96 Facts About Anthony Hopkins

Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins was born on 31 December 1937 and is a Welsh actor.

Anthony Hopkins has received the Cecil B DeMille Award in 2005 and the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2008.

Anthony Hopkins was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama in 1993.

Anthony Hopkins was then spotted by Laurence Olivier, who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre in 1965.

Anthony Hopkins's last stage play was a West End production of M Butterfly in 1989.

Anthony Hopkins won two Academy Awards for Best Actor for playing Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs and an octogenarian with dementia in The Father, becoming the oldest Best Actor Oscar winner for the latter.

Anthony Hopkins won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case and The Bunker.

Philip Anthony Hopkins was born in the Margam district of Port Talbot, Wales, on 31 December 1937, the son of Annie Muriel and baker Richard Arthur Hopkins.

Anthony Hopkins was inspired by fellow Welsh actor Richard Burton, whom he met at the age of 15.

Anthony Hopkins made his first professional stage appearance in the Palace Theatre, Swansea, in 1960 with Swansea Little Theatre's production of Have a Cigarette.

Anthony Hopkins became Olivier's understudy, and filled in when Olivier was struck with appendicitis during a 1967 production of August Strindberg's The Dance of Death.

Anthony Hopkins made his small-screen debut in a 1967 BBC broadcast of A Flea in Her Ear.

Anthony Hopkins's first starring role in a film came in 1964 in Changes, a short directed by Drewe Henley, written and produced by James Scott and co-starring Jacqueline Pearce.

In 1968, Anthony Hopkins got his break in The Lion in Winter playing Richard the Lionheart, a performance which saw him nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Anthony Hopkins portrayed Charles Dickens in the BBC television film The Great Inimitable Mr Dickens in 1970, and Pierre Bezukhov in the BBC's mini series War and Peace, receiving the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his performance in the latter.

The first of five collaborations with director Richard Attenborough, in 1972 Anthony Hopkins starred as British politician David Lloyd George in Young Winston.

Anthony Hopkins starred in a film adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play A Doll's House alongside Claire Bloom, Ralph Richardson, Denholm Elliott, and Edith Evans.

In October 1974, Anthony Hopkins played the psychologist Dysart in the original Broadway production of Sir Peter Shaffer's play Equus, starring opposite Peter Firth.

In 1979, Anthony Hopkins appeared as Prospero in a production of The Tempest held at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

Anthony Hopkins's Hitler is mad, often contemptible, but always understandable.

Anthony Hopkins is not made sympathetic, exactly, but he is given decidedly pathetic dimensions, making him just that much more acceptable as a dramatic and historical character.

In 1983, Anthony Hopkins became a company member of The Mirror Theater Ltd's Repertory Company.

Anthony Hopkins starred in Strangers and Brothers, Arch of Triumph, Guilty Conscience, Mussolini and I, and The Tenth Man.

In 1985, Anthony Hopkins starred opposite Colin Firth in the Arthur Schnitzler play The Lonely Road at The Old Vic in London.

The next year, he starred as Mark Antony in the National Theatre production of Antony and Cleopatra opposite Judi Dench, and in 1989, Hopkins made his last appearance on stage in a West End production of M Butterfly.

Anthony Hopkins received his fourth Primetime Emmy Award nomination, this time for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.

Anthony Hopkins won acclaim among critics and audiences as the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1991, with Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, who won for Best Actress.

The film won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, and Anthony Hopkins picked up his first BAFTA for Best Actor.

Anthony Hopkins reprised his role as Lecter twice; in Ridley Scott's Hannibal, and Red Dragon.

Anthony Hopkins reprised the role, returning to the iconic villain in adaptations of the first three of the Lecter novels by Thomas Harris.

However, Anthony Hopkins stated that Red Dragon would feature his final performance as the character and that he would not reprise even a narrative role in the latest addition to the series, Hannibal Rising.

Anthony Hopkins acted alongside Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter where he played the cold businessman Henry Wilcox.

David Hunter of The Hollywood Reporter praised Anthony Hopkins' performance describing it as "colossal" and a "tour de force".

Anthony Hopkins was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance and received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor.

Anthony Hopkins acknowledged and respected him like a fellow actor.

Anthony Hopkins would spend hours just looking at Bart and admiring him.

Anthony Hopkins did so many of his own scenes with Bart.

In 2000, Anthony Hopkins narrated Ron Howard's live action remake of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Anthony Hopkins then reprised the role of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs sequel simply entitled Hannibal.

Anthony Hopkins starred in the third film in the series Red Dragon alongside Ralph Fiennes, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

In 2003, Anthony Hopkins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Anthony Hopkins stated that his role as Burt Munro, whom he portrayed in his 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian, was his favourite.

Anthony Hopkins asserted that Munro was the easiest role that he had played because both men have a similar outlook on life.

In 2006, Hopkins was the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.

On 24 February 2010, it was announced that Anthony Hopkins had been cast in The Rite, which was released on 28 January 2011.

Anthony Hopkins played a priest who is "an expert in exorcisms and whose methods are not necessarily traditional".

Anthony Hopkins portrayed Odin, the Allfather or "king" of Asgard, in the 2011 film adaptation of Marvel Comics' Thor and would go on to reprise his role as Odin in Thor: The Dark World in 2013, and again in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok.

Anthony Hopkins portrayed Alfred Hitchcock in Sacha Gervasi's biopic Hitchcock alongside Helen Mirren who played Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville.

Anthony Hopkins starred in the comedy action film Red 2 as the main antagonist Edward Bailey.

Anthony Hopkins played Order of the Witwiccans member Sir Edmund Burton in Transformers: The Last Knight which was released in June 2017.

In October 2015, Anthony Hopkins appeared as Sir in a BBC Two production of Ronald Harwood's The Dresser, alongside Ian McKellen, Edward Fox and Emily Watson.

Anthony Hopkins starred as Lear in the 2018 television film King Lear acting alongside Emma Thompson, Florence Pugh, and Jim Broadbent which was broadcast on BBC Two on 28 May 2018.

Anthony Hopkins received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for his performance.

In 2019, Anthony Hopkins portrayed Pope Benedict XVI opposite Jonathan Pryce as Pope Francis in Fernando Meirelles's The Two Popes.

In 2020, Anthony Hopkins played a man struggling with Alzheimer's disease in The Father.

Anthony Hopkins mentioned how lucky he's been over the past five years working with Ian McKellen in The Dresser, Emma Thompson in King Lear, and Jonathan Pryce in The Two Popes.

Anthony Hopkins won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in The Father, making it his fourth BAFTA and his third for Best Actor.

Anthony Hopkins won a second Academy Award for Best Actor for his role, becoming the oldest person to win an acting Oscar.

Anthony Hopkins received positive reviews for his turn as a kindly elderly grandfather.

Scott of The New York Times wrote, "Anthony Hopkins finds the essential grit hiding underneath the twinkle".

In 2023, Anthony Hopkins starred as stockbroker and humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton in the biographical drama film One Life, and played Sigmund Freud in Freud's Last Session.

Anthony Hopkins appeared in the Netflix science fiction film Rebel Moon directed by Zack Snyder.

In 2024, Anthony Hopkins portrayed Herod the Great in the Netflix film Mary.

Anthony Hopkins has offered his support to various charities and appeals, notably becoming President of the National Trust's Snowdonia Appeal, raising funds for the preservation of Snowdonia National Park in north Wales.

Anthony Hopkins has been a patron of the YMCA centre in his home town of Port Talbot, south Wales, for more than 20 years, having first joined the YMCA in the 1950s.

Anthony Hopkins was a Guest of Honour at a Gala Fundraiser for Women in Recovery, Inc.

Anthony Hopkins is a volunteer teacher at the Ruskin School of Acting in Santa Monica, California.

Anthony Hopkins served as the Honorary Patron of The New Heritage Theatre Company in Boise, Idaho from 1997 to 2007, participating in fundraising and marketing efforts for the repertory theatre.

Anthony Hopkins is a prominent member of the environmental protection group Greenpeace and as of early 2008 featured in a television advertisement campaign, voicing concerns about whaling in Japan.

Anthony Hopkins has been a patron of RAPt since its early days and in 1992 helped open their first intensive drug and alcohol rehabilitation unit at Downview, a women's prison in Surrey, England.

Anthony Hopkins is an admirer of the late Welsh comedian Tommy Cooper.

Anthony Hopkins has written music for the concert hall, in collaboration with Stephen Barton as orchestrator.

On 31 October 2011, Andre Rieu released an album including a waltz which Anthony Hopkins had composed in 1964, at the age of 26.

Anthony Hopkins had never heard his composition, "And the Waltz Goes On", before it was premiered by Rieu's orchestra in Vienna; Rieu's album was given the same name as Anthony Hopkins's piece.

In January 2012, Anthony Hopkins released an album of classical music, entitled Composer, performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and released on CD via the UK radio station Classic FM.

In 1990, Anthony Hopkins directed a film about his Welsh compatriot, poet Dylan Thomas, titled Dylan Thomas: Return Journey, which was his directing debut for the screen.

In 1997, Anthony Hopkins narrated the BBC natural documentary series, Killing for a Living, which showed predatory behaviour in nature.

Anthony Hopkins narrated episode 1 through 3 before being replaced by John Shrapnel.

Anthony Hopkins indicated in interviews that once he has committed to a project, he will go over his lines as many times as is needed until the lines sound natural to him, so that he can "do it without thinking".

Anthony Hopkins has stated that after he is finished with a scene, he simply discards the lines, not remembering them later on.

Whereas Anthony Hopkins preferred the spontaneity of a fresh take and liked to keep rehearsals to a minimum, Winger rehearsed continuously.

In Steven Spielberg's Amistad, Anthony Hopkins astounded the crew with his memorisation of a seven-page courtroom speech, delivering it in one go.

Anthony Hopkins is a well-known mimic, adept at turning his native Welsh accent into whatever is required by a character.

Anthony Hopkins has said acting "like a submarine" has helped him to deliver credible performances in his thrillers.

Anthony Hopkins moved to the United States once before, during the late 1970s, to pursue his film career, but returned to London in the late 1980s.

Anthony Hopkins was married to actress Petronella Barker from 1966 to 1972, Jennifer Lynton from 1973 to 2002, and Stella Arroyave since 2003.

Anthony Hopkins met Arroyave, a Colombian-born antiques dealer, in the early 2000s, and he credits her with helping him overcome his feelings of depression at the time.

Anthony Hopkins is a recovering alcoholic; he has stayed sober since just after Christmas 1975.

In January 2017, in an interview with The Desert Sun, Anthony Hopkins said that he had been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome three years earlier, but that he was "high end".

Anthony Hopkins has a pet cat named Niblo, which he adopted in Budapest.

Anthony Hopkins is a fan of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, and once remarked in an interview how he would love to appear in the series.

Anthony Hopkins was appointed a CBE in 1987 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to the arts" at Buckingham Palace in 1993.

Anthony Hopkins was made a freeman of his home town, Port Talbot, in 1996.

Anthony Hopkins has received numerous accolades for his performances, including two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Laurence Olivier Award as well as nominations for eight Golden Globe Awards and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Anthony Hopkins has been honoured with various lifetime achievement awards for his work in film and television.

Anthony Hopkins has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003.