Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, CBE (born 31 December 1937), best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage, and television, and a composer. Considered to be one of the greatest living actors, Hopkins is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.
Anthony Hopkins was born in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales, the son of Muriel Anne (née Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His schooldays were unproductive; he found that he would rather immerse himself in art, such as painting and drawing, or playing the piano, than attend to his studies. In 1949, to instill discipline, his parents insisted he attend Jones’ West Monmouth Boys’ School in Pontypool, Wales. He remained there for five terms and was then educated at Cowbridge Grammar School in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.
Anthony Hopkins was influenced and encouraged to become an actor by Welsh compatriot Richard Burton (who was also born at Neath Port Talbot), whom he met briefly at the age of 15.
Anthony Hopkins has attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, since suddenly stopping drinking in 1975. He claims that a major help in his recovery was his belief in God. He has also made his criticism known about atheism, saying “being an atheist must be like living in a closed cell with no windows”.
Anthony Hopkins Filmography
2015 Solace
2015 Go with Me
2015 Kidnapping Mr. Heineken
2015 Autobahn
2014 Noah
2013 Thor: The Dark World
2013 Red 2
2014 Noah
2012 Hitchcock
2011 360
2011 Thor
2011 The Rite
2010 Bare Knuckles
2010 You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
2010 The Third Rule
2010 The Wolfman
2009 The City of Your Final Destination
2008 Immutable Dream of Snow Lion
2008 Where I Stand: The Hank Greenspun Story
2007 Beowulf
2007 Fracture
2007 Slipstream
2006 All the King’s Men
2006 Bobby
2005 The World’s Fastest Indian
2005 Proof
2004 Alexander
2004 The Devil and Daniel Webster
2003 The Human Stain
2002 Red Dragon
2002 Bad Company
2001 Hearts in Atlantis
2001 Hannibal
2000 How the Grinch Stole Christmas
2000 Mission: Impossible II
1999 Titus
1999 Instinct
1998 Meet Joe Black
1998 The Mask of Zorro
1997 Amistad
1997 The Edge
1996 Surviving Picasso
1996 August
1995 Nixon
1994 Legends of the Fall
1994 The Road to Wellville
1993 Shadowlands
1993 The Remains of the Day
1993 Selected Exits
1993 The Innocent
1993 The Trial
1992 Chaplin
1992 Dracula
1992 To Be the Best
1992 Howards End
1992 Spotswood
1992 Freejack
1991 One Man’s War
1991 The Silence of the Lambs
1990 Desperate Hours
1989 A Chorus of Disapproval
1989 Heartland
1988 The Tenth Man
1988 The Dawning
1988 Across the Lake
1987 84 Charing Cross Road
1985 The Good Father
1985 Mussolini and I
1985 Guilty Conscience
1984 Arch of Triumph
1984 The Bounty
1982 The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1981 Othello
1981 Peter and Paul
1981 The Bunker
1980 A Change of Seasons
1980 The Elephant Man
1979 Mayflower: The Pilgrims’ Adventure
1978 Magic
1978 International Velvet
1977 A Bridge Too Far
1977 Audrey Rose
1976 Victory at Entebbe
1976 The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case
1976 Dark Victory
1975 All Creatures Great and Small
1974 Juggernaut
1974 The Girl from Petrovka
1974 Possessions
1973 Lloyd George
1972 Young Winston
1972 Poet Game
1971 When Eight Bells Toll
1970 The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens
1969 The Looking Glass War
1969 Hamlet
1968 The Lion in Winter
1967 The White Bus
1967 A Flea in Her Ear