Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins

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Welsh born Anthony Hopkins was brought up living above his father's bakery in a small town. Hopkins' bedroom overlooked the bright lights of the local cinema and his first movie star heroes were Bogart and James Cagney, as well as the nearer to home Richard Burton who Anthony Hopkins once visited on one of his trips home to Wales to get the stars autograph. Hopkins from thereon aspired to being a Hollywood star, like Burton and all that the dream of silver screen fame represented. The young Hopkins was not academic (he was also dyslexic) but enjoyed art and music and so enrolled at the Welsh College of music and drama in Cardiff. After completion of his national service in the army he gained a place at R.A.D.A. Thereafter he started out in the theatre under the tution of Sir Laurence Olivier. Nowadays Sir Anthony Hopkins is known not only as an illustrious, multi-award-winning British actor but also an accomplished pianist, composer and emerging artist.

Anthony or Tony as he prefers, achieved his dream, with much hard work, personal sacrifices and a long battle with alcohol addiction which he also managed to triumph over. It's hard to believe that it is almost twenty years since, at the age of 54, Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1991 for his Hannibal-the-Cannibal Lecter performance in The Silence of The Lambs and his career suddenly took off on a grand scale bringing him deserved worldwide recognition which continues to this day, following outstanding performances in movies such as Red Dragon, Howards End and Fracture to name but a few. The burning question on everyone's mind is whether he will ever resurrect the Lecter character.

In 1993 Hopkins accepted a Knighthood which he is always very modest about, still asking that people call him Tony. In 2000 Sir Anthony Hopkins became a U.S. citizen, although he was allowed to keep his knighthood and title.

Anthony Hopkins learnt to play the piano as a child but by his own admission he was not disciplined enough to practice and acting was his first choice. However music has always been part of his life and as early as 1962 Hopkins composed the music score for the movie Billy Budd. In 2008 the Dallas Symphony Orchestra gave the first public performance of Sir Anthony Hopkins compositions. Anthony Hopkins has composed piano music and performed his own works in numerous movies such as "Slipstream" 2007 in which he not only directed the movie, acted the part of Bonhoeffer but also wrote and performed a piano solo!

Several years ago Sir Anthony Hopkins began showing his artwork in America - his work is bright, wild and vibrant - he mainly paints landscapes, portraits and abstracts in his own studio at his home in Malibu. In 2009 a self-portrait in ink by Hopkins was sold at auction for an undisclosed sum. In the early part of this year Anthony Hopkins art was exhibited in the UK for the first time, first in London and then in Edinburgh. Of his love of painting Anthony Hopkins saysWhen I paint, I just paint freely without anxiety regarding outside opinions as criticisms. I do it for sheer pleasure. Its done wonders for my for my subconsciousI dream now in colours. Anthony Hopkins art is selling well and very popular. Tony's wife Stella manages his art sales very shrewdly, having encouraged him initially to exhibit and one would do well to invest in Anthony Hopkins art at this point.

Anthony Hopkins latest project, outwith the movie world, is writing his autobiography, which he started at the beginning of this year. Many good authority biographies have been written about the actor but it will be interesting to hear about Anthony Hopkins life from his own viewpoint.

About the Author:
Juliette Morgan writes about Anthony Hopkins the Actor, Musician, Artist and Author. Read reviews of Anthony Hopkins movies, see photos, news, movie previews and watch movies on demand at Anthony Hopkins movies.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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