Biography

He was Born in Margam, near Port Talbot, Wales to Muriel and Richard Hopkins. He was their only child. His father was a baker. Anthony was educated at Cowbridge Grammar School. He first go interested in acting when at 17 he wandered into a WMCA amateur theatrical production. His proficiency at the piano helped him get a scholarship to the Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff where he studied for two years (1955-57). He entered the British Army in 1958 for two years of mandatory service where he was a clerk in the Royal artillery unit at Bulford.

In 1960 he joined the Manchester Library Theater as an assistant stage manager, then went to the Nottingham Repertory Company where he was advised to seek further training as an actor. Hopkins recieved a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1961. He graduated a Silver Medalist in 1963 and then joined the Phoenix Theater in Leicester.

In 1967 he was was Laurence Olivier’s understudy in Strindberg’s Dance of Death.

His film debut in 1967, playing Richard the Lionhearted in The Lion in Winter, starring Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn. He received a British Academy Award nomination and the film received an Academy Award as Best Picture.

American television viewers discovered Hopkins in the 1973 production on ABC of Leon Uris’ QBVII, the first mini-series, in which he played the knighted Polish-born British physician Adam Kelno who is ultimately destroyed by his wartime past. The following year he starred on Broadway in the National Theatre production of Equus, and later mounted another production of the play in Los Angeles where he lived for nearly ten years, working extensively in American films and television.

After starring as Captain Bligh in The Bounty (1984), he returned to England and the National Theatre in David Hare’s Pravda, for which he received the British Theatre Association’s Best Actor Award and The Observer Award for Outstanding Achievement at the 1985 Laurence Olivier Awards. During this time at the National he starred in Anthony and Cleopatra and King Lear.

Anthony Hopkins received an Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and was subsequently nominated in the same category for his performances in The Remains of the Day (1993) and Nixon (1995). He was also given the Best Actor award by the British Academy of Film & Television Arts for The Remains of the Day. In 1993 he starred in Richard Attenborough’s Shadowlands with Debra Winger, winning numerous critics awards in the U.S. and Britain. In 1998 he was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Amistad.

Anthony Hopkins was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Honour’s List, June 1987. He received a knighthood in 1993.

Filmography

Human Stain, The (2003) .... Coleman Silk
Red Dragon (2002) .... Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Bad Company (2002) .... Oakes
Behind the Scenes: Hannibal (2001) (V) .... Himself
Devil and Daniel Webster, The (2001) .... Daniel Webster
Inside the Labyrinth: The Making of 'The Silence of the Lambs' (2001) (V) .... Himself
Hearts in Atlantis (2001) .... Ted Brautigan
73rd Annual Academy Awards, The (2001) (TV)(uncredited) .... Himself`
Hannibal (2001) .... Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Conversations with Jon Turteltaub (2000) (V) .... Himself
Making of 'Titus', The (2000) (V)(uncredited) .... Himself
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)(voice) .... The Narrator
Mission: Impossible II (2000)(uncredited) .... Mission Commander Swanbeck
Titus (1999) .... Titus Andronicus
Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Box (1999)(voice) .... Narrator
Instinct (1999) .... Ethan Powell
Meet Joe Black (1998) .... William Parrish
Junket Whore (1998) .... Himself
Mask of Zorro, The (1998) .... Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro
Lost Children of Berlin, The (1997)(voice) .... Narrator
Amistad (1997) .... John Quincy Adams
Edge, The (1997) .... Charles Morse
Surviving Picasso (1996) .... Pablo Picasso
Marlon Brando: The Wild One (1996) (TV) .... Himself
August (1996) .... Ieuan Davies
Nixon (1995) .... Richard M. Nixon
67th Annual Academy Awards, The (1995) (TV)(uncredited) .... Himself
Century of Cinema, A (1994) .... Himself
Legends of the Fall (1994) .... Colonel William Ludlow
Road to Wellville, The (1994) .... Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
"Baseball" (1994) (mini) TV Series(voice) .... Himself
Shadowlands (1993) .... C.S. 'Jack' Lewis
Remains of the Day, The (1993) .... James Stevens
Selected Exits (1993) (TV) .... Gwyn Thomas
Innocent, The (1993) .... Bob Glass
Trial, The (1993) .... The Priest
65th Annual Academy Awards, The (1993) (TV)(uncredited) .... Himself
Chaplin (1992) .... George Hayden
Dracula (1992) .... Professor Abraham Van Helsing/Ships Captain/Cesare
To Be the Best (1992) (TV) .... Jack Figg
64th Annual Academy Awards, The (1992) (TV) .... Himself (winner, Best Actor)
Howards End (1992) .... Henry J. Wilcox
Spotswood (1992) .... Errol Wallace
Freejack (1992) .... McCandless
One Man's War (1991) (TV) .... Joel
63rd Annual Academy Awards, The (1991) (TV)(uncredited) .... Himself
Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) .... Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Desperate Hours (1990) .... Tim Cornell
"Great Expectations" (1989) (mini) TV Series .... Abel Magwitch
Heartland (1989) (TV) .... Jack
Across the Lake (1988) (TV) .... Donald Campbell
Chorus of Disapproval, A (1988) .... Dafydd Ap Llewellyn
Dawning, The (1988) .... Cassius
Tenth Man, The (1988) (TV) .... Jean Louis Chavel
84 Charing Cross Road (1986) .... Frank P. Doel
Blunt (1985) (TV) .... Guy Burgess
Guilty Conscience (1985) (TV) .... Arthur Jamison
Good Father, The (1985) .... Bill Hooper
Mussolini: The Decline and Fall of Il Duce (1985) (TV) .... Count Galeazzo Ciano
Arch of Triumph (1985) (TV) .... Dr. Ravic
"Hollywood Wives" (1985) (mini) TV Series .... Neil Gray
Married Man, A (1984) (TV) .... John Strickland
Strangers and Brothers (1984) (TV) .... Roger Quaife
Bounty, The (1984) .... Lieutenant William Bligh
Making of 'The Bounty', The (1984) (TV) .... Himself
Little Eyolf (1982) (TV) .... Alfred Allmers
Hunchback of Notre Dame, The (1982) (TV) .... Quasimodo
Othello (1981/I) (TV) .... Othello
Peter and Paul (1981) (TV) .... Paul of Tarsus
Bunker, The (1981) (TV) .... Adolf Hitler
Change of Seasons, A (1980) .... Adam Evans
Elephant Man, The (1980) .... Dr. Frederick Treves
Mayflower: The Pilgrims' Adventure (1979) (TV) .... Capt. Jones
International Velvet (1978) .... Captain Johnson
Kean (1978) (TV) .... Edmund Kean
Magic (1978) .... Corky/Voice of Fats the Dummy
Bridge Too Far, A (1977) .... Lt. Gen. John Frost
Audrey Rose (1977) .... Elliot Hoover
Victory at Entebbe (1976) (TV) .... Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, The (1976) (TV) .... Bruno Richard Hauptmann
Dark Victory (1976) (TV) .... Dr. Michael Grant
All Creatures Great and Small (1974) .... Siegfried Farnon
Arcata Promise, The (1974) (TV) .... Theo Gunge
Girl from Petrovka, The (1974) .... Kostya
Possessions (1974) (TV) .... Dando
Find Me (1974) (TV) .... Marek
Juggernaut (1974) .... Supt. John McCleod
Childhood Friend, The (1974) (TV) .... Alexander Tashkov
"QB VII" (1974) (mini) TV Series .... Dr. Adam Kelno
Doll's House, A (1973/I) .... Torvald Helmer
"War and Peace" (1973) (mini) TV Series .... Pierre Bezuhov
Lloyd George (1973) (TV) .... David Lloyd George
Edwardians, The (1972) (TV) .... David Lloyd George
Young Winston (1972) .... David Lloyd George
Poet Game (1972) (TV) .... Hugh Sanders
Decision to Burn (1971) (TV)
When Eight Bells Toll (1971) .... Philip Calvert
Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens, The (1970) (TV) .... Charles Dickens
Hearts and Flowers (1970) (TV) .... Bob
Uncle Vanya (1970/II) (TV) .... Astrov
Danton (1970) (TV) .... Danton
Three Sisters, The (1970) (TV) .... Andrei
Hamlet (1969) .... Claudius
Looking Glass War, The (1969) .... John Avery
Lion in Winter, The (1968) .... Richard
White Bus, The (1967) .... Brechtian
Flea in Her Ear, A (1967) (TV)
Spartacus (1960)(voice) .... Marcus Licinius Crassus