Daniel Day-Lewis

At 66 years old, Daniel Day-Lewis has this physical status:

Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is a retired English actor with dual citizenship.

Several people have praised him as one of the best and most respected actors of his time, as well as one of the finest actors of all time.

Throughout his career, he has received three Academy Awards for Best Actor, making him the first male actor to win three awards in the Best Actor category and one of only three male actors to win three Oscars.

He received four BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, three Screen Actor Guild Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Day-Lewis, a born and raised in London, thrived on stage at the National Youth Theatre before being accepted into the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which he attended for three years.

Despite his traditional training at the Bristol Old Vic, he is considered a method actor, well known for his regular dedication to and study of his roles.

He would often remain completely in character throughout his films' shooting schedules, even to the point of adversely damaging his health.

He is one of the finest actors in film history, having appeared in only six films since 1998, with as many as five years in between roles.

Day-Lewis moved between theatre and film for the majority of the early 1980s, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company and appearing in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1984.

He appeared in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), his first critically acclaimed role, and gained more public attention with A Room with a View (1985).

He then assumed leading man status with The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) and The Last of the Mohicans (1992).

He received his first Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Actor for his role in My Left Foot (1989).

Day-Lewis, who played in The Boxer (1997), moved to Italy as an apprentice shoemaker.

He returned to acting in 2000 to film Gangs of New York (2002).

Day-Lewis received a BAFTA Award for both 2007 and Lincoln (2012).

He was also nominated for the Academy Award for his role in In the Name of the Father (1993), Gangs of New York (2002), and Phantom Thread (2017).

He was given a knighthood in June 2014 for his contributions to drama.

Following the completion of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis announced his retirement in 2017.

Early life and education

Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis was born in London's Kensington district on the second child of poet Cecil Day-Lewis (1904-1972), as well as his second wife, actress Jill Balcon (1925-1990). Tamasin Day-Lewis, his older sister (born 1953), is a television chef and food critic. His father, who was born in Ballintubbert, County Laois, had been in England from the age of two and was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. Day-Lewis' mother was Jewish; her Jewish ancestors immigrated to England in the late 19th century, from Latvia and Poland. Sir Michael Balcon, Day Lewis' maternal grandfather, joined Ealing Studios as the head of the company's new British film industry. Every year, the BAFTA for Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema is awarded in recognition of Balcon's memory.

Crooms Hill, Greenwich, was taken by two years after Day-Lewis' birth via Port Clarence, County Durham. He and his older sister, who were still teenagers when Day-Lewis' father divorced their mother, did not get much of their older two half-brothers, who had been teenagers at the time. Day-Lewis was forced to deal with difficult South London children who lived in Greenwich (he attended Invicta and Sherington Primary Schools). He was teased because he was both Jewish and "posh" at this school. He mastered the local accent and demeanor, and he cites this as his first convincing performance. He has often been accused of shoplifting and other misdemeanors in his younger years and has been known to talk about himself as a disorderly character in his younger years.

Day-Lewis' parents, who found his behaviour to be too spirited, sent him as a boarder to Kent's independent Sevenoaks School in 1968. He was introduced to woodworking, acting, and fishing at the university. However, his disdain for the school grew, and after two years at Sevenoaks, he was moved to Bedales, a separate academy in Petersfield, Hampshire. His sister was already a student there, and it had a more relaxed and creative attitude. In a film debut at age 14 in Bloody Bloody, in which he appeared in an uncredited role. He described the experience as "heaven" for being charged £2 to vandalise expensive cars parked outside his local church.

The Day-Lewis family lived in Lemmons, the north London home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, for a few weeks in 1972. Day-Lewis' father had pancreatic cancer, and Howard Lemmons brought the family together in Lemmons as a place to rest and recover. In May, his father died there. Day-Lewis' unruly demeanor had faded and he had to make a career decision by the time he left Bedales in 1975. Despite having performed on stage at the National Youth Theatre in London, he applied for a five-year apprenticeship as a cabinet maker. He was turned down due to a lack of expertise. He was accepted into the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which he attended for three years with Miranda Richardson before he appeared at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company, eventually playing at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company itself. At one time, he was understudy to Pete Postlethwaite, with whom he would later co-star in the film In the Name of the Father (1994).

The acting teacher at Bristol Old Vic, John Hartoch, has been remembered:

Personal life

Day-Lewis, a security guard, has described his life as a "lifelong study in evasion." He had a six-year relationship with French actress Isabelle Adjani, which ended after a break and reconciliation. Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis, their son, was born in New York City on April 9, 1995, just a few months after the initial friendship came to a close.

He visited the home of playwright Arthur Miller, where he was introduced to Rebecca Miller by the writer's daughter in 1996 while filming The Crucible. They married later this year, on November 13, 1996. Ronan Cal Day-Lewis (born 1998) and Cashel Blake Day-Lewis (born 2002) are two sons. They divide their time between Annamoe, Ireland, and Manhattan, New York City.

Since 1993, Day-Lewis has held dual British and Irish citizenship. He has been living in Annamoe since 1997. "I have dual citizenship, but I think of England as my country." I miss London greatly, but I couldn't live there because there was a time when I needed to be private and the press had compelled to be public. I couldn't cope with it." He is a supporter of Millwall, a football club in South East London. Day-Lewis is also an Ambassador for The Lir Academy, a young drama academy at Trinity College Dublin that was founded in 2011.

Day-Lewis received an honorary doctorate in letters from the University of Bristol in part thanks to his attendance at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in his youth. Day-Lewis has said he has "no real religious education" and that he is "a die-hard agnostic" who "suppose[s]" him. In October 2012, he donated to the University of Oxford papers belonged to his father, poet Cecil Day-Lewis, as well as early drafts of the poet's work and letters from writers John Gielman, Robert Graves, and Philip Larkin. He was named Honorary President of the Poetry Archive in July 2015. The Poetry Archive, a registered UK charity, is a free website that hosts an increasing number of recordings of English-language poets reading their poetry. Day-Lewis became a supporter of the Wilfred Owen Association in June 2017. Day-Lewis' relationship with Wilfred Owen began with his father, Cecil Day-Lewis, who edited Owen's poetry in the 1960s and his mother, Jill Balcon, who was vice president of the Wilfred Owen Association until her death in 2009.

Day-Lewis knelt before her in 2008, when he received the Academy Award for Best Actor from Helen Mirren (who was on presenting duty at the time, winning the Best Actress Oscar for portraying Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen), and she said, "That's the closest I'll come to ever getting a knighthood." In the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to drama, Day-Lewis was named a Knight Bachelor. In an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on November 14, he was knighted by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.

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Career

Day-Lewis worked in theatre and television, including Frost in May (where he played an impotent man-child). How Many Miles to Babylon? For the BBC, a World War I soldier torn between allegiances to Britain and Ireland. Day-Lewis, a South African street thug who racially bullies the title character, appeared in Gandhi (1982) for a few years as Colin, a teen. When he took over the lead in Another Country, which had premiered in late 1981, he had his big theatre break. He took on a supporting role as the unbalanced, but ultimately loyal first mate in The Bounty (1984). In A Midsummer Night's Dream, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, Romeo and Juliet and Flute.

In 1985, Day-Lewis gave his first critically acclaimed appearance in a Pakistani youth in an interracial connection with a Pakistani youth in the film My Beautiful Laundrette. During Margaret Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister, Stephen Frears directed and written by Hanif Kureishi. It's the first of three Day Lewis films to appear in the BFI's 100 best British films of the twentieth century, ranking 50th.

Day-Lewis gained more public notice this year (1985), based on E. M. Forster's novel A Room with a View (1985). Cecil Vyse, the main character's proper upper-class fiancé of the Edwardian period of turn-of-the-20th century England, portrayed a completely different figure: the Edwardian period of turn-of-the-20th century England. Day-Lewis made a name for himself in 1987 by appearing in Philip Kaufman's version of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, in which he portrayed a Czech surgeon whose hyperactive sex life is put into disarray when he allows himself to become emotionally connected with a woman. He learned Czech and first refused to break character on or off the set for the complete shooting schedule during the eight-month shooting. Day-Lewis was described as "one of Britain's most exciting young actors" during this time. The "Brit Pack" was dubbed to him by Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tim Roth, and Bruce Payne.

With his appearance as Christy Brown in Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot, Day-Lewis developed his personal interpretation of acting in 1989. It has received numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. Brown, a writer and painter, was born with cerebral palsy but was able to control only his left foot. Day-Lewis was well prepared for the challenge by going to Sandymount School Clinic in Dublin, where he developed friendships with many people with disabilities, some of whom had no words. He refused to break character once more during filming. On film, playing a severely ill character on screen, Lewis had to be moved around the set in his wheelchair, and crew members would booe him over camera and lighting wires, in the hopes of learning more about Brown's life, including the embarrassment. He was also expected to spoon-feed him. During filming from assuming a hunched-over position in his wheelchair for so many weeks, it was reported that he had broken two ribs, something he denied years later at the 2013 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Day-Lewis returned to theatre in 1989 to work with Richard Eyre as the title character in Hamlet at the National Theatre in London, but during a performance where the ghost of Hamlet's father appears before him, the ghost of Hamlet's father appears before him. He began screaming and refused to go back on stage; Jeremy Northam was named after a triumphant performance. Day-Lewis was officially substituted for the remainder of the run by Ian Charleson. Day-Lewis had written about the "demons" in the role early in the game, and he threw himself into the role for weeks. Despite the fact that the incident was attributed to exhaustion, Day-Lewis claimed to have seen the ghost of his own father. This was more of a metaphor than a hallucination, he later explained. "I probably saw my father's ghost every night because, of course, you learn everything through your own experience." He hasn't appeared on stage since. Following his on-stage failure, the media spotlight aided him in his decision to move from England to Ireland in the mid-1990s, in the midst of his increasing fame.

Day-Lewis appeared in The Last of the Mohicans (1992), based on a James Fenimore Cooper book. Day-Lewis' character study for this film was well-known; he reportedly underwent extensive weight training and learned to live off the land and forest where his character lived, camping, hunting, and fishing; Day-Lewis also learned how to make canoes and was also introduced to woodworking. To remain in character, he used a long rifle at all times during filming.

He rejoined Jim Sheridan's In the Name of the Father, in which he played Gerry Conlon, one of the Guildford Four's who had been wrongfully found guilty of a bombing carried out by the Provisional IRA, he returned to work with him. He lost 2st 2 lb (14 kg) for the role, maintained his Northern Irish accent, kept his Northern Irish accent on and off the set for the entire shooting calendar, and spent songs of time in a prison cell. He insisted that crew members throw cold water at him and verbally insult him. Emma Thompson (who portrayed his client Gareth Peirce) and Pete Postlethwaite earned their second Academy Award nomination, third BAFTA nomination, and his second Golden Globe nomination.

Day-Lewis returned to the United States in 1993, appearing in Martin Scorsese's version of Edith Wharton's book The Age of Innocence. Day-Lewis appeared opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder. He wore 1870s-period aristocratic clothing around New York City for two months, including top hat, cane, and cape, to brace for the film, which takes place in America's Gilded Age. Despite Day-Lewis's reservations about the role, who deeming himself "too English" for it, the actor was able to accept due to Scorsese's direction. The film was critically acclaimed, with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone describing it as the man trapped between his emotions and the social ethic. Not since Olivier in Wuthering Heights has such imposing good looks and physical grace.

Day-Lewis appeared in Arthur Miller's film version in 1996, The Crucible reunited with Winona Ryder, and Joan Allen appears alongside Paul Scofield and Joan Allen. Rebecca Miller, the author's daughter, met him during the shooting. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "A" rating, describing the film as "joltingly good" and quoting the "spectacularly" acted performances of Day-Lewis, Scofield, and Allen. He continued with Jim Sheridan's The Boxer, starring Emily Watson as a former boxer and IRA prisoner recently released from jail. Barry McGuigan, a former boxing world champion, was preparing for his challenge. Immersing himself into the boxing scene, he watched "Prince" Naseem Hamed train, watched "Prince" Naseem Hamed train, and watched professional boxing matches such as the Nigel Benn versus Gerald McClellan world championship match at London Arena. McGuigan, who was empressed with his work in the ring, believes that Day-Lewis could have been a professional boxer," he said, "If you ban the top ten middleweights in the United Kingdom, any of the other guys Daniel may have gone in and fought."

Day-Lewis took a break from acting by entering "semi-retirement" and returning to his old hobby of woodworking after The Boxer. He migrated to Florence, Italy, where he became fascinated by shoe-making. Stefano Bemer trained as a shoemaker. For a brief period of time, his exact location and activities were not revealed publicly.

Day-Lewis reunited with Martin Scorsese for Gangs of New York 2002, after a three-year absence from acting on screen. William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting, a villainous gang boss who appeared alongside Bill's teenage protégé as well as Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, Brendan Gleeson, and Liam Neeson, performed him. He hired circus entertainers to teach him how to throw knives to help him get into character. He was never out of character between takes (including maintaining his character's New York accent while filming). He refused to wear a warmer jacket or seek medical attention at one point during filming because it was not in keeping with the time; eventually, he was eventually encouraged to seek medical attention. Critics divided the film, but Day-Lewis was lauded for his portrayal of Bill the Butcher. "Though imperfect, the sprawling, tumultuous Gangs of New York have been restored by a spectacular production design and Day-Lewis' electrifying performance," Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus reads. It earned Day-Lewis his third Oscar nomination and his second BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

After the success of Gangs of New York, Day-Lewis' wife, director Rebecca Miller, gave him the lead role in her film The Ballad of Jack and Rose, in which he played a dying man with regrets about how his life had changed and how he had brought up his teenage daughter. To get the "isolation" needed to be focused on his own character's reality while filming, he arranged to live separate from his wife. Mixed reviews were given to the film.

Day-Lewis appeared alongside Paul Dano in Paul Thomas Anderson's loose film adaptation of Upton Sinclair's book Oil!, titled There Will Be Blood. The film received widespread critical acclaim, with critic Andrew Sarris describing it as "an achievement in rendering the realistic realities of a bygone time and place, mainly due to the use of regional amateur actors and extras with all the right moves and sounds." Day-Lewis received the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, BAFTA Award for Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role, Actor in a Leading Role, According to Ledger's portrayal of Brokeback Mountain ("unique, excellent") and a number of film critics' circle awards for the role. Day-Lewis won the Best Actor Award alongside Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson as the only Best Actor winner in two non-consecutive decades.

Day-Lewis appeared in Rob Marshall's musical version Nine in 2009 as film director Guido Contini. Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, and Sophia Loren appeared in the film. Day-Lewis, Cotillard, and Cruz's performance drew mixed reviews, with overall praise for the film's success. He was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, as well as sharing nominations for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his work, as well as a receiving nomination for Best Cast and Best Cast – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for Outstanding Achievement by a Cast Member in a Motion Picture.

Abraham Lincoln was portrayed in Steven Spielberg's biopic Lincoln (2012). The film, which is based on Abraham Lincoln's book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, opened in Richmond, Virginia, in October 2011. Day-Lewis spent a year in preparation for the role, much more than he had expected from Spielberg. He read over 100 books on Lincoln and spent years with the make-up artist to bring a physical appearance to Lincoln. Day-Lewis begged the British crew members who told his native tongue not to talk with him for the entire shooting, speaking in Lincoln's voice throughout the entire shooting. "I never once looked the gift horse in the mouth," Spielberg said of Day-Lewis' appearance. I've never asked Daniel about his procedure. "I didn't want to know" was the answer that I wanted to hear." Lincoln received critical praise for his work on Day-Lewis' appearance. It's also a commercial success, with annual revenues approaching $275 million. He was given the BAFTA Best in Film Award in November 2012. Day-Lewis, the "World's Greatest Actor" in the same month, was named on the front of Time magazine as the "World's Best Actor" in the same month.

On January 14, 2013, Day-Lewis received his second Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, and he received his fourth BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 70th Golden Globe Awards on January 14th. Day-Lewis became the first three-time winner of the Best Actor Award for his role in Lincoln at the 85th Academy Awards. Day-Lewis' acting teacher at Bristol Old Vic theatre school John Hartoch expressed concern about his former pupil's achievement: "Helis' former pupil" was named.

Day-Lewis' reputation as one of the best actors in film history was widely discussed following his third Oscar win. "Arguing whether Daniel Day-Lewis is a better actor than Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, or Marlon Brando, is similar to arguing that Messi is more capable than Pelé," The Guardian's Joe Queenan said. Napoleon Bonaparte edges out Alexander the Great as a military genius." "It's daft isn't it?" asked Day-Lewis himself what it was like to be "the world's best actor." "It's all the time." After winning the Oscar for Lincoln, Day-Lewis announced that he would not be doing a break from acting, retreating to his Georgian farmhouse in County Wicklow, Ireland, for the next five years before directing another film.

Day-Lewis returned to the screen to star in Paul Thomas Anderson's historical drama Phantom Thread (2017), after a five-year absence. Day-Lewis played Reynolds Woodcock, an ardent dressmaker who falls in love with a waitress (played by Vicky Krieps). Leslee Dart, Day-Lewis' spokeswoman, announced on June 20th, long before the film's debut, that he was going to stop acting. In a November 2017 interview, Day-Lewis said: "I haven't figured it out." But it's still settled on me, and it's just there. I dread to use the overused word 'artist,' but there's something of the artist's culpability that hangs over me. I need to believe in the value of what I'm doing. And if you're looking for a unique, irresistible job, it may be essential or irresistible. If an audience accepts it, that should be just right for me. However, it isn't new to us." Anderson said, "I would like to believe that he just needs a break." On Day-Lewis' retirement. However, I'm not positive. It sure doesn't look like it right now, which is a major drag for everyone of us." Critics had lauded the film and its role, and Day-Lewis was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In June 2017, Michael Simkins of The Guardian wrote, "There are several competing actors in this glittering ruinspit we call acting, and many of them, whether by chance or chance, appear to have the career we ourselves may have had if only the cards had fallen differently." Day-Lewis is, by common consent, even in the most sourly disposed green rooms – a class different. At least for a while, we won't be looking at him again. Performers of his ferocious intensity appear only "once in a lifetime." In 2020, The New York Times ranked him third on its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.

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