Oh yes it is! When Gary Oldman, our big hope at the Oscars, was a pantomime cat
HE is favourite to be named best actor at Sunday’s Oscars for his barnstorming portrayal of Winston Churchill.
But as these pictures show, it has been a long path to stardom for Gary Oldman – including a stint as a pantomime cat.
In never-before-seen images he is shown in his first professional productions aged 21, months after graduating from drama school.
And they prove the 59-year-old – who spent four hours in make-up every day to be transformed into Churchill for Darkest Hour – has plenty of experience with the costume department.
He wore a furry cat costume with face paint and glued-on whiskers in Dick Whittington at the York Theatre Royal at Christmas 1979.
The London-born star also appeared in the comedy Privates On Parade that November at the same theatre. A photo shows him standing to attention in a khaki uniform while an enraged corporal points a stick at him. The character is wearing the kind of dark-rimmed glasses the actor still favours today. Now one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors, he is still sentimental about his early stage days, says a co-star from the time.
Actor Michael Simkins recalled that when he ran into Oldman he told him: ‘I’m a movie star, I live in LA, I’ve had everything the business could offer me. But there are times when I’d throw it all away, just for one week back doing Privates On Parade at York.’
Months before these pictures were taken, the actor had graduated from the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Sidcup, Kent, with a degree in acting – having first been rejected by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where an interviewer told him to find a ‘new way of earning a living’.
His career has gone from strength to strength, with his portrayal of Churchill already earning him a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Bafta. At Sunday’s Oscars in Los Angeles he will face competition from fellow Britons Daniel Day-Lewis and Daniel Kaluuya, as well as Denzel Washington and Timothee Chalamet.
Oscar-nominated films with a female lead are more profitable than their male-led counterparts. A BBC analysis has shown they earn higher box office returns, despite usually having lower production budgets.