Daniel Day-Lewis (born 29.04.1957)
Daniel Day-Lewis is an English actor who is the only known person to have won an Academy Award for Best Actor three times for his parts in 'My Left Foot', 'There Will Be Blood' and 'Lincoln'.
Childhood: Daniel Day-Lewis was born in London. His parents are former Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis and actress Jill Balcon. His grandfather Sir Michael Balcon was the head of Ealing Studios. He grew up in Croom's Hill, Greenwich, London from the age of two. He was bullied at school for his Jewish ancestry and being 'posh' which resulted in his mimicking the local accent and behaviours and subsequently landed him in trouble often for petty crimes. He attended Sevenoaks School in Kent, a boarding school, which introduced him to his main interests; woodworking, acting and fishing. His first film role was an uncredited part in 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' where he was paid to vandalise some cars at age 14. He attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for three years after leaving Bedales.
Acting career: Daniel Day-Lewis' early roles include parts in BBC programs 'Frost in May' and 'How Many Miles to Babylon?'. In 1982, he had a small part in the biopic 'Gandhi'. His big theatre break came that year with 'Another Country'. In 1983, he had a supporting role in 'The Bounty' and he soon joined the Royal Shakespeare Company with roles such as Romeo in 'Romeo and Juliet' and Flute in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. In 1985, he won his first awards for acting including a National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in 'My Beautiful Laundrette'. In the same year, he began filming alongside Helena Bonham Carter for 'A Room With A View'. His first leading role was in 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' in 1987 in which he played Czech surgeon who goes against his natural instincts and falls in love. He learned to speak Czech for the role and remained in character even off the set. His first Oscar for Best Actor came with his portrayal of cerebral palsy afflicted artist Christy Brown in Jim Sheridan's 'My Left Foot' in 1989. His propensity for method acting meant he had to be pushed around in a wheelchair with caused great difficult for crew members. In the same year, he played the lead role in 'Hamlet' at the National Theatre, London. However, he collapsed midway through the production at the point where Hamlet sees his father's ghost and refused to return to the stage after he was taken backstage in tears. He later said on 'Parkinson' that he had in fact seen the ghost of his own father and he has not appeared in theatre since. In 1992, he starred in 'The Last of the Mohicans'. To prepare for the role, he took up weight-training and began camping whereby he learned to live off the land. The movie landed him with a BAFTA Award nomination. He earned another BAFTA nomination as well as an Oscar nomination playing a wrongly convicted IRA bomber in 'In the Name of the Father' in 1993. The rest of the nineties saw him star in 1993's Martin Scorsese adapted movie 'The Age of Innocence', 1996's 'The Crucible' and Jim Sheridan's 'The Boxer' in 1997. He then didn't appear in another movie for five years; he move to Florence, Italy and apprenticed as a shoemaker. On his return, he appeared in 'Gangs of New York' and landed another Academy Award nomination and won a BAFTA Award for Best Actor. His third Oscar came with 2007's 'There Will Be Blood'. He also won a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role as well as a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the same flick. In 2012, Daniel portrayed the legendary US president Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln'. The movie grossed more than $220 million worldwide and earned him his third Oscar for Best actor.
Personal Life: Daniel Day-Lewis has a son, Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis, with French actress Isabelle Adjani who he dated for six years. His birth came several months after the split. He married Rebecca Miller, the daughter of playwright Arthur Miller in 1996, who he met while filming 'The Crucible'. They have two sons Ronan Cal Day-Lewis and Cashel Blake Day-Lewis. He has homes in both New York and Ireland and he became an Irish citizen in 1993. He is a fan of English soccer team Millwall. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bristol in 2010.
Biography by Contactmusic.com
