Here’s what you need to know:
The actor won himself an Oscar and has appeared in countless classic films
One of the best films of all time that made a UK actor a star is airing on TV tonight (Monday, April 21) for free across the UK.
For many film fanatics there’s no actor who tops Anthony Hopkins, with the Welsh native winning two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Laurence Olivier Award.
On top of this he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama in 1993 and won the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2008.
However, it took 87-year-old Hopkins longer than many looking back now would have imagined to become a global force.
Fresh off of graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Hopkins focused on making a name for himself on stage.
Joining the Royal National Theatre in 1965, Hopkins appeared in the likes of King Lear, Macbeth and Corionalas.
Despite having worked with Mel Gibson in The Bounty, was the lead in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man and acted for Richard Attenborough on a number of films, Hopkins wasn’t being recognised for how talented he was.
That all changed in 1991, when Hopkins played the iconic cannibal Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.
Directed by Jonathan Demme, the film follows Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee on the hunt for a serial killer named Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine).
Unable to crack the code, Clarice begins meeting Hannibal in prison where she faces a moral dilemma in whether she should trust his advice.
Boasting a performance for the ages, The Silence of the Lambs grossed a whopping $272.7 million worldwide on a $19 million budget.
After receiving rave reviews from critics, the film became the third film to win the ‘Big Five’ at the Academy Awards in 1992.
On top of Hopkins winning Best Actor and Foster winning Best Actress. The film won Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Picture, a feat no film has achieved since.
Hopkins’ career went from strength to strength in the wake of his Oscar win, going to appear in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, several Marvel films and land his second Oscar in 2021 for The Father.
In spite of it taking Hopkins longer than he deserved to become a go-to actor, it’s hard to argue that the wait was worth it.
The Silence of the Lambs airs on Monday, April 21, on ITV4 and ITVX at 10.30pm
Published: 2025-04-21 04:00:00 | Author: [email protected] (Liam De Brun) | Source: MEN – News
Link: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Tags: #films #time #actor #Hollywood #star #airing #tonight
