Hopkins: The baker’s son who won over Hollywood
AT the age of 83, Sir Anthony Hopkins made history at the Oscars by becoming the oldest person to win the best actor award.
His success comes after a six-decade career in which he has worked alongside greats such as Laurence Olivier, later Lord Olivier, and won praise for complex characters such as the terrifying Hannibal Lecter and the enigmatic Dr Robert Ford in Westworld.
Sir Anthony was born in Port Talbot, South Wales, in 1937, to Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker, and Annie.
He left school at 16 and did his national service. Thanks to a gift for mimicry, he won a scholarship to Cardiff College of Music and Drama and then went on to Rada.
He followed up his drama school training with work in repertory before auditioning for Olivier and joining the National Theatre at the Old Vic in the mid-1960s.
A stroke of luck came soon afterwards. The younger man was the star’s understudy for Strindberg’s The Dance Of Death and got his big chance when Olivier suffered appendicitis.
Olivier later said Sir Anthony “walked away with the part of Edgar like a cat with a mouse between its teeth”.
Stage success was not enough for
Sir Anthony, who longed for the fame and riches promised by the big screen. He grabbed his chance with both hands when The Lion In Winter came along.
But, despite his growing success, he was battling personal demons.
His first marriage, to Petronella Barker in 1967, broke down after two years.
In 1973 he married film-production assistant Jennifer Lynton, whom he met on the set of When Eight Bells Toll. They divorced in 2002.
He battled alcoholism, an affliction which made him, in his own words, “disgusted, busted and not to be trusted”.
After his Oscar win for The Silence Of The Lambs, Sir Anthony was the toast of Hollywood and further big roles beckoned.