity – you're wondering what people think of you; to hell with them, just jump off the edge'. It was great advice."

Hopkins made his television debut in a 1967 BBC broadcast of *A Flea in Her Ear*. His first starring film role came in 1964 in the short *Changes*, directed by Drewe Henley and co-starring Jacqueline Pearce. In 1968, he landed his breakthrough role as Richard the Lionheart in *The Lion in Winter*, earning a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He portrayed Charles Dickens in the 1970 BBC television film *The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens* and Pierre Bezukhov in the BBC miniseries *War and Peace* (1972), for which he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.