European postcard. Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991).
Chinese postcard. Anthony Hopkins in The Father (Florian Zeller, 2020).
The Victorian surgeon who rescues a heavily disfigured man
Philip Anthony Hopkins was born in 1937, in Margam, Wales. He was the only child of Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a couple who ran a bakery. His early ambition was to be a concert pianist. Hopkins was inspired by fellow Welsh actor Richard Burton, whom he met at 15. The meeting influenced him to study at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. After graduating in 1957, he served two years in the British Army before beginning his acting career.
In 1960, Hopkins made his debut at Manchester's Library Theatre. He then joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts for two years. After graduating, he spent three seasons at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1964 Hopkins composed a waltz named 'And The Waltz Goes On' but kept it in a drawer for many years until his wife contacted Dutch violinist and conductor André Rieu in 2010. Rieu arranged the piece and it premiered in Vienna in 2011 in the presence of Anthony Hopkins. Rieu included the waltz in his playlist for his next tour and produced a CD named after the waltz.
In 1965, Laurence Olivier spotted Hopkins and invited him to join the Royal National Theatre. Productions at the National included 'King Lear', 'Coriolanus', 'Macbeth', and 'Antony and Cleopatra'. In 1967, he made his first film for television, the comedy A Flea in Her Ear (Michael Hayes, 1967), based on the play by Georges Feydeau. From that moment on, he enjoyed a successful career in cinema and television. He had his breakthrough as Richard the Lionheart in the historical drama A Lion in Winter (Anthony Harvey, 1968) with Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn. He portrayed Charles Dickens in the television film The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens (1970), and Pierre Bezukhov in the mini-series War and Peace (1972), receiving the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his performance in the latter.
Making a name for himself as a screen actor, he appeared in the Neo-Noir action thriller The Looking Glass War (Frank Pierson, 1970), and When Eight Bells Toll (Étienne Périer, 1971). Hopkins starred as British politician David Lloyd George in Young Winston (1972), the first of five collaborations with director Richard Attenborough. In 1977, he appeared in Attenborough's all-star war epic A Bridge Too Far (Richard Attenborough, 1977) with James Caan, Gene Hackman, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Elliott Gould, Laurence Olivier, and Maximilian Schell. The following year, he starred in Attenborough's psychological horror film Magic (Richard Attenborough, 1978) about a demonic ventriloquist's puppet with critic Gene Siskel adding it as "one of the best films of the year".
In 1980, Hopkins played the Victorian surgeon who rescues a heavily disfigured man (John Hurt) in The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980). In 1981, he starred in the television film The Bunker (George Schaefer, 1981) portraying Adolf Hitler during weeks in and around his underground bunker in Berlin before and during the Battle of Berlin. He won an Emmy Award for his role. Two good television literature adaptations followed: Othello (Jonathan Miller, 1981) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Michael Tuchner, Alan Hume, 1982). In both, he played the title role. In 1985, he received great acclaim and a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in the David Hare play 'Pravda'. In 1987, he was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire. That year, he starred opposite Anne Bancroft in 84 Charing Cross Road (David Hugh Jones, 1987), acclaimed by film critics. His last stage play was a West End production of 'M. Butterfly' in 1989.
British postcard by Pyramid, Leicester, no. PC 2097. Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991).
British postcard by Heroes Publishing Ltd., London, no. SPC2581. Photo: Cary Elwes, Richard Grant, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, and Billy Campbell in Dracula (Francis Coppola, 1992).
Psychiatrist and serial killer
In 1991, Anthony Hopkins co-starred with Jodie Foster in his most remarkable film, The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991). For his role as psychiatrist and serial killer Hannibal Lecter, he won the Oscar and the BAFTA for Best Actor. He gave Lecter some improvisational touches such as the unnerving effect on Jodie Foster when he mocked her character's West Virginia accent; the distortion 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, a characteristic Hopkins picked up from watching tapes of convicted murderer Charles Manson.
Hopkins later reprised the role, returning to the iconic villain in adaptations of the first three of the Lecter novels by Thomas Harris. He chose to play Prof. Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Coppola, 1992) because he wanted to pick a role as far removed from Lecter as possible. In the 1990s, Hopkins acted in other films like Desperate Hours (Michael Cimino, 1990) with Mickey Rourke, Howards End (James Ivory, 1992) with Emma Thompson, and Legends of the Fall (Edward Zwick, 1994) with Brad Pitt.
In 1993, he was knighted. He was again an Oscar nominee for The Remains of the Day (James Ivory, 1993), Nixon (Oliver Stone, 1995) and Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997) starring Djimon Hounsou. He also starred in Surviving Picasso (James Ivory, 1996), The Mask of Zorro (Martin Campbell, 1998) starring Antonio Banderas, Meet Joe Black (Martin Brest, 1998) and Instinct (Jon Turteltaub, 1999). Hopkins was Britain's highest-paid performer in 1998.
In 2000, he became a U.S. citizen but was allowed to retain his British knighthood and the title of Sir. In 2003, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He appeared as Odin, the Allfather or 'king' of Asgard, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Thor franchise (Kenneth Branagh, 2011–2017) starring Chris Hemsworth. Hopkins portrayed Alfred Hitchcock in the biopic Hitchcock (Sacha Gervasi, 2012) alongside Helen Mirren who played Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville. The film focuses on the filming of Psycho and that which followed. Notable TV projects include The Dresser (Richard Eyre, 2015) with Ian McKellen, King Lear (Richard Eyre, 2018), and the series Westworld (2016–2018).
He was again nominated for an Oscar for The Two Popes (Fernando Meirelles, 2019), with Jonathan Pryce. He became the oldest person to win an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role when he won for his performance as an octogenarian with dementia in The Father (Florian Zeller, 2020) with Olivia Colman. Hopkins was 83 years old at the time of the ceremony. Two years later, he appeared with Hugh Jackman in Zeller's The Son (Florian Zeller, 2022). A year later he starred as Sigmund Freud in Freud's Last Session (Matt Brown, 2023) and as Sir Nicholas 'Nicky' Winton, who as a young London broker rescued over 600 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia in One Life (James Hawes, 2023). Anthony Hopkins married three times, to Petronella Barker (1967-1972), Jennifer Lynton (1973-2002) and Stella Hopkins (2003-present). With Barker, he has a daughter, Abigail Hopkins.
British postcard by Film Review, set M, card 1. Photo: Columbia TriStar Films. Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins in Legends of the Fall (Edward Zwick, 1994).
German postcard by Memory Cards, no. 496. Photo: Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins in The Mask of Zorro (Martin Campbell, 1998).
Vintage postcard by Iauiuasinu. Photo: Lorenzo Agius / MGM. Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore in Hannibal (Ridley Scott, 2001).
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.
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