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Biography
For the composer, see Antony Hopkins.
Hopkins in The World's Fastest Indian
Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs
Sir Anthony Hopkins (IPA: /'æntəni 'hɒpkɪnz/) KBE (born December 31, 1937) is an Oscar winning Welsh-born actor. He was born Philip Anthony Hopkins in Margam, near Port Talbot, Wales. His parents were the late Richard Arthur Hopkins and Muriel Yeats, a distant relation of poet William Butler Yeats. He was influenced and encouraged to become an actor by fellow Welshman Richard Burton, whom he met briefly at the age of fifteen. Hopkins eventually moved to London where he trained as an actor at RADA, at the suggestion of Roy Marsden.
His most famous role was the portrayal of the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the film The Silence of the Lambs (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor) opposite Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, who also won the Academy Award for Best Actress that year. In fact the film won the Academy Award for Best Picture as well that year, no doubt due to the electrifying interplay between Hopkins and Foster. It is the shortest lead acting Oscar-winning performance ever, as Hopkins is only on the screen for about sixteen minutes. Hopkins reprised the role of Dr. Lecter twice in Hannibal and Red Dragon. (Lecter first appears in the film Manhunter, in which the role was played by Brian Cox ). Red Dragon was a remake of Manhunter, which allowed Hopkins to play Lecter in adaptations of all three Lecter novels. Lecter's slurping sound from Silence of the Lambs was apparently improvised; although, Hopkins admits during the Criterion Laserdisc commentary track it may have been influenced by Bela Lugosi (with no remembrance which movie it would be from). All three films were based on the bestselling novels by Thomas Harris, who reportedly was very pleased with Hopkins' portrayal of Lecter.
Hopkins has also been Oscar-nominated for The Remains of the Day (1993), which was based on the award-winning novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. Other Oscar-nominated performances include Nixon (1995) and Amistad (1997). He also won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his perfomances in The Silence of the Lambs and The Remains of the Day.
He has played many famous historical and fictional characters including:
John Quincy Adams (Amistad 1997), William Bligh (The Bounty 1984), Charles Dickens (The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens 1970), John Frost (A Bridge Too Far 1977), Abraham Van Helsing (Bram Stoker's Dracula 1992), Adolf Hitler (The Bunker 1981), C. S. Lewis, (Shadowlands 1993)David Lloyd George (Young Winston 1972), Richard Nixon (Nixon 1995), Othello (Othello 1981), Pablo Picasso (Surviving Picasso 1996), Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1982), Yitzak Rabin (Victory at Entebbe 1976), Richard Lionheart (The Lion in Winter 1968), Titus Andronicus (Titus 1999), and Zorro (The Mask of Zorro 1998).
He was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1987, and a Knight of the British Empire (KBE)in 1993. (Being a higher award within the same order, only the postnominal KBE is used.)
Today, Hopkins also takes time to support various philanthropic groups. Hopkins was past Gala Fundraiser Guest of Honour for Women in Recovery, Inc., a Venice, California-based non-profit organization offering rehabilitation for women in need. He is also a volunteer teacher at the Ruskins School of Acting in Santa Monica, California where he also resides.
He has offered his support to various charities and appeals, notably becoming President of the National Trust's Snowdonia Appeal, raising funds for the preservation of the Snowdonia National Park and to aid the Trust's efforts to purchase parts of Snowdon. A book celebrating these efforts Anthony Hopkins' Snowdonia was published together with Graham Nobles.
In 2006, Hopkins was the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.
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 Stella Arroyave. He has a daughter named Abigail Hopkins (born 1968) from his first marriage.
He now resides in the United States. He became a naturalized citizen on April 12, 2000. He celebrated this by going on a 3,000 mile road trip across the country. However, as a dual national, he retains his knighthood and uses the title 'Sir' in the UK. He never used it in the U.S., even before he became a citizen.
He is an acknowledged alcoholic who has been abstinent since 1975.
Selected filmography
The Lion in Winter (1968)
The Looking Glass War (1969)
Hamlet (1979)
The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens (1970)
The Three Sisters (1970)
Young Winston (1972)
War and Peace (1972)
A Doll's House (1973)
The Girl from Petrovka (1974)
QB VII (1974)
Juggernaut (1974)
Dark Victory (1976)
The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case(1976)
Victory at Entebbe(1976)
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Audrey Rose (1977)
Magic (1978)
International Velvet (1978)
Mayflower: The Pilgrims' Adventure (1979)
The Elephant Man (1980)
A Change of Seasons (1980)
The Bunker (1981)
Peter and Paul (1981)
Othello (1981)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982)
A Married Man (1983)
The Bounty (1984)
Hollywood Wives (1985)
Guilty Conscience (1985)
Mussolini And I (1985)
The Good Father (1985)
84 Charing Cross Road (1987)
Desperate Hours (1990)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Freejack (1992)
Chaplin (1992)
The Efficiency Expert (1992)
Spotswood (1992)
Howards End (1992)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
The Trial (1993)
The Remains of the Day (1993)
Shadowlands (1993)
Legends of the Fall (1994)
The Road to Wellville (1995)
Nixon (1995)
Surviving Picasso (1996)
Amistad (1997)
The Edge (1997)
The Mask of Zorro (1998)
Meet Joe Black (1998)
Instinct (1999)
Titus (1999)
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) (voice only)
The Devil and Daniel Webster (2001)
Hannibal (2001)
Hearts in Atlantis (2001)
Red Dragon (2002)
Bad Company (2002)
The Human Stain (2003)
Alexander (2004)
Proof (2005)
The World's Fastest Indian (2005)
All the King's Men (2006)
Bobby (2006, filming)
Fracture (2006, filming)
Beowulf (2007, post-production))
Papa (2007, pre-production)
Ray Gun (film) (2007)
Harry and the Butler (2006, announced)
Slipstream (2007, announced)
Preceded by:
Jeremy Irons
Best Actor
1991
Succeeded by:
Al Pacino
Trivia
Was playing King Lear on stage at the National Theater while Brian Cox was playing Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter. Years later, during production of The Silence of the Lambs, Cox was playing King Lear at the National Theater.
Has received two Oscar nominations for playing U.S. Presidents. He played Richard Nixon in Nixon, and John Quincy Adams in Amistad.
The drama school at the Southern Institute of Technology in New Zealand was named after him when he was in Invercargill filming The World's Fastest Indian.
