Creator / Anthony Hopkins

"I edited this article with some fava beans and
a nice Chianti."

"If you do things, whether it's acting or music or painting, do it without fear – that's my philosophy. Because nobody can arrest you and put you in jail if you paint badly, so there's nothing to lose."

Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937 in Margam, Wales) is a British-American actor (he became a naturalized US citizen in 2000, but retained his UK citizenship).

He is best known for playing Dr. Hannibal Lecter, for which he won his first Oscar, but has had a long and illustrious career most often playing refined characters with a touch of mischief. Generally considered one of the world's best actors. Has played Ptolemy I, Titus Andronicus, John Quincy Adams, Yitzhak Rabin, William Bligh, Richard Nixon, Pablo Picasso, Odin Allfather, Adolf Hitler, C. S. Lewis, Alfred Hitchcock, Burt Munro, and more recently Pope Benedict XVI. He won his second Oscar for his role as Anthony, a man suffering from dementia. Almost every film he's in is good, and in some cases, it's just because he's in it. He's also known for his deep, smooth voice.

Hopkins is sometimes considered a Classically-Trained Extra, but he's really closer to an inversion. Once touted as the Next Big Shakespearean Actor, he deliberately chose to come to Hollywood to make loud, stupid movies because that's what he likes to do. In his own words, "I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense... I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash." He has also admitted that what drives his choice in roles is nothing but cold, hard cash. Though one suspects that he also genuinely enjoys the roles he plays, no matter how ridiculous they are. Pay him his money, and he will show up and act. And your movie will be remembered forever for it.

Despite being known for playing one of cinema's most famous villains, Hopkins is known as a very sweet and friendly man who likes to be called Tony. After initially doodling on his scripts, the man has taken up painting and now has his own collection in galleries for sale, the proceeds of which go to charity. On top of this, he is also a talented composer who has written some cracking good music.

Hopkins is also well-known for being one of a small number of major actors known on the autistic spectrum; having been born well before autism was first recognized by the DSM in 1952 and long before the autistic spectrum was clarified and broadened to its current extent, Hopkins went undiagnosed until he was 70. While acting, like music, is often considered to be an immensely difficult field for autistic individuals to break into, analysts on the spectrum argue that Hopkins' stellar acting skills are specifically because of him being autistic, in that he can observe and analyze different verbal and nonverbal mannerisms from the people around him and incorporate them into his performances. He's also been a teetotaler since 1975.

He has admitted to being a huge fan of Breaking Bad, even writing a fan letter to Bryan Cranston when he finished the series.

He also did adverts for the Will Rogers Institute in 2001.

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Filmography

He has appeared in:

• The Lion in Winter (1968) as Richard (his first major film role)
• Hamlet (1969) as Claudius
• The Looking Glass War (1970) as John Avery
• When Eight Bells Toll (1971) as Phillip Calvert
• War and Peace (1972) as Pierre Bezukov
• A Doll's House (1973) as Torvald Helmer
• Juggernaut (1974) as Supt. John McCleod
• Hallmark Hall of Fame
  • All Creatures Great and Small (1975) as Siegfried Farnon
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982) (1982) as Quasimodo
  • The Tenth Man (1988) – Jean Louis Chavel
• Victory At Entebbe (1976) as Yitzhak Rabin
• Audrey Rose (1977) as Elliott Hoover
• A Bridge Too Far (1977) as Lt. Col. John D. Frost
• Magic (1978) as Corky Withers/voice of Fats
• Mayflower: The Pilgrims' Adventure (1979) as Captain Christopher Jones
• The Elephant Man (1980) as Dr. Frederick Treves
• The Bunker (1981) as Adolf Hitler
• The Bounty (1984) as Lt. William Bligh
• Hannibal Lecter films as Hannibal Lecter
  • The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
  • Hannibal (2001)
  • Red Dragon (2002)
• Spartacus (1991 restoration) as Marcus Licinius Crassus (redubbed some lost lines of Laurence Olivier)
• Chaplin (1992) as George Hayden
• Freejack (1992) as Ian McCandless
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) as Prof. Abraham Van Helsing
• Howards End (1992) as Henry J. Wilcox
• The Remains of the Day (1993) as James Stevens
• Shadowlands (1993) as C. S. Lewis
• The Road to Wellville (1994) as Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
• Legends of the Fall (1994) as Col. William Ludlow
• Nixon (1995) as Richard Nixon
• Surviving Picasso (1996) as Pablo Picasso
• The Edge (1997) as Charles Morse
• Amistad (1997) as John Quincy Adams
• Meet Joe Black (1998) as William Parish
• The Mask of Zorro (1998) as Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro
• Instinct (1999) as Dr. Ethan Powell.
• Titus (1999) as Titus Andronicus
• Mission: Impossible II (2000) as Mission Commander Swanbeck
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2000) as the Narrator
• Hearts in Atlantis (2001) as Ted Brautigan
• Bad Company (2002) (2002) as Officer Oakes
• The Human Stain (2003) as Coleman Silk
• Alexander (2004) as Ptolemy I Soter (older)
• The World's Fastest Indian (2005) as Burt Munro
• All the King's Men (2006) as Judge Irwin
• Bobby (2006) as John Casey
• Fracture (2007) as Theodore "Ted" Crawford
• Shortcut to Happiness (2007) as Daniel Webster
• Beowulf (2007) as King Hrothgar
• The Wolfman (2010) as Sir John Talbot
• The Rite (2011) as Father Lucas Trevant
• Marvel Cinematic Universe as Odin:
  • Thor (2011)
  • Thor: The Dark World (2013)
  • Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
• Hitchcock (2012) as Alfred Hitchcock
• Red 2 (2013) as Dr. Edward Bailey
• Noah (2014) as Methuselah
• Blackway (2015) as Lester
• Solace (2015) as John Clancy
• Westworld (2016-18) as Dr. Robert Ford
• Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) as Sir Edmond Burton
• King Lear (2018) as Lear
• The Two Popes (2019) as Pope Benedict XVI
• The Father (2020) as Anthony
• Zero Contact (2021) as Finley Hart
• Armageddon Time (2022) as Grandpa Aaron Rabinowitz
• The Son (2022) as Anthony
• Rebel Moon (2023) as Jimmy (voice)
• Freud's Last Session (2023) as Sigmund Freud
• One Life (2024) as Sir Nicholas Winton

Associated Tropes with his roles

• Cool Old Guy: Many of his roles, even some of the villainous ones.
• The Danza: His character in The Father is also named Anthony, as is his character in The Son.^note Despite the similar titles, both being directed by and adapted from plays by Florian Zeller, and the Anthony in The Son being the titular character's father, the films do not share continuity and the two are separate characters.
• Enforced Method Acting: Has no truck with it; When shooting Westworld, he was initially only given his scenes. He refused to work until he had the chance to read the entire story.
• Large Ham: When he has to chew scenery, he will chew scenery like few others.

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