56 Facts About Daniel Day-Lewis

Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis was born on 29 April 1957 and is an English retired actor.

In 2014, Day-Lewis received a knighthood for services to drama.

Daniel Day-Lewis shifted between theatre and film for most of the early 1980s, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company and playing Romeo Montague in Romeo and Juliet and Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Daniel Day-Lewis earned Academy Awards for his roles in My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood, and Lincoln.

Daniel Day-Lewis retired from acting from 1997 to 2000, taking up a new profession as an apprentice shoe-maker in Italy.

Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis was born on 29 April 1957 in Kensington, London, the second child of poet Cecil Day-Lewis and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon.

Daniel Day-Lewis's father, who was born in the Irish town of Ballintubbert, County Laois, was of Protestant Anglo-Irish descent, lived in England from age two, and was appointed Poet Laureate in 1968.

Daniel Day-Lewis's mother was Jewish; her Jewish ancestors were immigrants to England in the late 19th century, from Latvia and Poland.

Daniel Day-Lewis mastered the local accent and mannerisms, and credits that as being his first convincing performance.

In 1968, Daniel Day-Lewis's parents, finding his behaviour to be too wild, sent him as a boarder to the independent Sevenoaks School in Kent.

Daniel Day-Lewis's sister was already a student there, and it had a more relaxed and creative ethos.

Daniel Day-Lewis made his film debut at age 14 in Sunday Bloody Sunday, in which he played a vandal in an uncredited role.

Daniel Day-Lewis's father had pancreatic cancer, and Howard invited the family to Lemmons as a place they could use to rest and recuperate.

Daniel Day-Lewis was turned down due to lack of experience.

Daniel Day-Lewis was accepted at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which he attended for three years along with Miranda Richardson, eventually performing at the Bristol Old Vic itself.

John Hartoch, Daniel Day-Lewis's acting teacher at Bristol Old Vic, recalled:.

Daniel Day-Lewis seemed to have something burning beneath the surface.

Eleven years after his film debut, Daniel Day-Lewis had a small part in the film Gandhi as Colin, a South African street thug who racially bullies the title character.

Daniel Day-Lewis next joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In 1985, Daniel Day-Lewis gave his first critically acclaimed performance playing a young gay English man in an interracial relationship with a Pakistani youth in the film My Beautiful Laundrette.

Daniel Day-Lewis progressed his personal version of method acting in 1989 with his performance as Christy Brown in Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot.

Daniel Day-Lewis prepared for the role by making frequent visits to Sandymount School Clinic in Dublin, where he formed friendships with several people with disabilities, some of whom had no speech.

Daniel Day-Lewis returned to the stage in 1989 to work with Richard Eyre, as the title character in Hamlet at the National Theatre, London, but during a performance collapsed during the scene where the ghost of Hamlet's father appears before him.

Daniel Day-Lewis began sobbing uncontrollably, and refused to go back on stage; he was replaced by Jeremy Northam, who gave a triumphant performance.

Daniel Day-Lewis later explained that this was more of a metaphor than a hallucination.

Daniel Day-Lewis starred in the American film The Last of the Mohicans, based on a novel by James Fenimore Cooper.

Daniel Day-Lewis added to his wood-working skills, and learned how to make canoes.

Daniel Day-Lewis carried a long rifle at all times during filming to remain in character.

Daniel Day-Lewis returned to work with Jim Sheridan on In the Name of the Father in which he played Gerry Conlon, one of the Guildford Four, who were wrongfully convicted of a bombing carried out by the Provisional IRA.

Daniel Day-Lewis insisted that crew members throw cold water at him and verbally abuse him.

Daniel Day-Lewis returned to the US in 1993, playing Newland Archer in Martin Scorsese's adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel The Age of Innocence.

In 1996, Daniel Day-Lewis starred in the film adaptation of Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible reunited with Winona Ryder, and starring alongside Paul Scofield, and Joan Allen.

Daniel Day-Lewis followed that with Jim Sheridan's The Boxer alongside Emily Watson, starring as a former boxer and IRA member recently released from prison.

Daniel Day-Lewis's preparation included training with former boxing world champion Barry McGuigan.

Daniel Day-Lewis moved to Florence, Italy, where he became intrigued by the craft of shoe-making.

Daniel Day-Lewis took on the role of villainous gang leader William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting, starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, who played Bill's young protege as well as Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C Reilly, Brendan Gleeson, and Liam Neeson.

The film divided critics while Daniel Day-Lewis received plaudits for his portrayal of Bill the Butcher.

In winning the Best Actor Oscar, Daniel Day-Lewis joined Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson as the only Best Actor winner awarded an Oscar in two non-consecutive decades.

In 2009, Daniel Day-Lewis starred in Rob Marshall's musical adaptation Nine as film director Guido Contini.

Daniel Day-Lewis portrayed Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's biopic Lincoln.

Daniel Day-Lewis spent a year in preparation for the role, a time he had requested from Spielberg.

Daniel Day-Lewis read over 100 books on Lincoln, and long worked with the make-up artist to achieve a physical likeness to Lincoln.

At the 70th Golden Globe Awards, on 14 January 2013, Daniel Day-Lewis won his second Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, and at the 66th British Academy Film Awards on 10 February, he won his fourth BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

At the 85th Academy Awards, Daniel Day-Lewis became the first three-time recipient of the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Lincoln.

John Hartoch, Daniel Day-Lewis's acting teacher at Bristol Old Vic theatre school, said of his former pupil's achievement:.

Daniel Day-Lewis is considered a method actor, known for his constant devotion to and research of his roles.

Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the most selective actors in the film industry, having starred in only six films since 1998, with as many as five years between roles.

Protective of his privacy, Daniel Day-Lewis has described his life as a "lifelong study in evasion".

Daniel Day-Lewis had a relationship with French actress Isabelle Adjani that lasted six years, eventually ending after a split and reconciliation.

Daniel Day-Lewis has held dual British and Irish citizenship since 1993.

Daniel Day-Lewis is an Ambassador for The Lir Academy, a new drama school at Trinity College Dublin, founded in 2011.

In 2010, Daniel Day-Lewis received an honorary doctorate in letters from the University of Bristol, in part because of his attendance of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in his youth.

In 2017, Daniel Day-Lewis became a patron of the Wilfred Owen Association.

Daniel Day-Lewis's association with Wilfred Owen began with his father, Cecil Daniel Day-Lewis, who edited Owen's poetry in the 1960s and his mother, Jill Balcon, who was a vice-president of the Wilfred Owen Association until her death in 2009.

Daniel Day-Lewis has received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned over four decades, including three Academy Awards for Best Actor, making him the first and only actor to have three wins in that category, and the third male actor to win three competitive Academy Awards for acting, the sixth performer overall.

In 2014, Daniel Day-Lewis received a knighthood for services to drama.