HOPKINS, (Sir) Anthony

Nationality: British. Born: Port Talbot, South Wales, 31 December 1937. Education: Attended Cowbridge Grammar School, Glamorgan; Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, 1961–63; Cardiff College of Drama. Family: Married 1) Petronella Barker, 1967 (divorced 1972), daughter: Abigail; 2) Jennifer Lynton, 1973. Career: 1960—stage debut in The Quare Fellow, followed by repertory work; 1964—London stage debut in Julius Caesar; 1966–73—member of the National Theatre, London; 1967—film debut in The White Bus; 1974—appeared in Equus on Broadway, and directed the Los Angeles production, 1977; 1980s—theater work includes Pravda, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, and M. Butterfly; TV mini-series include War and Peace, 1973, QB VII, 1974, Hollywood Wives, 1985, and Great Expectations, 1989. Awards: Commander, Order of the British Empire, 1987; Best Actor, Academy Award, for The Silence of the Lambs, 1991; knighted, 1 January 1993. Agent: c/o CAA, 9830 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, 90212, U.S.A.

Films as Actor:

1967

The White Bus (Anderson) (as Brechtian)

1968

The Lion in Winter (Harvey) (as Richard the Lion-Hearted)

1969

Hamlet (Richardson) (as Claudius); The Looking Glass War (Pierson) (as John Avery)

1971

When Eight Bells Toll (Périer) (as Philip Calvert)

1972

Young Winston (Attenborough) (as David Lloyd George)

1973

A Doll's House (Garland) (as Torvald Helmer)

1974

The Girl from Petrovka (Miller) (as Kostya); Juggernaut (Lester) (as Supt. John McCleod); All Creatures Great and Small (Whatham) (as Siegfried Farnon)

1976

Dark Victory (Butler—for TV) (as Michael); Victory at Entebbe (Chomsky—for TV) (as Yitzhak Rabin); The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (Kulik—for TV) (as Bruno Hauptmann)

1977

Audrey Rose (Wise) (as Elliot Hoover); A Bridge Too Far (Attenborough) (as Lt. Col. John Frost)

1978

Magic (Attenborough) (as Corky/Fats); International Velvet (Forbes) (as Capt. Johnson); Kean (Jones—for TV) (title role)

1979

Mayflower: The Pilgrim's Adventure (Schaefer—for TV) (as Capt. Jones)

1980

The Elephant Man (Lynch) (as Frederick Treves); A Change of Seasons (Richard Lang) (as Adam Evans)

1981

The Bunker (Schaefer—for TV) (as Adolf Hitler); Othello (Miller—for TV) (title role); Peter and Paul (Day—for TV) (as St. Peter)

1983

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Tuchner—for TV) (as Quasimodo)

1984

The Bounty (Donaldson) (as Captain Bligh); Io e il duce (Mussolini and I) (Negrin—for TV) (as Count Ciano); A Married Man (Davies and Jarrott—for TV) (as John Strickland)

1985

Arch of Triumph (Hussein—for TV) (as Dr. Ravic); Guilty Conscience (Greene—for TV) (as Arthur Jamison); Heartland (Billington—for TV)

1986

Blunt (Glenister—for TV) (as Guy Burgess); 84 Charing Cross Road (Jones) (as Frank Doel); The Good Father (Newell) (as Bill Hooper)

1988

The Dawning (Knights—released in U.S. 1993) (as Major Angus Barry/Cassius); The Tenth Man (Gold—for TV) (as Chavel); Across the Lake (Maylam—for TV) (as Donald Campbell)

1989

A Chorus of Disapproval (Winner) (as Dafydd Ap Llewellyn)

1990

Desperate Hours (Cimino) (as Tim Cornell); One Man's War (Toledo—for TV) (as Joel Filartiga)

1991

The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme) (as Dr. Hannibal "Cannibal" Lecter)

1992

Howards End (Ivory) (as Henry Wilcox); Freejack (Murphy) (as McCandless); The Efficiency Expert (Spotswood) (Joffe) (as Wallace); Chaplin (Attenborough) (as George Hayden); Bram Stoker's Dracula (Coppola) (as Prof. Abraham Van Helsing); To Be the Best (Wharmby—for TV) (as Jack Figg)

1993

The Remains of the Day (Ivory) (as Stevens); The Trial (David Jones) (as the priest); Shadowlands (Attenborough) (as Jack Lewis); . . . und der Himmel steht still (The Innocent) (Schlesinger) (as Bob Glass); Selected Exits (Tristram Powell—for TV) (as Gwyn Thomas); Earth and the American Dream (Couturie—doc) (voice only)

1994

The Road to Wellville (Parker) (as Dr. John Harvey Kellogg); Legends of the Fall (Zwick) (as Colonel William Ludlow)

1995

Nixon (Stone) (title role)

1996

Marlon Brando: The Wild One (Joyce —for TV) (as himself); Surviving Picasso (Ivory) (as Pablo Picasso)

1997

The Edge (Tamahori) (as Charles Morse); Amistad (Spielberg) (as John Quincy Adams)

1998

Meet Joe Black (Brest, Smithee) (as William Parrish); The Mask of Zorro (Campbell) (as Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro)

1999

Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Box (Leonard) (as Narrator); Instinct (Turtletaub) (as Ethan Powell); Titus (Taymor) (as Titus)

2000

Mission Impossible 2 (Woo) (as IMF chief); Hannibal (Scott) (as Dr. Hannibal Lecter)

Films as Director:

1990

Dylan Thomas: Return Journey

1995

August (+ ro as Ieuan Davies)

Publications

By HOPKINS: book—

Anthony Hopkins' Snowdonia, with Graham Nobles, Grantown-on-Spey, 1993.

By HOPKINS: articles—

Interviews, in Photoplay (London), August 1978 and September 1984.

Interview with Rod Lurie, in Empire (London), June 1991.

"I Like That," interview in New Yorker, 16 March 1992.

"Nicholson? Brando? (April Fool) It's . . . an Interview with Anthony Hopkins," interview with Lisa Liebman, in Interview (New York), April 1992.

"O.K., Says Anthony Hopkins, More Mr. Nice Guy," interview with Alex Witchel, in New York Times, 19 December 1993.

Interview with Lawrence Grobel, in Playboy (Chicago), March 1994.

Duncan, Andrew, "Now I'm At Peace, With No Axes To Grind," in Radio Times (London), 22 October 1994.

"In a League of His Own," interview with Barry Norman, in Radio Times (London), 2 March 1996.

On HOPKINS: books—

Fack, Quentin, Anthony Hopkins: Too Good to Waste: A Biography, London, 1989; rev. ed., 1993.

Hare, David, Writing Left-Handed, London, 1991.

Callan, Michael Feeney, Anthony Hopkins: In Darkness and Light, London, 1993.

Falk, Quentin, Anthony Hopkins: The Authorized Biography, Northampton, 1994; rev. ed., London, 2000.

On HOPKINS: articles—

Ecran (Paris), May 1979.

Current Biography 1980, New York, 1980.

Films Illustrated (London), December 1980.

L'Ecran Fantastique (Paris), July-August 1984.

Wilson, P., "Anthony Hopkins," in Film Monthly, June 1991.

Kaye, Elizabeth, "Anthony Hopkins for Your Approval," in Premiere (New York), February 1994.

Kiener, Robert, "The Rebirth of Anthony Hopkins," in Reader's Digest (Canadian), July 1994.

Bennetts, L., "Knight Rider," in Vanity Fair (New York), October 1996.

Anthony Hopkins appeared in films for two decades without advancing to screen stardom. His performances, many of them in smaller-budget films, were lauded by critics, but audiences did not eagerly await his next movie appearance or place his name on lists of screen favorites. Perhaps his problem was that he lacked an identifiable persona and never developed into a Hollywood "type"; he seemed always to be hiding in period costumes or thick makeup. All the years of relative anonymity ended with his Oscar-winning performance in the most abhorrent role of his career, that of Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, one of the most popular and well-publicized pictures of 1991.

Now, in middle age, Hopkins's rugged looks and extraordinarily appealing voice (which often have led critics and fans to comparisons with fellow Welshman Richard Burton) are adding zest to an array of projects with which he has been associated, whether they be television movies, prestige art films, or extravagant Hollywood productions. His authoritative presence and incomparable acting ability are the elements which make him a standout performer, but it is his screen magnetism, displayed finally in choice star roles, which made him an international movie star.

Like his mentor Laurence Olivier, who often acted while camouflaged in thick makeup, Hopkins acquired a remarkable chameleon quality in his acting quite early in his career and kept with it for years. This has suited him particularly when taking on a series of biographical roles—Lloyd George, Adolf Hitler, Bruno Hauptmann, Donald Campbell, Captain Bligh, Yitzhak Rabin, Richard the Lion-Hearted, and even Richard Nixon—as well as with outrageous fictional grotesques such as Quasimodo, Lambert Le Roux, and Hannibal Lecter.

Besides the historical pieces in which he appeared, his pre-1990s performances do include a few unbalanced characters who may have laid a foundation for him to become celluloid's most credible cannibal killer. For instance, in Magic he played a demented ventriloquist, and in Audrey Rose he was a menacing stranger who claims a 12-year-old girl is his dead daughter reincarnated.

The international celebrity that he had sought since his humble, lower-middle-class boyhood in South Wales finally arrived with his chilling performance as a psychotic serial killer in The Silence of the Lambs. Hopkins's definitive interpretation of the warped, nightmarish criminal who not only murders but also dines on his prey flabbergasted audiences. His odd facial expressions, and the wiggling of his tongue in an eel-like manner, heavily contributed to the film's well-earned status as a classic of the horror genre.

Hopkins's two follow-up pictures were James Ivory's Howards End and The Remains of the Day. These two cinematic gems (both of which co-starred Emma Thompson) made him a darling of the art-house crowd. In the first film, which is based on a novel of Edwardian England by E. M. Forster, he plays a widower with a mahogany veneer that hides a chip-board heart. The subtle bearing of Hopkins's character underscores the snobbery among Britain's classes of that time, and the repression of emotion that was called for by the existing social conventions. In the second film, Hopkins plays a tradition-bound head butler who sacrifices his personal emotions and desires in the line of duty. Both of these characters are quiet beings who internalize their feelings. As such, their on-screen depictions could well have been stiff, blank signposts in the hands of a lesser actor, but Hopkins made both into three-dimensional and exciting individuals.

Shadowlands brought Hopkins the opportunity to play a full-fledged romantic gentleman in the character of real-life British writer C. S. Lewis. For this film, Hopkins began as a rather stiff, cloistered middle-aged Oxford educator who flowers as he becomes infused with love for a forthright American poet (Debra Winger). Hopkins's development from bookworm to enthusiastic lover showed audiences a most welcomed romantic quality. This role was, in a way, a graduated version or expansion of the character of the kindly bookstore salesman he played in 84 Charing Cross Road.

Hopkins is an actor who can take on most any role. His presence can even make an otherwise mundane film mandatory viewing. Such is the case in The Road to Wellville, a disappointing adaptation of T. Coraghessan Boyle's comic novel, in which he transcends the poor script to give a delightfully animated, over-the-top performance—complete with silly, bucktoothed grin—as John H. Kellogg, the real-life inventor of corn flakes. In Legends of the Fall, the more sobering saga of early twentieth-century life in Montana, he is seen as the independent, feisty, and humanistic patriarch who has sired a trio of sons. In the latter part of this film, he is called upon to portray an elderly, partially paralyzed stroke victim who is left with marred speech. Under heavy makeup (again), he drags his disfigured body without ever losing his character's sense of eminence and dignity. It is the sort of specialty role Olivier himself would have fancied.

One suspects that Olivier, a fine Titus Andronicus in Peter Brook's memorable 1950s UK theatre production, would have approved heartily of Hopkins' extraordinary turn-of-the-millennium performance as the increasingly deranged olf Roman warrior in Titus, the bloodily vivid feature directing debut of Julie Taymor, who staged the musical The Lion King on both sides of the Atlantic. It marked Hopkins' first encounter with Shakespeare for more than a decade when he had appeared in King Lear and Antony and Cleopotra backto-back at the National Theatre. Before he completed filming Titus in Rome, Hopkins suddenly announced he was going to quit acting because he was disillusioned with his career. Later he claimed he'd been misquoted, and merely felt burned out and just needed a rest.

After averaging at least two films a year throughout most of the 1990s the workaholic Hopkins, who has moved full-time to Los Angeles, stopped taking major roles for 18 months. His movie comeback smacks of Hollywood opportunism and a very substantial payday, reprising the role of Dr. Lecter in the new film version of author Thomas Harris's long-awaited Silence of the Lambs sequel,Hannibal. Neither original director Jonathan Demme nor co-star Jodie Foster decided to join him for the ride this time around.

—Quentin Falk

Sir Anthony Hopkins

Sir Anthony Hopkins (born 1937) acted on stage and in film for over 30 years before receiving his first Academy Award, which he won for his portrayal of Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 film Silence of the Lambs. Since that time, Hopkins has become a true Hollywood superstar.

Over the course of his acting career, Hopkins has added extensive acting credits to his name. From his early career in the British theatre to his long list of movie parts, Hopkins has had his share of critical and box office failures and successes.

Humble Beginnings

Anthony Hopkins was born in the small working-class town of Port Talbot, Wales, on December 31, 1937, the only child of Richard Hopkins, a baker, and his wife Muriel. Hopkins had an emotionally tumultuous childhood during which time he often felt isolated and lonely. He admitted to People, that he was "hopeless, pathetic, an idiot. I thought I was nuts. I felt so weird." Although he studied piano and could draw well, Hopkins did not excel in the classroom at Cowbridge Grammar School.

An early turning point in Hopkins' life came when he met the famous actor Richard Burton, also a Port Talbot native. Hopkins, then 15, went to Burton's home to get his autograph. As he recalled, in an interview with US magazine, he thought, "I've got to get out of this place. I've got to become what he is. And I think something deep in my subconscious mind, or whatever it was, set the target. I thought, I'm going to be famous."

Despite his newfound commitment to making his way out of Port Talbot, Hopkins continued to struggle socially and academically. At age 17 he dropped out of school, and, at the urging of his father, he enrolled in a drama class held at a local YMCA. Well skilled at the piano, Hopkins then earned a scholarship to the nearby Cardiff College of Music and Drama, where he studied for two years. After two years of military service, Hopkins worked in the Manchester Library Theatre and the Nottingham Repertory Company. In 1961, he decided to pursue formal training as an actor. He received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in London. He graduated in 1963.

Over the span of the next two years, he worked with the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester, the Liverpool Playhouse, and the Hornchurch Repertory Company. In 1965, he applied for membership in the National Theatre under the direction of Laurence Olivier. Hopkins was invited to join the company where he remained a member for seven years, until 1973. He began with understudy work and supporting roles, but soon moved into the role of leading man. Hopkins's stage work earned him critical acclaim, and he was compared to both Burton and Olivier.

Personal Troubles

In 1968, Hopkins began his film career, playing Richard in the movie The Lion in Winter. Over the next 30 years, Hopkins would make at least one movie almost every year, and some years as many as six. As his stage and film career began to evolve in the 1960s, Hopkins's personal life was falling more and more into turmoil. He quickly earned a reputation for his temper and his excessive drinking. He gained notoriety for walking out in the middle of a performance of Macbeth while he was a member of the National Theatre.

Hopkins married actress Petronella Barker, in 1967, but the marriage was brief. By the time Hopkins's only child, a daughter named Abigail, was 18 months old, the couple had split. Hopkins married again, in 1973, this time to Jennifer Lynton, a film production assistant.

In 1974, Hopkins and his wife moved to New York City where Hopkins earned critical acclaim for his portrayal of the psychiatrist in the Broadway production of Equus. He quickly gained fame for his temper in the United States, when he stopped a performance to berate latecomers. After Equus, Hopkins moved to Hollywood, hoping to find the fulfillment to his childhood dream of becoming truly famous. However, at this time, Hopkins was drinking heavily, even suffering blackouts. "I went around for years thinking I was some kind of fiery, Celtic soul," Hopkins told MSNBC's Joe Leydon. "But I wasn't—I was just drinking too much." After waking up in a Phoenix hotel room with no recollection of how he got there, Hopkins realized that his destructive lifestyle would eventually cost him his career and his wife. In 1975, Hopkins quit drinking.

Ten Years in Hollywood

At the same time, Hopkins was accepting acting jobs with little regard to the quality of the script. Hopkins admitted to People that he made little attempt to save his career, and in fact accepted less desirable roles in an attempt to reject his formal Shakespearean upbringing in the British theatre. He acted, he says, "out of perverseness and sheer rebellion toward the English Establishment. I was saying, 'That's all crap over there.' That was my cynical way of protesting too much." For ten years, from 1975 to 1985, Hopkins undertook over 25 movies made for either television or theatrical release. During this time, he earned an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Bruno Hauptmann, in the 1976 television movie The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case and for his portrayal of Hitler in the 1981 television movie The Bunker. While he received recognition for these two projects, the majority of the movies Hopkins made during this time period were less than memorable. These movies included The Girl from Petrovka, (1974), Audrey Rose, (1977), International Velvet, (1978), and A Change of Seasons, (1980). In 1985 Hopkins played Neil Gray in the much criticized television miniseries Hollywood Wives.

In 1985, at the urging of his wife, Hopkins reluctantly moved back to London, and he returned to the stage. A self-proclaimed workaholic, Hopkins attacked the British theatre, playing Shakespeare's Lear and Anthony on two different stages for a total of 200 performances over a 17-month period. In 1987, Hopkins became a Commander of the British Empire (CBE). In 1988, he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters, from the University of Wales. In 1993, he was knighted.

Silence of the Lambs

His desire for international critical acclaim and recognition came in 1991, when he earned an Academy Award for best actor in the box office hit Silence of the Lambs. Hopkins played Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, a demonic, but brilliant serial killer known for eating his victims. Jodie Foster played a Federal Bureau of Investigations agent looking to Lecter for clues to catch another serial killer still at large. Hopkins's portrayal of Lecter was decidedly dark, menacing, and evil. Although Hopkins only appeared in 27 minutes of the movie, this role finally made him an actor of Hollywood superstar status.

After Silence of the Lambs, Hopkins did not slow his movie-making pace, acting in four films released in 1992, and five in 1993, plus a television movie in both 1992 and 1993. His body of work during these two years included Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Freejack (1992), Howards End (1992), Shadowlands (1993), and The Trial, (1993). His most noticed film was The Remains of the Day, (1993) for which he received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of the reserved butler, Stevens. In 1994, Hopkins appeared in Legends of the Fall and The Road to Wellville.

In 1995, Hopkins played the part of United States president Richard M. Nixon in controversial director Oliver Stone's movie Nixon. The casting of Hopkins, a British actor, as Nixon was questioned by much of the entertainment media. In fact, Hopkins himself was skeptical. However, he took the part and, for his performance, earned both an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination.

Fame and Fortune

Although not all Hopkins's movies, in the first half of the 1990s, were box office hits, Hopkins found himself working with high profile actors, such as Brad Pitt, Debra Winger, Emma Thompson, and Foster. The roles had become more challenging, and Hopkins earned respect in the acting community for his ability to play any part, from Hannibal the Cannibal to Richard Nixon. Hopkins also played the title role in Surviving Picasso, which was released in 1996.

After starring in The Edge, which was released in 1997 and co-starred Alec Baldwin, Hopkins found his next major role. He was cast as another United States president, John Quincy Adams, in director Steven Spielberg's historical drama Amistad. In the movie, former president Adams defended a group of Africans charged with murdering the crew of a slave ship. For his performance, Hopkins received an Academy Award nomination for best actor.

Hopkins turned 60 in 1997 and commanded over five million dollars per movie and he has not slowed his pace. He has two movies opening in 1998 with yet another in production. In 1998, Hopkins appeared in the remake of the classic The Mask of Zorro, co-starring Spanish actor Antonio Banderas. He also starred in 1998's Meet Joe Black. In Instinct (formerly called Ishmael), he played an anthropologist working in Africa who was convicted of murdering a group of white men who had killed a family of gorillas.

In some ways Hopkins has changed little since his time in Port Talbot. He was still a loner, choosing to take long road trips in his car, by himself, to relax. He has maintained his intense, driven personality that pushes him to continue to take on movie projects at an exceptional pace. However, he has also learned to not push too hard. Finally, after more than 30 years, he found what he knew he wanted at age 15: fame and fortune. He told Vanity Fair, "It can't get better than this. Years ago I wanted to be rich and famous, and it all happened to me…. They pay me a lot of money, more money than I ever dreamed of. It just cannot get better than this."

Further Reading

Callan, Michael Feeney, Anthony Hopkins: The Unauthorized Biography, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994.

Falk, Quentin, Anthony Hopkins, The Authorized Biography, Interlink Books, 1993.

Moser, James D., editor, International Motion Picture Almanac, 68th edition, Quigley, 1997.

Vincendeau, Ginette, editor, Encyclopedia of European Cinema, Facts on File, 1995.

Hola!, December 1997.

US, February 1998.

Vanity Fair, October 1996.

Jerome, Jim, "Anthony Hopkins is the Scariest Film Killer Since Bruce, the Jaws Shark," People Online,http://www.people.com (March 4, 1998).

Leydon, Joe, "Anthony Hopkins' Supreme Confidence," MSNBC Living,http://www.msnbc.com (March 4, 1998).

"Nominated for Best Actor," People Online,http://www.people.com (March 4, 1998).

Anthony Hopkins

Born: December 31, 1937
Port Talbot, Wales
Welsh actor

Actor Anthony Hopkins worked on stage and in film for over thirty years before receiving his first Academy Award for his performance in The Silence of the Lambs.

Humble beginnings

Anthony Hopkins was born in Port Talbot, Wales, on December 31, 1937, the only child of Richard Hopkins, a baker, and his wife Muriel. Hopkins had a difficult childhood; he often felt isolated and lonely. Although he studied piano and could draw well, Hopkins did not excel at Cowbridge Grammar School. The famous actor and fellow Port Talbot native Richard Burton (1925–1984) inspired Hopkins. At the age of fifteen, after getting Burton's autograph, Hopkins decided he wanted to be famous.

Hopkins dropped out of school at age seventeen and enrolled in a drama class at a local YMCA. Skilled at the piano, he earned a scholarship to the Cardiff College of Music and Drama, where he studied for two years. After two years of military service, Hopkins worked in theater. In 1961 he received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England. After graduating in 1963, Hopkins worked at several different theaters before applying to the famous National Theatre in 1965. He was invited to join the company and remained a member until 1973.

Personal troubles

As Hopkins's stage and film career began to take off in the 1960s, he became known for his temper—he walked out in the middle of a National Theatre performance of Macbeth —and his excessive drinking. Hopkins married actress Petronella Barker in 1967, but by the time their daughter Abigail was eighteen months old, the couple had split. In 1973 Hopkins married Jennifer Lynton, a film production assistant. In 1974 they moved to New York City, where Hopkins appeared in the Broadway production of Equus, once stopping a performance to yell at late-arriving audience members. Hopkins, who continued to drink heavily, then moved to Hollywood, California. After waking up one day in a hotel room in Arizona with no idea how he got there, he quit drinking in 1975.

Hopkins began to accept whatever acting jobs he was offered. From 1975 to 1985 he appeared in over twenty-five movies made for either television or theatrical release. Although he earned two Emmy Awards (in 1976 and 1981), most of the movies he made during this time period, including Audrey Rose (1977), International Velvet (1978), and A Change of Seasons (1980), were less than memorable. In 1985 Hopkins moved back to London and returned to the stage. Over a seventeen-month period he appeared in two hundred performances of two different William Shakespeare (1564–1616) plays. In 1988 he received an honorary (achieved without meeting the usual requirements) degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Wales. In 1993 he was knighted.

Fame and fortune

In 1991 Hopkins earned an Academy Award for best actor in The Silence of the Lambs. He played Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, a killer known for eating his victims. Although he appeared in only twenty-seven minutes of the movie, this role finally made Hopkins a superstar. After The Silence of the Lambs, he acted in four films released in 1992 and five in 1993. His most noticed film was The Remains of the Day (1993), for which he was nominated (put forward for consideration) for another Academy Award for his role as Stevens, the reserved butler.

Hopkins also earned Academy Award nominations for his performances as two U.S. presidents: Richard Nixon (1913–1994) in Nixon (1995), and John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) in Amistad (1997). Hopkins was now earning over five million dollars per movie. After filming Titus (1999), he took a year off. In April 2000 he became an American citizen. In 2001 he returned to the role of Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal. He then resumed his usual work pace, appearing in several films including Hearts in Atlantis (2001) and Bad Company (2002). He also volunteered to teach a class at the Ruskin School of Acting in Santa Monica, California.

Hopkins has changed little since his time in Port Talbot. He is still a loner, taking long trips in his car by himself to relax. He has continued to push himself, but he has also learned not to push too hard. He told Vanity Fair magazine, "It can't get better than this. Years ago I wanted to be rich and famous, and it all happened to me.… They pay me a lot of money, more money than I ever dreamed of. It just cannot get better than this."

For More Information

Callan, Michael Feeney. Anthony Hopkins: The Unauthorized Biography. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994.

Falk, Quentin. Anthony Hopkins: The Authorized Biography. Interlink Books, 1993.

Hopkins, Sir Anthony (1937– ) Welsh film and stage actor. His film career experienced several false starts before a dramatic resurgence in the 1990s. His hypnotic performance in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) won him an Academy Award for best actor. He also starred in Shadowlands (1993) and Nixon (1995). August (1995) was his directorial debut.