- Born
- Birth namePhilip Anthony Hopkins
- Nickname
- Tony
- Height5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
- Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, he moved to London and joined the National Theatre, invited by Laurence Olivier, who could see the talent in Hopkins. In 1967, he made his first film for television, A Flea in Her Ear (1967).
From this moment on, he enjoyed a successful career in cinema and television. In 1968, he worked on The Lion in Winter (1968) with Timothy Dalton. Many successes came later, and Hopkins' remarkable acting style reached the four corners of the world. In 1977, he appeared in two major films: A Bridge Too Far (1977) with James Caan, Gene Hackman, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Elliott Gould and Laurence Olivier, and Maximilian Schell. In 1980, he worked on The Elephant Man (1980). Two good television literature adaptations followed: Othello (1981) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982). In 1987 he was awarded with the Commander of the order of the British Empire. This year was also important in his cinematic life, with 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), acclaimed by specialists. In 1993, he was knighted.
In the 1990s, Hopkins acted in movies like Desperate Hours (1990) and Howards End (1992), The Remains of the Day (1993) (nominee for the Oscar), Legends of the Fall (1994), Nixon (1995) (nominee for the Oscar), Surviving Picasso (1996), Amistad (1997) (nominee for the Oscar), The Mask of Zorro (1998), Meet Joe Black (1998) and Instinct (1999). His most remarkable film, however, was The Silence of the Lambs (1991), for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor. He also got a B.A.F.T.A. for this role.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Emerenciano
- SpousesStella Hopkins(March 1, 2003 - present)Jennifer Lynton(January 13, 1973 - April 30, 2002) (divorced)Petronella Barker(September 2, 1967 - 1972) (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- ParentsMuriel Anne Hopkins (Yeats)Richard Arthur Hopkins
- Hair greased back and bold blue eyes
- Often plays very proper and restrained British characters, as in The Remains of the Day (1993) and Shadowlands (1993).
- Often plays malevolent real life individuals, William Bligh in The Bounty (1984), Adolf Hitler in The Bunker (1981), Richard Bruno Hauptmann in The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976), and Richard Nixon in Nixon (1995)
- Character of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- Often worked with Richard Attenborough
- Reads each script 250 times out loud before filming, and to exercise his memory, memorizes one new poem a week.
- Is proud of his improvisational touches as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) such as: the unnerving effect on Jodie Foster when he mocked her character's West Virginia accent; the distorion of the word "chianti" and the vile slurping sound he makes after he describes eating the "census-taker." Hopkins also notes that Hannibal never blinked his eyes when he spoke.
- Though dyslexic, he's always possessed a great memory for scripts.
- 1975: Conquered his alcoholic addiction.
- Had a brush with death while shooting The Edge (1997) in Alberta, Canada. He fell in a river, and was rushed to hospital to be treated for hypothermia.
- [on Gary Oldman] He is just like I was at his age.
- I was lousy in school. Real screwed-up. A moron. I was antisocial and didn't bother with the other kids. A really bad student. I didn't have any brains. I didn't know what I was doing there. That's why I became an actor.
- [Interviewed on Inside the Actors Studio (1994)] I once asked a Jesuit priest what was the best short prayer he knew. He said, "Fuck it,' as in, "Fuck it; it's in God's hands."
- The Welsh people have a talent for acting that one does not find in the English. The English lack heart.
- [December 1998] To hell with this stupid show business, this ridiculous showbiz, this futile waste of life. I look back and see a desert wasteland. All those years spent in a fake environment. Everything was a fake.
- The Wolfman (2010) - $15,000,000
- Red Dragon (2002) - $20,000,000
- Hannibal (2001) - $15,000,000
- Mission: Impossible II (2000) - $5,000,000
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