Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both half Welsh and half English. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, he moved to London and joined the National Theatre, invited by Laurence Olivier, who could see the talent in Hopkins. In 1967, he made his first film for television, A Flea in Her Ear (1967).

From this moment on, he enjoyed a successful career in cinema and television. In 1968, he worked on Le lion en hiver (1968) with Timothy Dalton. Many successes came later, and Hopkins' remarkable acting style reached the four corners of the world. In 1977, he appeared in two major films: Un pont trop loin (1977) with James Caan, Gene Hackman, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Elliott Gould and Laurence Olivier, and Maximilian Schell. In 1980, he worked on Elephant Man (1980). Two good television literature adaptations followed: Othello (1981) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982). In 1987 he was awarded with the Commander of the order of the British Empire. This year was also important in his cinematic life, with 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), acclaimed by specialists. In 1993, he was knighted.

In the 1990s, Hopkins acted in movies like Desperate Hours (1990) and Retour à Howards End (1992), Les vestiges du jour (1993) (nominee for the Oscar), Légendes d'automne (1994), Nixon (1995) (nominee for the Oscar), Surviving Picasso (1996), Amistad (1997) (nominee for the Oscar), Le masque de Zorro (1998), Rencontre avec Joe Black (1998) and Instinct (1999). His most remarkable film, however, was Le silence des agneaux (1991), for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor. He also got a B.A.F.T.A. for this role.