Anthony Hopkins biography, oscar, young, net worth, age, children, height and weight 2025

Anthony Hopkins’ biography

Anthony Hopkins ... Oh, that Oscar-winning, motionless gaze of cold eyes and a subtle ironic smile of Hannibal Lecter! The American Academy awarded him the prize for the best male role of a serial maniac in The Silence of the Lambs picture, shocked and even frightened not by the character, but the genius of the actor.

Knighted by Queen Elizabeth Sir Anthony considers it a bad form to trump up the title in the actors’ environment, but brings the pathetic Hollywood stars to rabies, recalling his ancestry of a baker’s son. The artist and composer, director, and actor - Hopkins today amazes the audience with irrepressible energy and new roles. His net worth is estimated near $160 million.

Childhood: Margam - Pontypool

The Welsh family of bakers — Richard Arthur and Muriel Annie Hopkins — could hardly imagine what fate was awaiting their son, born on the last day of 1937. The homeschooling of the child revealed that he had congenital dyslexia. The father, a testy but cold-tempered man at the same time, sent the boy to a private school of Pontypool, hoping that in the team of the John West Monmouth school Anthony would get rid of the strange disease.

Anthony Hopkins in childhood (from the right in the photo with his mother)

As the actor recalls himself, at school he was a real jerk. He couldn’t and didn’t want to communicate with his peers and studying was hard, the teenager understood little.

Only entering the eighth decade Hopkins fond out that he had an autism spectrum disorder and that it was what interfered his studies.

But still, he stayed in this best Welsh Boys’ School for almost three years, during which he made his first independent decision: his future profession would be creative. The twelve-year-old boy decided for himself that playing the piano or painting can make good money. But life had other plans for him.

Youth: Wales - London

Hopkins received the accidental acquaintance with the rising star of English cinema Richard Burton and his advice to try himself in acting with enthusiasm. After winning a grant to study, in 1955 Anthony became a student of an acting college. The young man’s desire to take revenge on everyone who laughed at him at school played a significant role in the fact that he graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama with excellency.

Anthony Hopkins at the Boys’ School and in the army (from the right)

After several years of military service, Anthony went to London to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Having become a certified theater actor the twenty-eight-year-old Hopkins worked on stage of the Royal National Theater as a backup for brilliant Laurence Olivier. The theatrical experience brought him several significant roles, for example, in the plays of The Dance of Death, Antony, and Cleopatra. But Anthony dreamed of a film career, the theater was not the limit of his dreams.

Career: America - Hollywood

Having played the role of Prince Richard in The Lion in Winter film (which legendary Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole participated in) and several episodes, Hopkins moved to America, where he was invited to play Philip Calvert in the When Eight Bells Toll action film. Then there was Pierre Bezukhov in a multi-series television film played by Anthony. The actor received a BAFTA television award for the best male role.

Greedy in work, Hopkins took on all the proposed roles, hoping to once stumble upon a gold bar like a prospector at the mine. But he was pleased with the small spools so far: the A Doll's House (1973) drama, The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976, Emmy) thriller, A Bridge Too Far (1977) historical war film, the Audrey Rose (1977) psychological drama, the Magic (1978) mystical thriller.

Ask for nothing, expect nothing was my credo. We, humans, are just a bunch of sinners wandering in the dark.

In 1980 David Lynch invites Anthony to the ambitious The Elephant Man project for the role of surgeon Frederick Treves. Claimed for the Oscar in eight nominations the film was eventually marked only by the British Academy and the French Cesar.

Anthony Hopkins at the Larry King show

Then came the roles of Hitler (The Bunker by George Schaefer), for which the actor was awarded an Emmy, Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Michael Tuchner), Ravik (from the Arch of Triumph by Waris Hussein). In the eighties, Hopkins was shooting a lot and productively, in anticipation of his lead role.

And so in the early nineties on the set of the thriller by Jonathan Demme The Silence of the Lambs appeared. As he was later called, the movie villain No. 1 of all time - Hannibal Lecter. As Hopkins would later say, barely scrolling through the script, he instinctively understood that the role was his.

Anthony Hopkins and his Oscar for his role of Hannibal Lecter

This film was where his unique motionless gaze and mysterious smile occurred with which he pulls out the childhood memories of escaping from the house of her adoptive parents in an attempt to save the lamb from slaughter from the FBI cadet Clarissa, who was brilliantly played by Jodie Foster. The film was a revelation, collected five Oscars in 1992, what hadn’t happened in the academy since 1934.

Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs

Unlike many colleagues, Anthony Hopkins didn’t relax after the Oscar-winning role. The nineties were marked by many interesting works. So he played Professor Van Helsing in the horror film by Francis Ford Coppola Bram Stoker's Dracula. Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves and Gary Oldman played on the set with the already famous actor. In Lee Tamahori's The Edge adventure drama, Hopkins played with Elle Macpherson and Alec Baldwin. Martin Brest’s Meet Joe Black psychological drama, where young Anthony became a partner of Brad Pitt, shocked the audience.

Anthony Hopkins about love. A scene from Meet Joe Black

Hopkins himself considers successful his roles in the Nixon by Oliver Stone, where he plays the president, The Remains of the Day by James Ivory, where his partner on the set was Emma Thompson, The World's Fastest Indian by Roger Donaldson, where he got the role of a motorcycle racer. The actor notes the lightness and fun that prevailed on the set. Of course, the actor’s favorite role, which he twice used in the pictures Hannibal and Red Dragon, is Dr. Lecter.

Nevertheless, Sir Anthony continued to actively work also in the 2000s. The bright and complex image of Robert Ford, a doctor and at the same time the initiator of the creation of an adventure park, where androids serve, is recalled in Jonathan Nolan’s and Liza Joy's creative fantasy TV series Westworld. Adventures of Sir Edmund Burton pleased fans of the diverse acting talent of Hopkins in the Transformers. The Last Knight fantastic history film by Michael Bay.

Anthony Hopkins and Mark Wahlberg in the Transformers. The Last Knight

Mystic, crimes, extrasensory perception accompany Hopkins in the pictures Fracture, The Wolfman, The Rite, Beowulf, Solace. The vigorous energy of Anthony spills over into the writing of the script and the direction of the art-house picture Slipstream, where Hopkins plays an aging screenwriter in the borderline between reality and illusion. Anthony invited his wife Stella Arroyave, Christian Slater, Mark Clarke Duncan, and Epatha Merkerson to star in the picture. Slipstream is Hopkins' third directorial work, with August (1996) on Chekhov and Dylan Thomas: Return Journey (1990). He also wrote the music for all his films himself.

In 2017 the actor also received a role in the HBO series Westworld. In the second season, his character surprised the audience with unexpectedly realistic rejuvenation using computer effects.

Westworld (the second season trailer)

Need to say that the classical composition is adapted to today's (albeit hypothetical) England, where Hopkin’s Lear is a military dictator. The three daughters in the picture are played by Florence Pugh, Emily Watson, and Emma Thompson. The script was written by Richard Eyre, and he also directed the film, which was released in the autumn of 2018.

Sir Anthony Hopkins - a genius actor, despite the age, goes on shooting

A curious incident occurred in 2018 on the set of the screening of Shakespeare's King Lear, where the actor had the lead role. Working on the set at the English town of Stevenage, Anthony got so involved in the role that a local pitiful lady offered him help to reach the local hostel.

King Lear - trailer

Personal life: three marriages, painting and music

Petronella Barker, a theater actress, sunk into Anthony's soul in 1967. A year after the wedding, the loving couple had a daughter, who was named Abigail. Like many acting families, the young couldn’t stand the regular trips of one or the other, moreover, Hopkins was very addicted to alcohol. Barker was not the type of woman who would put up with such "weaknesses" and she left Anthony with her daughter.

Anthony Hopkins and his first wife Petronella Barker

Without thinking twice the actor married his secretary Jennifer Linton. His second marriage was not unclouded and after the role of Hannibal, his second wife completely refused to live in the same house with the serial maniac and left him in 1995. Then they were on again-off again until they made their divorce official in 2002.

Anthony Hopkins and his second wife Jennifer Linton

Anthony visited the club of alcoholics anonymous, where he met actress Joyce Ingalls and started a love affair with her for a couple of years. Hopkins is also linked to an affair with singer Francis Kay.

Anthony Hopkins with his wife Stella Arroyave

He met his third wife, Stella Arroyave, with whom he signed in 2003, at an antique shop in South Africa. After a year and a half of courtship, Stella gained the official status of their spouse and the couple moved to Malibu. As Hopkins admits, it was she who made his life calmer and balanced.

In addition, the woman, admiring the paintings of her husband, made him develop another talent as a painter. Previously the actor called his works "scribbles" and stored the paintings in the basement. Now they can be seen at exhibitions. Inspired by his personal Muse Anthony even wrote a waltz, which can be heard in the performance of world-famous violinist Andre Rieux.

Anthony Hopkins’ waltz performed by Andre Rieux

Anthony Hopkins nowadays

Despite his age, Hopkins continues to shoot, though not as intensely as before. In 2019, Anthony Hopkins starred in the series "The Two Popes" along with Jonathan Price. Anthony played the role of Pope Benedict XVI in the series. Also in 2020, he got the "Oscar" as the best actor for the role in "The Father".

Anthony Hopkins Wins Best Actor (2021)

Nowadays Anthony Hopkins prefers to live as he likes, he is more interested in his relationship with his wife, memoirs, painting, and music than shooting in films. As he says: "When you are young you take on any role - because you are afraid that it will go to another, it will become his high point. I don't care now. I go my way."

Anthony Hopkins: latest news and articles

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31 Jan 2019

Paul Avalos editor

Sam Wade

They erect a monument to such actors during their lifetime, honestly, I don`t know anyone from Hollywood who would command such respect

2021-05-12 23:48:25
Sylvia Hawkins

I saw how in quarantine he conducted live broadcasts on insta, despite his age, entertained fans, played with a dog :)) Hopkins is simply adorable in any years

2021-04-09 08:22:57
Kenneth Thompson

Just a master of cinema. I don’t remember someone who would have an even more «great» status

2021-04-05 11:03:27
Peter Walker

Hopkins is a genius actor, even in modern films he presents his roles with a bang. Well, about the Silence of the Lambs and so on, everything is clear

2021-03-17 21:13:03
Carla Fox

Everyone remembers him for the role of Hannibal Lecter. The image is very appropriate, and the role is played cool.

2021-03-11 12:10:58