Anthony Hopkins' Life in Photos

Anthony Hopkins' Childhood

Philip Anthony Hopkins was born in Margam, Glamora, Wales, on Dec. 31, 1937, the only child of parents Muriel and Richard Hopkins. Richard was a baker, and Hopkins remembered him as being tough but funny: "He wasn't always irascible; he had a great sense of humor. ... I was born just before the war, and afterward we went through the years of Depression and rationing, but my father was always fighting back. ... He was a remarkable old man, and he won lots of silver cups—I've got them here—for making cakes and doughnuts."

Anthony Hopkins' Childhood

On Instagram, the actor shared a portrait of himself as a boy, drawn by his art teacher in 1944. Hopkins said that he was encouraged to pursue art and music by his teachers and parents, and he still composes and paints to this day.

"I started [piano] as a kid. I was five. My mother made me go for music lessons, and I took to it. I attempt to do very difficult pieces by Rachmaninoff and Chopin and Scriabin. I have no ambitions to play at Carnegie Hall or anything like that, but I do it for my own pleasure," he told The New Yorker. "And I paint. My wife got me to paint some years ago, because she found some old drawings of mine. So now I sell my paintings, and there's quite a market for them."

Anthony Hopkins' Early Career

After studying at the Cardiff College of Music and Drama and London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Hopkins was invited by Sir Laurence Olivier to join the Royal National Theater. He gained recognition for his work in Shakespearean plays (seen here with Diana Rigg in Macbeth in 1972).

Anthony Hopkins' Marriages

The actor has been married three times: Once to Petronella Barker from 1966 to 1972 (they share one child, from whom he is estranged); once to Jennifer Lynton (pictured) from 1973 to 2002; and now to Stella Arroyave, to whom he's been married since 2003.

Hopkins and Lynton were physically separated in the '70s, when Hopkins chose to move to the U.S. full-time and she stayed in the U.K.; the distance contributed to the eventual end of their marriage. In 2001 he told Barbara Walters about the state of their relationship: "She is a lovely woman. And, I don't want to go too deeply into this, I liked living here very much. I wanted to live here. I was always restless. And gradually we just drifted apart. But I live a separate life now."

Anthony Hopkins' First Big Film Role

In 1968, the actor earned recognition for his portrayal of Richard the Lionheart in The Lion in Winter, one of the most acclaimed films of that year.

Anthony Hopkins in The Bounty

Hopkins joined a who's-who of actors in the '80s (including Mel Gibson, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson and Laurence Olivier) for 1984's The Bounty, which was successful and generally got a favorable reception, but he hated it.

"It was such a sad mess of a film, such a botched job," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1985. Yet I'd put so much time and effort into the role. So right then and there I decided: Never again. I will no longer invest so much effort in something over which I have no control. It's too frustrating. That film was a sort of turning point for me. For years I'd been trying to cultivate a don't-give-a-damn attitude. After watching 'The Bounty' I knew I had it."

He would continue to echo that sentiment throughout his career, and loved to remind other actors that their job was more fun than difficult. "Anyone who complains to me about anything, I say, 'You know nothing. Wake up, smell the coffee, because you know nothing,' " he told The Washington Post, adding that his big acting advice boils down to: "It's common sense. There's no big deal to it."

Anthony Hopkins on His Alcoholism

The actor (seen here in a production of Antony and Cleopatra in the 1980s) earned acclaim for his roles onstage and on screen, but he has admitted he was "very difficult to work with, because I was usually hungover" in the 1960s and '70s. After waking up in a hotel room in Arizona in 1975 with no recollection of how he got there, he decided to quit. The day before his 85th birthday, he celebrated 47 years sober with a video offering words of support and encouragement to others who might be struggling.

As to why he quit? "Iwas not a good drinker. It wasn't so much the amount; it was what it would do to my brain and my body," he said. "And to drive a car when you're drunk is insanity—I could have killed somebody. So I thought, Stop it! And it was over and done with. I'm flabbergasted that I'm here and alive. I should have been dead many years ago."

Anthony Hopkins Becomes a Commander of the Order of the British Empire

The actor (with then-wife Jennifer and his mother Muriel) was recognized by Britain for his contributions to the arts in the United Kingdom in 1987. In 1993, he was given a knighthood, becoming officially Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Anthony Hopkins' Environmental Activism

The actor (pictured here while filming a 1989 documentary about Antarctica) is a vocal member of Greenpeace, and contributed £1 million towards a fundraiser to allow the National Trust to purchase and preserve the land in Snowdonia.

Anthony Hopkins in Snowdonia

Hopkins published a book about the hilly Welsh terrain in 1994, before becoming involved with the National Trust's conservation efforts.

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter

Hopkins' defining role may well be that of Hannibal Lector in 1991's Silence of the Lambs, in which he plays a psychiatrist and serial killer who eats his victims. He would revisit the character in the sequels Hannibal and Red Dragon.

In 2001, he told Barbara Walters of the character, "I read the first script many years ago and I knew that it was one of those parts, that I could slip into like a glove. I think he is a little like me in a way. He's a person in solitude and isolation. I am a bit of a solitude person — a solitary personality. I like being on my own. I don't have any major friendships or relationships with people."

Anthony Hopkins Wins His First Oscar

The actor and his Silence of the Lambs costar Jodie Foster each won an Oscar for their performances in the film, which also won three more Academy Awards including Best Picture. It was one of the highest-grossing films of that year.

Anthony Hopkin's Third Marriage

Hopkins wed actress Stella Arroyave, a Colombian native, in 2003, and she is often seen on his arm at premieres and awards shows (here, with him as he brings home the Cecil B. DeMille achievement award at the 2010 Golden Globes). He shares glimpses of their life together on Instagram, including a video of him dancing to traditional Colombian music.

Anthony Hopkins in Transformers: The Last Knight

Though the star is considered to have a serious onscreen and onstage persona, he has cultivated a joyful and silly presence on social media, and he attributes that to an encounter he had while working on Transformers: The Last Knight in 2017.

"It started with Mark Wahlberg. I was working [with him] and he said, 'I want you to go on Twitter to tweet.' I didn't know what he was talking about. I'm a bit dopey about that. So I did a message, and that's how it started," he told The New Yorker. "My wife has encouraged me to do it, especially in these dire times ... I try to send cheerful messages. As screwed up as we are as human beings, we can find a way out of this. I do live with optimism."

Anthony Hopkins in The Father

The star received rave reviews for his portrayal of an elderly man losing himself to dementia, in a film that costarred Olivia Colman. The film has many heartbreaking scenes, but Hopkins downplayed the level of difficulty, saying his many years of training led him to be able to do such wrenching work without too much stress. Plus, he had one secret weapon to use: "I didn't have to act old age, because I am old."

Though Hopkins' own father did not experience dementia, he saw parallels between his character and his aging dad onscreen: "I started doing [the film], and I didn't think of it. But when I saw it later, I thought I was my own father."

Anthony Hopkins' Second Oscar

Hopkins' performance won him his second Best Actor Oscar in 2021. His category was largely favored for the late Chadwick Boseman, and Hopkins' win surprised many, including the actor himself: He was asleep in Wales when his name was announced.

The actor, who at 83 became the oldest Best Actor winner ever, was "so happy and grateful" to be woken up with the news, his longtime agent told PEOPLE. "He loved the role in The Father – it's his proudest performance – and to be the oldest living actor to win in the category means so much to him."

Anthony Hopkins' Art

The actor spends much of his time at home playing piano and painting, and exhibits and sells his artwork. "I just paint as I feel it, and as I feel like doing it. I just like the colors and mixing them up and creating shapes, all that sort of thing," he told W. "I don't make any conscious effort, I just paint as it takes me."