| Gary Oldman - birth name Leonard Gary Oldman - born March 21, 1958, London, Great Britain is a British film actor and director.
Biography:
Leonard Gary Oldman was born on the 21st of March 1958 in the family of a welder and a housewife. His father left the family when Gary was only seven years old. The boy grew up with his mother and two sisters. His father seldom visited the son and died at the age of 62 due to alcoholism. At the age of fourteen, Gary joined the Greenwich Young People’s Theatre and at 16, left school to work in sales selling sports equipment. At the same time, Oldman studied literature and played on the piano. Roger Williams, a teacher of drama, played a vital role in the life of Gary by introducing Gary to the world of cinema. In 1975, inspired by the performance of Malcolm McDowell's in “If …” and “The Raging Moon”, Gary Oldman attempted to get admission into the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts but was denied admission hinting that, it would be better if the applicant selected another profession. But, Oldman went to Kent, where he won a scholarship in Rose Bruford College for Stage Speech and Drama and graduated with honors in 1979. The next year, the young actor was already performing on tour across Europe and South America as part of the City Theater Glasgow and later on started acting in films on British TV and in the middle of the 1980s, Gary becomes one of the leading English stage actors with several professional awards to his credit and work in the Royal Court and Royal Shakespeare Theaters. For the performance in the stage play “The Pope’s Wedding”, Gary received magazine Time Out’s Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of the season in 1985-1986 and also the British Theater Association’s Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor of 1985. In 1986, Gary Oldman debuted in big cinema in the leading role of Sid, the ill-fated bassist in Alex Koksa's biographic film “Sid and Nancy”. Critics were delighted with the performance of Oldman and they said that the actor was more natural than his natural character. For the magnificent performance of Sid Vicious, he also received the Best Newcomer award for the season. The next year, Gary played the character of gay playwright Joe Orton in Stephen Frears film “Prick Up your Ears”, displaying an uncommon gift of impersonation. In 1988, the actor went to the USA, where after several works, Oliver Stone invited him to play the role of Harvey Oswald in the well-known film “JFK”. Later on, Gary Oldman starred as Vlad III the impaler in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Dracula”. It is considered that Gary’s performance was the best in director Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker's Dracula”. It is equally necessary to note that though the actor portrayed the roles such as Ludwig Van Beethoven, unfortunately many directors offer the villain roles to the gifted actor. Oldman is extremely convincing in each one of the villainous roles and tries to give features, specific to the portraying of the role, for example, in the fantastic film by Luc Besson “The Fifth Element” and in the action movie with Harrison Ford “Air Force One”. In 1997, Gary Oldman made a film “Nil by Mouth”, for which the script was written by him and was nominated for the Cannes Film Festival and Gary Oldman starred in the Science-fiction film “Lost in Space”. In Hollywood, people refer to Oldman as the Actor’s Actor. And, he got the nickname not without a reason: he is capable of reincarnating up to being unrecognizable, for each new role, Gary presents a separate accent, his villains are the most charming in Hollywood and a better candidate for roles of historical personalities (Sid Vicious, Joe Orton, Lee Harvey Oswald, Ludwig van Beethoven) cannot be found. Often, starring in supporting roles, Gary Oldman becomes the leading man on screen. It is very difficult to identify the Elite films of Gary Oldman as almost all the films with him are so good that they would give immense pleasure even when watching the worst film. |
English actor and filmmaker Gary Oldman celebrated his 50th birthday this Friday. While Oldman never won Academy Awards through his career, he is one of the most famous and recognizable English actors.
His fame started in the 80s when he played Sid Vicious in 1986 biopic "Sid & Nancy". His other famous performances include movies Dracula,
Leon, The Fifth Element, and recent Harry Potter films.
One of my personal favorite roles of Gary Oldman is his magnificent portrayal of Mason R. Verger
in Hannibal (2001).
One of the interesting facts in his biography is that he was married to Uma Thurman (1990–1992).
Happy 50th Birthday, Gary!
