100 Facts About Gary Oldman

Gary Leonard Oldman was born on 21 March 1958 and is an English actor and filmmaker.

Gary Oldman appeared in London's Royal Court and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, with credits including Cabaret, Romeo and Juliet, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Saved, The Country Wife, and Hamlet.

Gary Oldman portrayed villainous roles in True Romance, Leon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, Air Force One, and The Contender.

Gary Oldman has played franchise roles such as Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series, James "Jim" Gordon in The Dark Knight Trilogy, Lord Shen in Kung Fu Panda 2, and Dreyfus in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Gary Oldman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Winston Churchill in the historical drama Darkest Hour.

Gary Oldman was Oscar-nominated for his portrayals of George Smiley in the thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Herman J Mankiewicz in drama Mank.

Gary Oldman wrote and directed the film Nil by Mouth.

Gary Oldman earned an Emmy-nomination for his guest role as a serious actor on the NBC sitcom Friends in 2001.

Gary Oldman has acted in music videos for David Bowie, Guns N' Roses, and Annie Lennox.

Gary Leonard Oldman was born in New Cross, London, on 21 March 1958, the son of Leonard Bertram Oldman, a former sailor who worked as a welder, and Kathleen.

Gary Oldman said his father was an alcoholic who left the family when Oldman was seven years old.

Gary Oldman's older sister, Maureen, is an actress better known as Laila Morse; she performed in Oldman's directorial debut Nil by Mouth, before taking on her most famous role of Mo Harris in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.

Gary Oldman attended West Greenwich School in Deptford, leaving at the age of 16 to work in a sports shop.

Gary Oldman played piano as a child, but he gave up his musical aspirations to pursue an acting career after seeing Malcolm McDowell's performance in the film The Raging Moon.

Gary Oldman studied with the Young People's Theatre in Greenwich during the mid-1970s, while working jobs on assembly lines, as a porter in an operating theatre, selling shoes and beheading pigs in an abattoir.

Gary Oldman applied unsuccessfully to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, which welcomed him to try again the following year, but advised him to find something else to do for a living.

Gary Oldman won a scholarship to attend the Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, south-east London, from which he graduated with a BA in Acting in 1979.

Gary Oldman described himself as a "shy" but diligent worker during his time there, performing roles such as Puck in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Gary Oldman acted in Colchester, then with Glasgow's Citizens Theatre; Oldman's work ethic and trademark intensity would make him a favourite with audiences in Glasgow during the 1980s.

Gary Oldman toured Europe and South America with the Citizens Theatre company.

From 1980 to 1981, Gary Oldman appeared in The Massacre at Paris, Desperado Corner and Robert David MacDonald's plays Chinchilla and A Waste of Time.

Gary Oldman performed in a 6-month West End run of MacDonald's Summit Conference, opposite Glenda Jackson, in 1982.

Also that year, Gary Oldman made his film debut in Colin Gregg's Remembrance, and would have starred in Don Boyd's Gossip if that film had not collapsed.

Gary Oldman then went to Westcliffe to star in Saved.

Gary Oldman's turn in The Pope's Wedding led to a run of work with the Royal Court, and from 1984 to 1986 he appeared in Rat in the Skull, The Desert Air, Cain and Abel, The Danton Affair, Women Beware Women, Real Dreams and all three of Bond's The War Plays: Red Black and Ignorant, The Tin Can People and Great Peace.

Gary Oldman was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1985 to 1986.

In 1987, Gary Oldman gained his third starring film role as Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor.

Gary Oldman was offered, but turned down, the lead role in that year's Edward Scissorhands.

Gary Oldman moved to the United States in the early 1990s, where he has resided since.

Later in 1991, Gary Oldman starred in his first US blockbuster, playing Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone's JFK.

Gary Oldman met with Oswald's wife, Marina, and her two daughters to prepare for the role.

Gary Oldman filmed scenes for the 1992 neo-noir thriller Final Analysis, which were cut.

Gary Oldman served as a member of the Jury at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

Gary Oldman was considered for two roles in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, but neither were realised.

Gary Oldman starred as Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter.

Gary Oldman portrayed various accents; along with the Transylvanian Count Dracula, he gave a critically acclaimed reading of German-born Viennese composer Ludwig van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, and played Russian terrorist Egor Korshunov in the 1997 blockbuster Air Force One.

Gary Oldman was considered for the role of Morpheus in The Matrix.

Gary Oldman appeared opposite Jeff Bridges as zealous Republican congressman Sheldon Runyon in The Contender, of which he was executive producer.

Gary Oldman received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for his performance, although some claimed he was dissatisfied with DreamWorks' supposed editing of the film to reflect pro-Democratic leanings.

The notion of Gary Oldman criticising DreamWorks was dispelled as a "myth" by critic Roger Ebert.

Gary Oldman spent six hours per day in the make-up room to achieve the character's disfigured appearance, and went uncredited in the film.

Gary Oldman then returned to television making two guest appearances in the popular NBC sitcom Friends in May 2001, appearing in the two-part episode "The One With Chandler and Monica's Wedding" as Richard Crosby, a pedantic actor who insists that "real" actors spit on one another when they enunciate, leading to tension, then friendship, with Joey Tribbiani.

Gary Oldman had previously worked with LeBlanc on Lost in Space.

In 2004, Gary Oldman returned to prominence when he landed a starring role in the Harry Potter film series, playing Harry Potter's godfather Sirius Black.

Gary Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in the 2009 version of A Christmas Carol in which Gary Oldman played three roles.

Gary Oldman had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller The Unborn, released in 2009.

In 2010, Gary Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli.

Gary Oldman played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood.

Gary Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance in Kung Fu Panda 2.

Gary Oldman received strong reviews and earned his first Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA Award nomination for his portrayal of British spy George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, an adaptation of the John le Carre novel, directed by Tomas Alfredson.

In 2012, Gary Oldman played Floyd Banner, a big-hitting mobster, in John Hillcoat's Lawless, alongside Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce and Jessica Chastain.

In 2014, Oldman starred alongside Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton and Samuel L Jackson in the remake of RoboCop, as Norton, the scientist who creates the title character.

Also that year, Gary Oldman starred in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as one of the leads alongside Jason Clarke and Keri Russell.

Gary Oldman stressed that he is not "a fascist or a racist", but was nevertheless criticised for his comments.

In 2015, Gary Oldman played the head of police that investigates Tom Hardy's character in Child 44, alongside Noomi Rapace and Joel Kinnaman, and had a supporting role in the post-apocalyptic American thriller Man Down, directed by Dito Montiel, and starring alongside Shia LaBeouf and Kate Mara.

In 2016, Gary Oldman played a CIA chief in Criminal, directed by Ariel Vromen, and starring Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Ryan Reynolds, Alice Eve, and Gal Gadot.

In 2018, in his first post-Oscar role, Gary Oldman voiced an evil artificial intelligence in Netflix's independent film Tau and starred in Hunter Killer alongside Gerard Butler.

In 2019, Gary Oldman starred in horror-thriller Mary, directed by Michael Goi, and the thriller The Courier, opposite Olga Kurylenko, and appeared in Steven Soderbergh's The Laundromat as Jurgen Mossack, opposite Meryl Streep and Antonio Banderas.

In 2020, Oldman starred as Citizen Kane co-writer Herman J Mankiewicz in David Fincher's biographical drama black-and-white Netflix movie Mank, which follows Mankiewicz's tumultuous development of the script for Citizen Kane alongside director Orson Welles.

Gary Oldman was slated to direct a biopic about Eadweard Muybridge entitled Flying Horse.

In 2022, Gary Oldman starred as a cantankerous manager of intelligence agents in the Apple TV+ spy drama television series Slow Horses, based on the book of the same name.

Slow Horses marked the first time Gary Oldman played a lead role in a television series.

The film, in which Gary Oldman plays writer John Cheever, was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 21 May 2024.

In 1997, Gary Oldman directed, produced, and wrote the award-winning Nil by Mouth, a film partially based on his recollections of a child he knew in school.

Gary Oldman and producing partner Douglas Urbanski formed the SE8 GROUP to produce Nil by Mouth.

In September 2006, Nokia Nseries Studio released the Gary Oldman-directed short film Donut, with music by Tor Hyams.

Gary Oldman has had a keen interest in music from an early age.

Gary Oldman is a proficient pianist and stated in a 1995 interview with Charlie Rose that he would rather be a musician than an actor.

Gary Oldman traced over Beethoven compositions in 1994's Immortal Beloved, and tutored Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe on bass guitar.

Gary Oldman appeared on Reeves Gabrels's album The Sacred Squall of Now, performing a vocal duet with David Bowie on the track "You've Been Around".

Gary Oldman produced a live performance by former White Stripes member Jack White in conjunction with Vevo and YouTube.

At the 2016 Brit Awards in London, Gary Oldman paid tribute to Bowie, before receiving the Brits "Icon Award" on behalf of the singer and his family.

Gary Oldman participated in the creation of The Legend of Spyro games, produced by Sierra Entertainment.

Gary Oldman provided the voice of the Fire Guardian, Ignitus.

Gary Oldman provides the narration of Sergeant Jack Barnes in the Spearhead expansion for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

Gary Oldman studied the teachings of Konstantin Stanislavski and Stella Adler while at drama school but went "off-book", drawing much of his inspiration from American cinema.

Gary Oldman further sought to develop a distinctive approach that would distance him from his "stuffy" and "often interchangeable" British peers.

Gary Oldman has adopted various accents for roles and portrayed a wide range of characters.

Gary Oldman is known for his in-depth research of his roles, as well as his devotion to them, at one point being hospitalised after losing significant weight for Sid and Nancy, and another time had to hire a dialect coach to relearn his English accent after nearly adopting an "American twang" due to his children being raised American.

Gary Oldman is known for playing the primary antagonist in a number of popular motion pictures, which has seen him referenced in popular culture.

At the peak of his popularity in the 1990s, Gary Oldman was dubbed by Empire magazine Hollywood's "psycho deluxe", and was spoofed on popular television shows such as Fox comedy series In Living Color and MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch, as well as drafted in to appear on the first ever cover of Loaded magazine.

Gary Oldman starred as a sleazy priest in the controversial religious-themed video for David Bowie's 2013 single "The Next Day".

Washington Post and Independent writers noted that Gary Oldman is regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation.

Gary Oldman is noted for his avoidance of the Hollywood celebrity scene, often being referred to as an "actor's actor".

Gary Oldman's work has been acclaimed by Hollywood figures: Tom Hardy has described Oldman as his "absolute complete and utter hero" and "hands down, the greatest actor that's ever lived"; Brad Pitt, Daniel Radcliffe and Ryan Gosling have cited Oldman as their favourite actor.

David Cronenberg said that Gary Oldman "really is a fabulous actor" who gave "the best version" of Jim Gordon.

In 1998, Gary Oldman was honoured at the Camerimage Film Festival, where he was awarded the Krzysztof Kieslowski Award for Acting, the first recipient of the award.

In 2011, Gary Oldman received a Tribute Award from the Gotham Awards.

In that same year, the Palm Springs International Film Festival announced that Gary Oldman would be receiving its International Star Award, which honours "an actor or actress who has achieved both critical and commercial international recognition throughout their body of work".

The PSIFF chairman called Gary Oldman "a performer whose ability to portray the most extreme of characters is a testament to the enormity of his talent".

Leonard Maltin claimed Gary Oldman has " proven that he is a force to be reckoned with, and a true master of his craft".

Gary Oldman was awarded his first Career Achievement Award by the Hollywood Film Awards.

Gary Oldman's alcoholism was well known during the early 1990s; he was arrested for drunk driving in 1991 and checked himself into rehab in 1994.

Gary Oldman wed English actress Lesley Manville in 1987, and their son, Alfie, was born the following year.

Gary Oldman married American actress Uma Thurman in 1990; they divorced in 1992.

From 1994 to 1996 Gary Oldman was engaged to Italian actress and model Isabella Rossellini, his co-star in Immortal Beloved; they never wed.

In 2001, Fiorentino filed for divorce, claiming that Gary Oldman had hit her in the face with a telephone receiver while choking her.

Gary Oldman was investigated and cleared, receiving sole legal and physical child custody; Fiorentino was granted limited, state-supervised contact dependent on her passing drug and alcohol tests.

In 2003, a judge reduced her access to the children after dismissing claims that Gary Oldman had drugged and physically abused them.

On 31 December 2008, Gary Oldman married English singer and actress Alexandra Edenborough in Santa Barbara, California.