Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins,
CBE (born
December 31,
1937) is a
Welsh film,
stage and
television actor. Considered by many to be one of film's greatest living actors,
[BBC NEWS | Wales | Hopkins 'greatest British actor'][Anthony Hopkins Biography][Anthony Hopkins - Biography][Anthony Hopkins | | guardian.co.uk Film] he is arguably best known for his portrayal of
cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the
1991 blockbuster
The Silence of the Lambs, its sequel,
Hannibal, and its prequel,
Red Dragon. Other notable film credits include
The Elephant Man, Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Remains of the Day, The Mask of Zorro, The World's Fastest Indian, Hearts in Atlantis, Nixon and
Fracture. Hopkins was born and raised in
Wales, and also became a
U.S. citizen on
April 12 2000. He received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003 and was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2008.
Biography
Early life
Hopkins was born in
Margam,
Port Talbot,
Wales, the son of Muriel Anne (
née Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a
baker.
[Stated in interview on Inside the Actors Studio, 2007] His mother is a distant relative of the Irish poet
William Butler Yeats.
His schooldays were unproductive. A loner with
dyslexia, he found that he would rather immerse himself in art, such as painting and drawing or playing the piano, than attend to his studies. In 1949, to instill some discipline, his parents insisted he attend
Jones' West Monmouth Boys' School in
Pontypool,
Wales. He remained there for five terms and was then educated at
Cowbridge Grammar School,
Cowbridge,
Wales.
Hopkins was influenced and encouraged to become an actor by compatriot
Richard Burton, whom he met briefly at the age of 15. To that end, he enrolled at the
Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in
Cardiff,
Wales from which he graduated in 1957. After a two-year spell in the
Army for
National Service, he moved to London where he trained at
RADA.
