‘YOU HAVE TO GET ON WITH LIFE – LIVE IT'

AS HIS LATEST OSCAR-WINNING FILM HITS THE SCREEN OK! LOOKS BACK AT THE INCREDIBLE CAREER OF SIR ANTHONY HOPKINS

- ANNA MATHESON

When he won the Best Actor Oscar at the Academy Awards in April this year, 83-year-old Sir Anthony Hopkins officially became the oldest person ever to receive the accolade. Of course, it wasn’t his first time, with the acting legend picking up an Academy Award in 1992 for his turn in The Silence Of The Lambs. His most recent triumph was for his role as a man with dementia in The Father, which also stars Olivia Colman and is released in UK cinemas this week. As the moving tale hits our screens, OK! looks back at the star’s phenomenal career.

Born to working-class parents in Port Talbot, Wales, as a boy Anthony preferred to immerse himself in art or play the piano instead of focusing on his studies. Speaking about his school days, he said, “I was a poor learner, which left me open to ridicule and gave me an inferiority complex. I grew up absolutely convinced I was stupid.”

At the age of 15, Anthony met screen idol and fellow Welshman Richard Burton, and was inspired to enrol in the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Between 1958 and 1960, Anthony was called up for National Service, but once he finished he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.