Anthony Hopkins

NAME Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Anthony Hopkins is a Welsh actor, composer and painter widely regarded as one of the greatest screen and stage performers of his generation. He is best known for his chilling portrayal of serial killer and psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence Of The Lambs (1991) and its sequel Hannibal (2001), along with acclaimed performances in films such as The Remains of the Day, Amistad, The Father, Thor, and The Elephant Man.

BIRTH Philip Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937 in the Margam district of Port Talbot, West Glamorgan, Wales. ​

FAMILY BACKGROUND Hopkins was the only child of Annie Muriel (née Yeates) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker who ran "A. R. Hopkins and Son". His mother was a distant relative of the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent, and one of his grandfathers was from Wiltshire, England. 

His father was a working-class man whose values deeply influenced Hopkins. He once reflected: "Whenever I get a feeling that I may be special or different, I think of my father and I remember his hands — his hardened, broken hands". His working-class parents sacrificed to send him to private schools. (1)

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CHILDHOOD Hopkins had a difficult and isolated childhood. He was a poor student who struggled academically and felt disconnected from school life, preferring to immerse himself in painting, drawing, and playing the piano rather than attend to his studies. He was nicknamed "Elephant Head" by other children on account of his large head, and they said he had "nothing much inside it". One headmaster publicly humiliated him, exclaiming: "You're totally inept. Does anything go on in that thick skull of yours?" before slapping him. He withdrew from socialising and refused to participate in sports. (2)

In a 2002 interview, Hopkins described himself as a weak student who was easy to ridicule, developed a deep inferiority complex, and grew up convinced he lacked intelligence. Despite that, he poured himself into self‑education, working through a ten‑volume children’s encyclopaedia and reading Charles Dickens at a young age. At Easter 1955, after yet another dismal school report, his father despaired over his future, prompting the 17‑year‑old Hopkins to quietly resolve that he would prove his parents wrong. Not long after, seeing the 1948 film version of Hamlet became the spark that turned that determination into a serious ambition to act.

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EDUCATION To instil discipline, Hopkins's parents sent him to Jones' West Monmouth Boys' School in Pontypool in 1949, where he remained for five terms. He then attended Cowbridge Grammar School in the Vale of Glamorgan. Encouraged by an encounter with Richard Burton, he enrolled at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff at the age of 15, graduating in 1957. 

After completing two years of national service (1958–1960), he moved to London and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in 1963. His performance as Iago at RADA helped gain him admission to that prestigious institution.

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CAREER RECORD 1965 Joined the National Theatre in 1965 as an understudy to Laurence Olivier.

1968 Hopkins made his movie breakthrough when he portrayed Richard the Lionheart in The Lion in Winter.

1991 The Silence of the Lambs made him a global icon.

APPEARANCE Hopkins stands at 5 ft 9 in / 1.75 m with blue eyes. While his hair was darker in his youth, it is now famously silver/white.

Hopkins is known for his distinctive, expressive face, intense gaze and controlled physical mannerisms, which contribute to his commanding screen presence. His piercing eyes and measured movements have made him especially effective in psychologically complex roles.

As a child, he was nicknamed "elephant head" by other children due to his large head.

Throughout much of his adult career, he was stocky in build. In 2008, with his wife Stella's encouragement, he embarked on a dramatic weight loss programme, losing approximately 80 pounds (36 kg) by 2010 through cutting out sugar, bread, rice, and pasta, and exercising six days a week. He dropped to around 160 pounds, and images of his dramatically slimmer frame initially sparked health concerns, though he insisted he was in the best shape of his life. 

He has adapted his appearance for roles, such as building up muscle and cropping his hair short to play a "mercenary-like" Lecter in Hannibal.

In his portrayal of Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs, Anthony Hopkins only blinks around 15 times in the entire movie. It was a technique that Hopkins used to make Lecter seem more unsettling and menacing. (3)

Anthony Hopkins 2010 Wikipedia

FASHION He typically favours classic, understated tailoring. Off screen, Hopkins often chooses comfortable and elegant clothing rather than flashy designer statements, reflecting his practical personality.

In 2022 he became the face of Spanish luxury brand Loewe at the age of 84, one of the oldest actors to front a major fashion house campaign. Photographed by Juergen Teller, he appeared in his sunny back garden pointing to a studded jumbo tote bag. He returned for Loewe's subsequent campaigns, modelling sleek black sweaters and other pieces. 

After his dramatic weight loss, he donated all his larger clothing to charity as nothing fitted him any longer: "I can't get back into my wardrobe. I gave it all away to some mission". (1)

CHARACTER Hopkins has spoken publicly about being on the autism spectrum, saying he received an Asperger’s diagnosis later in life and that his “obsessiveness is a great gift” that helps him focus and learn lines. (4)

He is frequently described as shy, solitary and socially awkward, and has said he often felt “stupid” and out of place as a child, which fed a lifelong sense of being an outsider. (4)

Colleagues and profiles regularly highlight his almost compulsive line‑learning discipline and the way he channels intensity inward rather than into celebrity sociability, contributing to his reputation as private and self-contained

SPEAKING VOICE Hopkins possesses a refined, resonant baritone voice with a subtle Welsh lilt. His vocal control is considered one of his most powerful acting tools, allowing him to deliver performances that range from calm authority to unsettling menace.

Hopkins is widely praised for his ability to transform his Welsh accent into a range of voices and dialects, and is repeatedly described as a “gifted mimic” in biographical and clinical write‑ups. 

His Lecter voice in The Silence of the Lambs – quiet, precise and almost mechanically calm – has often been analysed by critics as central to the character’s eeriness and is one reason he is cited as one of film’s great vocal performers.

SENSE OF HUMOUR Hopkins is a long‑time fan of Welsh comic Tommy Cooper and became patron of the Tommy Cooper Society; in 2008 he helped unveil a Cooper statue in Caerphilly, complete with the trademark fez. 

He said in interviews that he loves the sitcom Only Fools and Horses and once expressed a wish to appear in it, a remark that prompted creator John Sullivan to write a part for him — although a scheduling clash meant Hopkins never filmed the role. 

Later profiles often mention his playful presence on social media, where he posts short, jokey videos of himself dancing or goofing around, presenting a much lighter persona than many of his most serious roles.

RELATIONSHIPS Hopkins married actress Petronella Barker in 1966 (most likely September 2, 1966 at Stalisfield, Kent) They had a daughter, Abigail, in 1968 and divorced in 1972. 

Hopkins and Abigail are estranged. When asked if he had grandchildren, he said: "I don't have any idea. People break up. Families split and, you know, 'Get on with your life'"

He later married production assistant Jennifer Lynton on January 13, 1973 at Barnes Methodist Church, London. The marriage lasted until their divorce in 2002. 

Hopkins married Colombian‑born Stella Arroyave on March 1, 2003 at his home/estate in Malibu, California, in an intimate ceremony for family and close friends. She was an antiques dealer he met in Los Angeles, and he has credited her in interviews with encouraging his painting, helping stabilise his life and supporting his health changes.

Martha Stewart was in a relationship with Anthony Hopkins and reportedly ended it after watching The Silence Of The Lambs, saying she could not separate Hopkins from the terrifying character of Hannibal Lecter.

Hopkins has acknowledged that he can be difficult. In profiles and memoir coverage he admits to infidelity and describes himself as having been selfish and not a good husband or father, while also recalling a temper that sometimes made him intimidating on sets. He famously fell out with Shirley MacLaine during the making of A Change of Seasons; later tabloid recaps record him describing her as the most obnoxious actress he had worked with.

MONEY AND FAME By the late 1990s Hopkins was among Britain’s highest‑paid actors, with major paydays for films such as The Mask of Zorro and Meet Joe Black; reports at the time suggested a huge fee to return as Hannibal Lecter, even though exact figures vary by outlet. 

He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003 and was ranked seventh in Channel 4’s “100 Greatest Movie Stars” poll.

Despite that status, he has repeatedly pushed back against the idea that actors should be treated as sages. In his 2019 conversation with Brad Pitt for Interview magazine he said: “People ask me questions about present situations in life, and I say, ‘I don’t know, I’m just an actor. I don’t have any opinions. Actors are pretty stupid. My opinion is not worth anything.’” (6)

He has also used his wealth philanthropically, donating £1 million to help the National Trust buy part of Snowdon and funding a major wing at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, which now houses the Anthony Hopkins Centre.

Anthony Hopkins Centre By Andy Kowalik - https://www.flickr.com

FOOD AND DRINK Hopkins gave up sugar and drastically changing his diet for health reasons. In interviews picked up by health and lifestyle outlets he explains that he cut out foods like bread, pasta and sweets, saying he had been “addicted to bread, cookies, whatnot” and that dropping sugar left him feeling far more awake and healthy. Reports on his weight loss note that he at one point limited himself to around 800 calories a day and exercised intensively, which he credits, along with his wife’s prompting, for losing around 75–80 lb.

He is also a long‑term recovering alcoholic; Hopkins has often dated the start of his sobriety to just after Christmas 1975 and has talked about the moment he asked for help and was told to trust in God as a turning point. In later talks and anniversary posts marking 45 and then 50 years sober he has urged others to “choose life” and described his drinking years as self‑destructive, saying it was only once he stopped that he could fully enjoy his work.

ACTING CAREER Anthony Hopkins first stepped onto a professional stage in 1960 at Swansea’s Palace Theatre in a production charmingly titled Have a Cigarette, which sounds less like the launch of a legendary acting career and more like a mildly persuasive suggestion from a concerned relative. Five years later, however, fate intervened in the form of Laurence Olivier, who spotted Hopkins and invited him to join the Royal National Theatre in London — rather like being noticed at the local five-a-side and immediately signed by Manchester United.

Hopkins became Olivier’s understudy, which in theatrical terms means standing in the wings while hoping the star remains robustly healthy, but also secretly keeping one’s costume pressed and ready just in case calamity strikes. Calamity obligingly did in 1967 when Olivier succumbed to appendicitis during The Dance of Death. Hopkins stepped in and, according to Olivier, seized the role “like a cat with a mouse between its teeth,” which is both high praise and a slightly alarming mental image. He went on to rack up an impressive list of stage triumphs, including King Lear (his personal Shakespearean favourite), Coriolanus, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra alongside Judi Dench, and the Broadway production of Equus in 1974. By 1985, he had secured a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in David Hare’s Pravda. Yet for all his theatrical success, Hopkins eventually decided that stage acting felt less like artistic liberation and more like doing time in a particularly cultured prison. His final theatre appearance came in a 1989 West End production of M. Butterfly, after which he made a dignified escape.

Hopkins’ screen career had already been gathering momentum. He made his television debut in 1967 in a BBC broadcast of A Flea in Her Ear, and his cinematic breakthrough arrived a year later when he played Richard the Lionheart in The Lion in Winter (1968), sparring with Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn, which is rather like learning to box by entering the ring with Muhammad Ali. 

He collected two Emmy Awards for The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976) and The Bunker (1981), the latter featuring his unsettling portrayal of Adolf Hitler. Other early appearances included A Bridge Too Far (1977), the ventriloquist-themed psychological chiller Magic (1978), and David Lynch’s The Elephant Man (1980).

Then, in 1991, Hopkins delivered the performance that would permanently rearrange the public’s relationship with fava beans and Chianti. His chillingly composed turn as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor and secured his place in cinematic immortality, despite appearing on screen for barely 16 minutes. He later returned to the role in Hannibal (2001) and Red Dragon (2002). The 1990s proved particularly fruitful, bringing additional Oscar nominations for The Remains of the Day (1993), Nixon (1995), and Amistad (1997), and by 1998 he had become Britain’s highest-paid performer, suggesting that audiences were quite happy to reward him handsomely for terrifying them with impeccable diction.

Hopkins continued to evolve in later decades, taking on roles that revealed both warmth and quiet eccentricity. He has frequently cited The World’s Fastest Indian (2005) as his favourite performance. Television audiences discovered him anew as the enigmatic Dr. Robert Ford in HBO’s Westworld (2016–2018), while films such as The Two Popes (2019) and The Father (2020) — the latter earning him a second Academy Award — showcased his ability to balance emotional fragility with formidable presence. 

More recently, he has appeared in Armageddon Time (2022), portrayed humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton in One Life (2023), starred in Freud’s Last Session (2023), and took on the role of Herod the Great in the Netflix film Mary (2024), demonstrating that even in his eighties he remains industriously booked and impressively unretired.

Not content merely to act, Hopkins has also ventured into directing. He helmed Dylan Thomas: Return Journey (1990), the Welsh-set Chekhov adaptation August (1995), and the surreal drama Slipstream (2007), which he also wrote and scored — proving that if one cannot entirely escape the theatre, one can at least rearrange it to one’s own liking.

MUSIC AND ARTS Hopkins is an accomplished pianist and composer. He has said he has been composing since he was young and that, had his schooling been better, he would have liked to attend music college rather than drama school. His 1986 single “Distant Star” charted in the UK, and in 2011 André Rieu premiered Hopkins’s waltz “And the Waltz Goes On”, a piece Hopkins had originally written in the 1960s. He later released the orchestral album Composer (2012), recorded with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and his pieces have been programmed by ensembles including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and, more recently, the Royal Philharmonic in a gala in Riyadh.

Hopkins began painting seriously in the 2000s after his wife noticed doodles on his scripts and encouraged him to explore it; he has said “My wife encouraged me… and I had no idea that I’d end up being a painter and having exhibitions.” He paints mainly in acrylic on canvas, often with a palette knife, creating brightly coloured, semi‑abstract faces, and his work has been shown in Jeff Mitchum Galleries at the MGM Grand and Bellagio in Las Vegas, as well as in La Jolla and other venues. Those galleries have listed original works in ranges up to about $80,000, although Hopkins stresses in interviews that he paints instinctively and not for the money. 

He describes painting and music as central pleasures late in life, sometimes more sustaining than acting itself.

LITERATURE Despite doing poorly in formal schooling, Hopkins read widely as a child and as an adult keeps his memory sharp by learning verse and Shakespeare by heart. He has a long‑standing interest in Carl Jung and modern philosophy and has mentioned admiring writers such as Christopher Hitchens in interviews about belief and doubt. 

In print, he published Anthony Hopkins’ Snowdonia (1995), a book of text and images about the Welsh landscape he loves, and in 2025 brought out his memoir We Did OK, Kid, which reviewers describe as fragmented, Beckettian and brutally frank about addiction, marital failures and his parents.

According to anoft‑repeated anecdote,  after accepting a role in The Girl from Petrovka, Hopkins struggled to find a copy of the novel. He later found one abandoned on a park bench. Two years afterward, he met the author, George Feifer, on the film,  and discovered the copy he’d found was Feifer’s own annotated one, supposedly lost years earlier.

NATURE As president of the Snowdonia Appeal, Hopkins donated £1 million in the late 1990s toward the National Trust’s purchase of land on Snowdon, an effort widely reported in Welsh and UK media. He later wrote Anthony Hopkins’ Snowdonia as a kind of love letter to the region. 

Hopkins has lent his voice to Greenpeace campaigns, including a 2008 TV spot raising concerns about Japanese whaling, and is frequently cited as one of the most prominent Welsh supporters of conservation.

PETS Hopkins is an animal lover. Biographical notes and social‑media coverage mention his cat Niblo, adopted while he was working in Budapest, who appeared in several of his Instagram posts during the COVID lockdowns. In 2023 he and Stella partnered with Paws of War to fund the relocation of animals rescued by US military personnel; the charity quotes him saying that supporting such missions is “an honor” and that they “love animals and want to do all we can.” 

Trainers on Legends of the Fall and The Edge recalled his unusually calm and respectful working relationship with Bart the Bear, something that has become part of behind‑the‑scenes lore on those films.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Hopkins composes, plays the piano daily and paints prolifically,  describing these activities as what keeps his mind engaged. 

Articles on his post‑2000 lifestyle change note that he took up regular exercise and power‑walking as part of his weight‑loss regime and that he has kept up a disciplined routine into his eighties. 

He has occasionally taught acting in workshop settings in California, including sessions at private studios and with students in outreach programmes, presentations that are usually described as voluntary or informal masterclasses rather than formal posts.

SCIENCE AND MATHS Hopkins has a deep interest in particle physics and the works of Einstein, though he famously struggled with traditional schooling as a child

He frequently talks about the subconscious, dreams and the “mystery” of the mind when discussing his acting process and his paintings, which he says he does instinctively without theory. 

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Hopkins has said that he moved from youthful atheism through agnosticism to a more theistic outlook after getting sober in the mid‑1970s. In various talks on addiction, he recounts a moment when a woman at AA told him to trust in God, a suggestion he followed and later described as a “quantum leap” away from self‑destruction. He has also said he believes in a God along the lines of Einstein’s — impersonal but underlying everything — and has linked that to remarks such as “Everything is God. Everything is particle physics.” (10)

He is sceptical of rigid certainty, telling one interviewer that certainty can be terrifying and invoking figures like Hitler and Stalin as examples of the danger of absolute conviction. In the same conversation he compared atheism to “living in a closed cell with no windows” and emphasised his comfort with not knowing, aligning this with his admiration for Jung and for writers who leave room for doubt. (10)

POLITICS He is a prominent member of Greenpeace and has campaigned against whaling in Japan. However, he generally avoids partisan political commentary in the media.

Hopkins has consistently distanced himself from political commentary. In his published conversation with Brad Pitt for Interview he explained that he does not understand why actors are asked about current affairs, saying: “I don’t have any opinions. Actors are pretty stupid. My opinion is not worth anything. There’s no controversy for me, so don’t engage me in it, because I’m not going to participate.” Coverage of that exchange underlined the way he rejects the Hollywood norm of using his platform to champion political causes. (6)

Hopkins in 2025 by Omar David Sandoval Sida 

SCANDAL Hopkins has largely avoided major public scandals. His most personal public revelation concerned his battle with alcoholism during the 1960s and 70s, which he has spoken about with painful honesty in his memoir, We Did Okay, Kid. 

MILITARY RECORD After graduating from drama college, Hopkins was called up for National Service in 1958. He joined the Royal Artillery as 23449720 Gunner Hopkins, was first posted to Oswestry and then to Bulford Camp on Salisbury Plain, where he spent almost two years doing clerical work described in fan‑style biographies as “typewriter punching,” earning about 30 shillings a week. He left the army with the non‑commissioned rank of Bombardier before returning home and then going on to RADA

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Hopkins has been open about his alcoholism and long-term sobriety, describing waking up after a blackout and realising he could easily have killed someone as the shock that led him to seek help and join a 12‑step programme in Los Angeles. He often dates his sobriety to late 1975 and has publicly marked major anniversaries with short speeches encouraging others to seek help.

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In later life he embarked on a significant health overhaul, dramatically reducing his calorie intake, cutting out sugar and refined carbohydrates and exercising six days a week.

Discussions of his Asperger’s diagnosis in 2017 and after often connect his health routines, sobriety and obsessive line‑learning to his way of managing an intense inner life.

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HOMES Hopkins has lived for many years in Malibu, where he paints in a studio space at home, and has also owned other properties in the Los Angeles area.  

News reports in 2025 noted that two of his houses in Pacific Palisades were destroyed during a wildfire, although he and his wife were not harmed.

He became a naturalised US citizen in 2000 but has retained his British citizenship and speaks often of still feeling rooted in Wales; he was made a freeman of his home town Port Talbot in 1996. 

TRAVEL After becoming a US citizen he has spoken fondly of driving long distances across America and enjoying anonymous road trips that contrast with red‑carpet travel. 

When he won his second Oscar for The Father in 2021, he accepted it remotely from Wales, recording a brief video in which he stood in the countryside near his hometown, underscoring how closely he still identifies with his birthplace.

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Hopkins has appeared in numerous films, television productions and documentaries. He is also known for interviews, guest appearances and social media posts, where he occasionally shares music and artwork with fans.

Beyond his 100+ film and TV credits, he is highly active on Instagram and TikTok, where he shares whimsical videos of himself dancing, playing piano, and painting.

ACHIEVEMENTS Two Academy Awards (Best Actor for The Silence of the Lambs and The Father).

Numerous BAFTA Awards

Cecil B. DeMille Award (2006) and BAFTA Fellowship (2008).

Emmy and Golden Globe recognition

Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1993 for services to the arts

Widely considered one of the finest actors in modern cinema

Renowned for extraordinary preparation techniques, sometimes memorising scripts more than 200 times.

Sources: (1) The New York Times (2) AOL (3) Encyclopaedia of Trivia (4) Canyon Therapy (5) People (6) Interview magazine (7) Huffington Post (8) Fox News (9) Hello magazine (10) Hollow Verse