Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins

Born 1937-12-31 (age 88) Margam, Port Talbot, Glamorgan, Wales, UK
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Biography

Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins CBE (born December 31, 1937) is a Welsh actor, film director, and film producer. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards and a British Academy Television Award. He has also received an honorary Golden Globe Award and the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 1993, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts, and in 2003, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his achievements in the motion picture industry.

After graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 1957, Hopkins trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and was then spotted by Laurence Olivier who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre in 1965. Productions at the National included King Lear, his favourite Shakespeare play. His last stage play was a West End production of M. Butterfly in 1989.

In 1968, Hopkins achieved recognition in film, playing Richard the Lionheart in The Lion in Winter. In the mid-1970s, Richard Attenborough, who directed five Hopkins films, called him "the greatest actor of his generation." In 1991, he portrayed Hannibal Lecter in the psychological horror film The Silence of the Lambs, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor. He reprised the role in its sequel Hannibal and the prequel Red Dragon. Other notable films include The Elephant Man (1980), 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), Howards End (1992), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Shadowlands (1993), Legends of the Fall (1994), Meet Joe Black (1998), The Mask of Zorro (1998), Thor (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), and Thor: Ragnarok (2017). He received four more Academy Award nominations for The Remains of the Day (1993), Nixon (1995), Amistad (1997) and The Two Popes (2019) before winning a fourth BAFTA Award and a second Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of an elderly man diagnosed with dementia in The Father (2020), becoming the oldest Best Actor Oscar winner to date.

Since making his television debut with the BBC in 1967, Hopkins has continued to appear on television. In 1973 he received a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his performance in War and Peace. In 2015, he starred in the BBC film The Dresser alongside Ian McKellen. In 2018, he starred in King Lear opposite Emma Thompson. In 2016 and 2018, he starred in the HBO television series Westworld, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

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Known For

Thor: Ragnarok
Thor: Ragnarok

2017

as Odin

Thor
Thor

2011

as Odin

Thor: The Dark World
Legends of the Fall
Legends of the Fall

1994

as Col. William Ludlow

Transformers: The Last Knight
Transformers: The Last Knight

2017

as Sir Edmund Burton

Meet Joe Black
Meet Joe Black

1998

as William Parrish

Bram Stoker's Dracula
Bram Stoker's Dracula

1992

as Professor Abraham Van Helsing

Mission: Impossible II
Mission: Impossible II

2000

as Mission Commander Swanbeck (uncredited)

Fracture
Fracture

2007

as Theodore Crawford

Alexander
Alexander

2004

as Old Ptolemy

How the Grinch Stole Christmas
How the Grinch Stole Christmas

2000

as Narrator (voice)

The Mask of Zorro
The Mask of Zorro

1998

as Don Diego de la Vega / Zorro

RED 2
RED 2

2013

as Bailey

Noah
Noah

2014

as Methuselah

Locked
Locked

2025

as William

Beowulf
Beowulf

2007

as Hrothgar

Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire
The Father
The Father

2020

as Anthony

The Elephant Man
The Elephant Man

1980

as Frederick Treves

The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs

1991

as Dr. Hannibal Lecter