Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins CBE born December 31 1937 is a Welsh actor film director and film producer He is the recipient of numerous accolades including two Academy Awards four British Academy Film Awards two Primetime Emmy Awards and a British Academy Television Award He has also received an honorary Golden Globe Award and the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts In 1993 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts and in 2003 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his achievements in the motion picture industry After graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music Drama in 1957 Hopkins trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and was then spotted by Laurence Olivier who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre in 1965 Productions at the National included King Lear his favourite Shakespeare play His last stage play was a West End production of M Butterfly in 1989 In 1968 Hopkins achieved recognition in film playing Richard the Lionheart in The Lion in Winter In the mid1970s Richard Attenborough who directed five Hopkins films called him the greatest actor of his generation In 1991 he portrayed Hannibal Lecter in the psychological horror film The Silence of the Lambs winning the Academy Award for Best Actor He reprised the role in its sequel Hannibal and the prequel Red Dragon Other notable films include The Elephant Man 1980 84 Charing Cross Road 1987 Howards End 1992 Bram Stokers Dracula 1992 Shadowlands 1993 Legends of the Fall 1994 Meet Joe Black 1998 The Mask of Zorro 1998 Thor 2011 Thor The Dark World 2013 Transformers The Last Knight 2017 and Thor Ragnarok 2017 He received four more Academy Award nominations for The Remains of the Day 1993 Nixon 1995 Amistad 1997 and The Two Popes 2019 before winning a fourth BAFTA Award and a second Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of an elderly man diagnosed with dementia in The Father 2020 becoming the oldest Best Actor Oscar winner to date Since making his television debut with the BBC in 1967 Hopkins has continued to appear on television In 1973 he received a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his performance in War and Peace In 2015 he starred in the BBC film The Dresser alongside Ian McKellen In 2018 he starred in King Lear opposite Emma Thompson In 2016 and 2018 he starred in the HBO television series Westworld for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination Description above from the Wikipedia article Anthony Hopkins licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia