Westworld

Season 1 M-Net Edge (*102) 21:00 Sci-fi

Anthony Hopkins hated studying and a chance meeting with film icon Richard Burton at 15 convinced him that acting was his destiny. It was clearly the right decision – Anthony’s got a movie career a mile long (including playing unsettling Dr Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter in 1991 thriller Silence Of The Lambs, for which he won the Best Actor Oscar). He’s now on TV, as Dr Ford in Western sci-fi series Westworld (2016-current).

It seems sci-fi suits the 78-year-old 1

– he’s reprising his role as Norse king god Odin in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok (he first played Odin in Thor and Thor: The Dark World, 2011 and 2013), as well as a yet unknown character in Transformers: The Last Night (2017).

The Welshman loves practical jokes 2

and on the set of 2007 thriller film Fracture he barked like a dog at co-star Ryan Gosling. “I’ll do anything to keep everyone laughing,” says Anthony, “as things get too intense on film sets.”

Anthony hated studying because 3

he’s dyslexic, but he’s got tricks for getting through work and keeping his brain active: “I learn a poem every week and I read my scripts 250 times.”

He was knighted in 1993 by Queen 4

Elizabeth for his service to the creative arts, although he does have one creative blip on his CV – his 1986 song Distant Star. Anthony did redeem himself with his second musical attempt: his 2003 classical album Composer.

Something else he’s had a few tries 5

at is marriage. Anthony’s tied the knot three times, first to actress Petronella Barker from 1966 to 1972, then to production assistant Jennifer Lynton from 1973 to 2002. He married his third wife, actress and producer Stella Arroyave in 2003 and they currently live in a Malibu mansion.