Philip Anthony Hopkins was born on New Year's Eve, 1937, at 77, Wern Road, Margam, near Port Talbot, South Wales. His mother was Muriel (nee Phillips, a relative of the poet William Butler Yeats) and his father Richard Arthur, a man of immense, sometimes violent energy, whose eyes would change colour when he was excited.

Anthony Hopkins was drawn to the theater while attending the YMCA at age 17, and later learned the basics of his craft at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Trained at the Cardiff College of Drama, Hopkins enjoyed extensive stage work before beginning his film career, essaying supporting roles in a series of distinguished films, including The Lion in Winter (1968) and Hamlet (1969). His screen output during the 1970s was largely impressive, and he appeared in many madefor-TV movies-an uncommon career path for classically trained British actors.,

In 1991, Anthony Hopkins won an Academy Award for his bloodcurdling portrayal of murderer Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. With the aplomb of a thorough professional, Anthony Hopkins was able to follow-up his chilling Lecter with characters of great kindness, courtesy, and humanity

Much in demand after Lambs he appeared in Freejack, Howards End (in a brilliant performance), Bram Stoker's Dracula (as vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing) and Chaplin (as a book editor), all in 1992 and was Oscar-nominated again for The Remains of the Day (1993). Trivia fans take note: He looped several of Laurence Olivier's lines for a scene in the restored version of Spartacus.