Sir Anthony Hopkins, CBE (born on December 31, 1937) is a Welsh actor who was born Philip Anthony Hopkins in Margam, near Port Talbot, Wales the late Richard Arthur Hopkins and Muriel Yeats, who is a distant relation of poet William Butler Yeats. He was strongly influenced and encouraged to become an actor by fellow Welshman Richard Burton, whom he met briefly at the age of fifteen.
He conquered alcoholism in 1975 and has not touched a drop since, drinking carbonated apple juice at his March 2003 wedding. He now resides in the United States where he became a naturalized citizen on April 12, 2000. However, as a dual national, he retains his knighthood and can use the title 'Sir' in the UK, but not in the US, since it is considered 'inappropriate' according to the British consulate.
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.
His most famous role was the brilliant 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 superb and 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. 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 of Hopkins include: Nixon (1995) and Amistad (1997). Hopkins 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: Zorro (The Mask of Zorro 1998), Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1982), Othello (Othello 1981), Pablo Picasso (Surviving Picasso 1996), Richard Nixon (Nixon 1995), Titus Andronicus (Titus 1999), John Quincy Adams (Amistad 1997), Adolf Hitler (The Bunker 1981), Charles Dickens (The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens 1970), William Bligh (The Bounty 1984), Richard Lionheart (The Lion in Winter 1968), David Lloyd George (Young Winston 1972), Abraham Van Helsing (Bram Stoker's Dracula 1992), Yitzak Rabin (Victory at Entebbe 1976) and C. S. Lewis (Shadowlands 1993).
He was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1987, and knighted in 1993.
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 a live-in, 12-step program of rehabilitation for women in need. Other past honorees of this organization have included Jamie Lee Curtis; the 2005 honoree was Angela Lansbury.
He has offered his personal 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 Mount Snowdon. A book celebrating these efforts Anthony Hopkins' Snowdonia was published together with Graham Nobles.
Anthony Hopkins: 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.
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