Anthony Hopkins biography

Synopsis

Early Acting Career

Philip Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales. Hopkins is the son of Muriel Yeats -- a distant relative of the Irish poet William Butler Yeats -- and Richard Hopkins. His early years in Wales and schooling at Cowbridge Grammar School were relatively unremarkable, but when the soon-to-be actor met Richard Burton, the course of his life would dramatically change. Encouraged and inspired by Burton, Hopkins enrolled at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama when he was only 15 years old.

After graduation in 1957, Anthony Hopkins spent two years in the British Army before moving to London to begin training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After training and working for several years, he became a kind of protégé of the legendary actor Sir Laurence Olivier. In 1965, Olivier invited Hopkins to join the Royal National Theatre and become his understudy. The famed actor wrote in his memoir, "A new young actor in the company of exceptional promise named Anthony Hopkins was understudying me and walked away with the part of Edgar like a cat with a mouse between its teeth." When Olivier came down with appendicitis during a production called Dance of Death, the young Hopkins stepped in, making waves with his performance.

Billed as Olivier's heir to the British acting throne, Hopkins had the momentum to make the leap from stage to film, which was his primary ambition. He started on the small-screen in 1967 with a BBC production of A Flea in Her Ear. Soon after he was cast in The Lion in Winter (1968) as Richard I, sharing the screen with established stars Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn.

Throughout the 1970s, Hopkins continued to work in film and on stage, garnering critical attention for this double duty. He starred in a Broadway production of Peter Shaffer's Equus (1974) even as he devoted more and more attention to developing his talents for television and film. His method of preparation for roles has always been a source of fascination to critics and young actors alike. Hopkins prefers to memorize his lines in extremis, sometimes repeating them more than 200 times.

The finished product typically reveals a naturalness that skillfully hides the massive amount of rehearsal the actor has done. Because of this style, Hopkins prefers fewer, more spontaneous takes, and has occasionally butted heads with directors who he perceives as deviating from the script too much or demanding too many takes. He has noted in the past that once he says a line and is done with a take, he forgets that line forever.