50 Fun Facts About Anthony Hopkins

Which film won Anthony Hopkins his first Best Actor Oscar and swept all five major Academy Awards?

The Silence of the Lambs was only the third film to win Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay together. The first two were It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Anthony Hopkins won his second Best Actor Oscar for The Father, playing a man living with which condition?

Dementia shapes The Father, which Florian Zeller adapted from his own 2012 play Le Père. Hopkins's character in the film is also named Anthony.

Which Marvel character did Anthony Hopkins play in three Thor films released between 2011 and 2017?

Odin rules Asgard in the films, and Hopkins admitted he knew nothing of the comics before taking the part. He said he found a personal resonance in the stern king.

Which actress won an Oscar as FBI trainee Clarice Starling opposite Anthony Hopkins's Hannibal Lecter?

Jodie Foster got the part only after Michelle Pfeiffer and Meg Ryan had each turned it down, uneasy about the gruesome subject matter.

Which US president did Anthony Hopkins play in Oliver Stone's 1995 biopic, earning a Best Actor Oscar nomination?

Richard Nixon looked an odd fit for a Welshman, but Oliver Stone told Hopkins that his outsider quality was exactly why he wanted him for the part.

Which actor played Death in human form opposite Anthony Hopkins's media tycoon in the 1998 film Meet Joe Black?

Brad Pitt had already starred with Hopkins in the 1994 Western drama Legends of the Fall. Meet Joe Black is based on the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday.

In which HBO series did Anthony Hopkins play Robert Ford, co-founder of a theme park staffed by lifelike androids?

Westworld grew out of a 1973 film written and directed by Michael Crichton. Playing the park's director earned Hopkins an Emmy nomination.

Which honour did Queen Elizabeth II give Anthony Hopkins at Buckingham Palace in 1993 for services to the arts?

A knighthood made him Sir Anthony, and an overawed Steven Spielberg insisted on using the title throughout the Amistad shoot rather than call him Tony.

Which actor did Anthony Hopkins's ageing swordsman train as his successor in the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro?

Antonio Banderas inherited the mask from Hopkins's Don Diego de la Vega. To prepare, he practised for four months with Spain's Olympic fencing team.

The 2012 biopic starring Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock follows the director during the making of which film?

Psycho was filmed in 1959, and the biopic centres on Hitchcock's marriage to Alma Reville, his wife and collaborator, who is played by Helen Mirren.

Anthony Hopkins was born on New Year's Eve 1937 in which Welsh town known for its vast steelworks?

Port Talbot has been called fertile ground for movie stars. Hopkins was born in its Margam district, and he later gave that name to one of his own compositions.

Which pope did Anthony Hopkins play opposite Jonathan Pryce in the 2019 Netflix film The Two Popes?

Benedict XVI is shown confiding his plan to abdicate to the cardinal who will succeed him. Hopkins and Pryce, both Welshmen, were each Oscar-nominated for the film.

Which character from Bram Stoker's novel did Anthony Hopkins play in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film of Dracula?

Van Helsing is the professor summoned to end the vampire's reign of terror in London. Hopkins also plays a Romanian Orthodox priest in the same film.

What job does Anthony Hopkins's character Stevens hold at Darlington Hall in the film The Remains of the Day?

Butler Stevens is so repressed that he never admits his feelings for the housekeeper, Miss Kenton. Morgan Freeman has called the performance a lesson in stillness.

Which actress starred opposite Anthony Hopkins in both Howards End and The Remains of the Day?

Emma Thompson won the Best Actress Oscar for Howards End, then was nominated again a year later for her second Merchant Ivory film with Hopkins.

Which fellow nominee did Anthony Hopkins pay tribute to in the video accepting his Best Actor Oscar in 2021?

Chadwick Boseman had died the previous year and was considered the strong frontrunner for the award. Hopkins, at home in Wales, posted his thanks the day after the ceremony.

What did Anthony Hopkins give up for good just after Christmas 1975, a decision he marked 50 years later?

Alcohol nearly killed him when he drove in a drunken blackout, so he got help and has been sober ever since. In 2025 he urged anyone living with addiction to choose life.

Which country's citizenship did Welsh-born Anthony Hopkins take in April 2000 while remaining a British citizen?

United States citizenship followed his move back across the Atlantic after his 1990s film success. He had first tried Hollywood in the late 1970s, then returned to London.

Which instrument did the schoolboy Anthony Hopkins prefer to his studies, years before composing for orchestras?

Piano, painting and drawing all appealed to him more than lessons. He has said he would have gone to music college had he been clever enough at school.

Which actress plays Anne, the daughter of Anthony Hopkins's character, in the 2020 drama The Father?

Olivia Colman was acclaimed alongside Hopkins for the film, and he said that making it with her and director Florian Zeller might have been the highlight of his life.

What was the trade of Anthony Hopkins's father Richard, whose hardened, broken hands the actor says keep him humble?

A baker in South Wales, Richard Hopkins gave his son the working-class values that the actor says have underscored his whole life.

Which stage legend invited Anthony Hopkins to join the National Theatre in 1965 and made him his understudy?

Laurence Olivier fell ill with appendicitis in 1967, so his understudy went on in The Dance of Death. Olivier later wrote that the newcomer walked away with the part.

Which Welsh film star, whom Anthony Hopkins first met at 15, inspired him to become an actor?

Richard Burton grew up near the same town, yet Hopkins says the two barely knew each other. They met again in the 1970s, when Burton took over one of his Broadway roles.

Which former US president did Anthony Hopkins play in Steven Spielberg's 1997 courtroom drama Amistad?

John Quincy Adams argues for the captives' freedom, and Hopkins astounded the crew by delivering the seven-page courtroom speech in one go. It brought him a Supporting Actor nomination.

Which actor beat Anthony Hopkins, nominated for The Remains of the Day, to the Best Actor Oscar in 1994?

Tom Hanks won for Philadelphia on a night dominated by Schindler's List. The Remains of the Day had eight nominations, tied for second-most that year.

Whose record as the oldest Best Actor Oscar winner, set with On Golden Pond, did Anthony Hopkins break in 2021?

Henry Fonda was 76 when he won for his final film role, and too ill to attend. Hopkins took the record at 83, and he was not at his ceremony either.

Which director cast Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter and won the Best Director Oscar for the 1991 thriller?

Jonathan Demme offered Hopkins the role on the strength of his performance in The Elephant Man, made a decade earlier.

Which actress took over the role of Clarice Starling opposite Anthony Hopkins in the 2001 sequel Hannibal?

Julianne Moore had already acted with Hopkins in Surviving Picasso, and stepped in when the original Starling declined to return for the sequel.

Which novelist created Hannibal Lecter, the character Anthony Hopkins played in three films?

Thomas Harris avoids publicity so thoroughly that he gave very few interviews between 1976 and 2019. He was reportedly pleased with how Hopkins played his villain.

Which director cast Anthony Hopkins as surgeon Frederick Treves in the 1980 drama The Elephant Man?

David Lynch made the film with Mel Brooks as executive producer. Brooks went uncredited so that audiences would not expect one of his comedies.

Which dictator did Anthony Hopkins portray in the 1981 TV film The Bunker, winning his second Emmy Award?

Adolf Hitler's last weeks in his Berlin bunker are the film's subject. For the Emmy, Hopkins beat Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune, both nominated for Shogun.

Anthony Hopkins won his first Emmy in 1976 playing the man convicted of kidnapping which famous aviator's baby son?

Charles Lindbergh became a hero with his 1927 transatlantic flight. Hopkins played Bruno Hauptmann, who protests his innocence after ransom money is found on him.

Which Oxford academic and author did Anthony Hopkins play opposite Debra Winger in the 1993 film Shadowlands?

C. S. Lewis, creator of the Narnia books, sees his faith tested in the film when his wife, the American poet Joy Davidman, is dying of cancer.

In The World's Fastest Indian, Anthony Hopkins plays New Zealander Burt Munro, who set speed records on what vehicle?

A motorcycle built in 1920, an Indian Scout, carried Munro to records at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Hopkins called it one of his easiest roles because he shared Munro's outlook on life.

Anthony Hopkins acted in both Legends of the Fall and The Edge with Bart, a trained animal of which kind?

A bear, and a Kodiak at that, Bart was respected by Hopkins like a fellow actor, his trainers said. The star would spend hours simply watching and admiring him.

Which actor played mutineer Fletcher Christian opposite Anthony Hopkins's Captain Bligh in the 1984 film The Bounty?

Mel Gibson led the mutiny in a film David Lean had spent years developing before he left it. Its supporting cast included Liam Neeson and Edward Fox.

Which director made five films with Anthony Hopkins, including A Bridge Too Far, Magic and Shadowlands?

Richard Attenborough called Hopkins the greatest actor of his generation. On their last film he stood in for him at rehearsals, because Hopkins preferred a fresh first take.

Which Welsh mountain did Anthony Hopkins help the National Trust buy part of with a £1 million gift in 1998?

Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales, and Hopkins served as president of the National Trust appeal to protect it. He also wrote a book about the surrounding national park.

Which violinist premiered And the Waltz Goes On, a piece Anthony Hopkins had composed nearly 50 years earlier?

André Rieu was sent the waltz by Hopkins's wife, a fan of the Dutch violinist. Hopkins wrote it in 1964 and had never heard it played before the premiere in Vienna.

Which Shakespeare play, Anthony Hopkins's favourite, did he perform at the National Theatre in 1986 and film in 2018?

King Lear came back to him in a television film set in a militarised 21st-century London, with Florence Pugh as Cordelia and Jim Broadbent as Gloucester.

Which star passed on Hannibal Lecter and quit The Mask of Zorro, leaving both roles to Anthony Hopkins?

Sean Connery was the first actor approached to play the cannibal, and years later he was cast as the older Zorro before dropping out. Hopkins inherited both parts.

What part did Anthony Hopkins take in Ron Howard's 2000 film How the Grinch Stole Christmas, starring Jim Carrey?

The narrator is never seen on screen, and Hopkins recorded the entire narration for the film in a single day.

Which actor announced the absent Anthony Hopkins as Best Actor winner at the abrupt close of the 2021 Oscars?

Joaquin Phoenix said the Academy accepted the award on Hopkins's behalf, and the show came to a sudden end. Hopkins had offered to appear by Zoom, but the producers declined.

Which actor first played Hannibal Lecter on screen, in the 1986 film Manhunter, before Anthony Hopkins took the role?

Brian Cox played the jailed killer in a supporting role, with the character's surname spelled Lecktor. Hopkins took over the part five years later.

Which star won an Oscar as Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter, Anthony Hopkins's breakthrough film?

Katharine Hepburn became the first three-time Best Actress winner with the role. Hopkins played her son Richard the Lionheart and earned a BAFTA nomination.

Which BBC adaptation of a Russian novel won Anthony Hopkins a BAFTA for playing Pierre Bezukhov in 1972?

War and Peace made him the lead of a sprawling Tolstoy serial. One critic later called him a perfect Pierre, a tribute to his acting because his natural mode is to be in command.

Which Golden Globes lifetime achievement honour did Gwyneth Paltrow present to Anthony Hopkins?

The Cecil B. DeMille Award recognises outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment. It is named after the director who became its first recipient in 1952.

In One Life, Anthony Hopkins plays Nicholas Winton, who helped 669 children escape which country before World War II?

Czechoslovakia was under German occupation when the young London stockbroker organised the children's escape. Hopkins plays him decades later, at 79, looking back on the rescue.

Which BBC sitcom wrote a villain for its fan Anthony Hopkins, who had to decline while filming as Hannibal Lecter?

Only Fools and Horses writer John Sullivan created the local villain Danny Driscoll with Hopkins in mind. The part went to Roy Marsden instead.

For the 1991 restoration of which Stanley Kubrick epic did Anthony Hopkins imitate a late actor's lost dialogue?

Spartacus had lost the soundtrack for one restored scene, so Hopkins, a gifted mimic, voiced his late mentor's lines while Tony Curtis re-recorded his own.