Anthony Hopkins wins best actor Oscar for ‘The Father’
LONDON: Anthony Hopkins has spent a glitering career exploring the full depths of human experience, whether playing the sadistic Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs” or a frail and frightened dementia sufferer in “The Father”. But long before making the transition from psychopathic cannibal to a weakened man facing his own death, the Welsh-born naturalised American had earned his place in acting’s halls of fame with decades of stage and screen performances. “I keep it simple. Just learn the lines and show up,” was how the 83-year-old described his method of acting, preferring to endlessly go over his script so he could “do it without thinking”. On Sunday, he added another shiny award to his trophy case — his second Oscar for best actor. Hopkins was not present in Los Angeles or at a separate London venue to accept the golden statuete.
But with it, he became the oldest actor in Oscars history to win a competitive award, surpassing the late Christopher Plummer, who won at age 82. Born on December 31, 1937 in Port Talbot, south Wales, hopkins has played hundreds of roles, from Adolf Hitler to Richard Nixon, Pablo Picasso, Quasimodo, and Richard the Lionheart to Macbeth, King Lear and Prospero in “The Tempest”. An only child born to a family of bakers, Hopkins showed litle of his later brilliance at school — he described himself as a “slow” learner — and found confidence only in playing the piano.
When he was 15, Hopkins had an encounter that would change his life — a meeting with the actor Richard Burton, who was also born in Port Talbot and had returned to the town for some filming. Hopkins was entranced and, summoning up his courage to ask the legendary star for a photograph, he decided an acting life would enable him to escape both his home life and personal solitude. Yet he later said it was partly this solitude and introspection — and for years, a batle with alcohol that saw him drink himself “almost into the guter” — that helped him produce some of his best work.
Hopkins studied at London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and ater a time in repertory theatre, joined the National Theatre Company, working under its lead star, Laurence Olivier. While continuing his stage work, he made his film debut as King Richard I in “The Lion in Winter” (1968), alongside Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’toole. A steady stream of film and television work followed, and in 1974 he decided to try his luck in the United States, where he stayed for 10 years. The 1970s did not provide any great breakthroughs, although he did appear in “The Elephant Man” (1980) with John Hurt and John Gielgud, which was nominated for eight Oscars. He finally cracked the US market, winning an Oscar and critical acclaim — as well as terrifying a whole generation of cinema-goers — as Lecter, the fine art and classical music-loving cannibal in “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991).
The film — to which he returned 10 years later with the sequel “Hannibal” and prequel “Red Dragon” (2002) — was followed by a series of successes. Hopkins was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 1993, the same year in which he played the butoned-up butler Stevens in “The Remains of the Day”, for which he earned an Oscar nod. He was nominated again for a towering performance in the title role of “Nixon” (1995). Another nomination came for “Amistad” (1997), while he won a Bata for playing C.S. Lewis in Richard Atenborough’s “Shadowlands”. His fith Oscar nomination came in 2020 for his portrayal of Benedict XVI in “The Two Popes”, starring alongside Jonathan Pryce. And then he made “The Father”, a film that melds the thriller and horror genres to take viewers on a disorientating journey inside his character’s fastslipping mind. Hopkins’ performance won him a Bata this month as best male leading actor.