December 19, 2007. Copyright 2007, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Welsh-born actor Anthony Hopkins, who portrayed the monstrous Hannibal Lecter, celebrates his 70th birthday
By Susan Shepherd

LONDON, December 19, Graphic News: He made his big-screen debut playing the part of a king -- Richard the Lionheart in A Lion in Winter. Forty years later, Anthony Hopkins still reigns at the box office, currently starring as Hrothgar, King of the Danes, in a 21st century version of the Old English epic poem, Beowulf.

In the intervening decades, the bakerÕs son from Port Talbot has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth and, in the U.S., crowned with an Oscar. He now has dual nationality, having become an American citizen in 2000, but is about to return to his artistic roots, with a reported concert tour in the pipeline. For Hopkins was first a musician, winning a piano scholarship to the College of Music and Drama in Cardiff at the age of 18. In recent years he has turned again to composing, as well as developing his talent as a painter, notably since his third marriage, to South American art dealer Stella Arroyave.

For the schoolboy loner who, though obviously bright, could not achieve academic results, the acting profession offered a potentially glamorous route out of small-town, post-war Wales; and another local lad already made good -- Richard Burton -- provided the early role model: ÒRichard Burton came from the same town as me, so I thought IÕd follow my nose, and follow my luck. I think IÕve been very luckyÓ.

Of all those lucky breaks, in a career that has lasted half a century, one stands head and shoulders above the rest. It was 1989. Having only partially conquered America, Hopkins was treading the boards again in LondonÕs West End in the physically demanding M. Butterfly, when he was offered a film role which would send his solid, respectable career into orbit. The movie was The Silence of the Lambs, co-starring Jodie Foster as an FBI agent trying to get into the mind of a killer who, literally, devours his victims. It was a part which won Hopkins a new generation of fans, young cinema goers who knew little of his years at Stratford-on-Avon with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and had not seen him in When Eight Bells Toll (1971), A Bridge too Far (1977), or The Elephant Man (1980), let alone BAFTA award-winning television productions such as the BBCÕs 1972 adaptation of War and Peace.

When Hopkins picked up the Oscar for Best Actor at the 1992 ceremony, Hollywood finally opened up for him. He was nominated again, two years later, for his intense performance as the repressed country house butler, Stevens, in The Remains of the Day, and again in 1996 when he played disgraced U.S. president Richard Nixon. At the 1998 awards he was nominated for his supporting role as another American president, this time John Quincy Adams, in Steven SpielbergÕs slave ship drama, Amistad. Among his British trophies garnered in the same decade, is a BAFTA award for his portrayal of the Oxford don and childrenÕs writer, C.S. Lewis, in the film version of Shadowlands (1993).

Fifty years ago, as a young graduate from RADA, Hopkins got his first break understudying for the great Laurence Olivier, who was so impressed by the newcomer that he became his mentor. Now, at 70, Hopkins can reflect on having reached a status comparable to that of his late master, as well as passing on what he has learned, through voluntary work with students at the Ruskins School of Acting in Santa Monica, California.

All in all, itÕs a much more mellow image for the fiery Welshman who once had a reputation as a troubled character, a big drinker and heavy smoker. Hopkins managed to quit alcohol with the help of his second wife, Jennifer Lynton, to whom he was married for nearly 30 years. Hopkins has one child, a daughter, Abigail, from his first marriage to Petronella Barker. She followed her father into acting, though the pair are said to remain estranged.
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bibliography:  http://arts.independent.co.uk; www.tiscali.co.uk; www.channel4.com; http://film.guardian.co.uk; www.britmovie.co.uk; www.indielondon.co.uk /Film-Review/beowulf-anthony-hopkins-interview; http://www.hellomagazine.com/profiles/anthonyhopkins/; www.brainyquote.com