Best Known As: Oscar-winning star of the movie There Will Be Blood
Daniel Day-Lewis is a leading man of stage and screen, known for his two Academy Awards and for his intensity in movies such as My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988). After a successful career on the British stage, he appeared in supporting roles in Gandhi (1982, starring Ben Kingsley) and The Bounty (1984, with Anthony Hopkins) before moving into leading roles. Known for his commitment to the craft of acting, Day-Lewis has played refined gentlemen as well as rough-and-tumble bruisers in movies such as A Room With A View (1985), The Age of Innocence (1993) and In the Name of the Father (1993). He won an Oscar for his performance in My Left Foot (1989) and was nominated for another for In the Name of the Father, but took time off from the movies to perform on stage. After another critically-praised performance in The Boxer (1997), he again took a break from the movies; there were unconfirmed reports that he had worked as a cobbler in Italy before Martin Scorsese talked him into appearing as Bill "The Butcher" Cutting in Gangs of New York (2002, with Leonardo DiCaprio). Continuing to make himself scarce, he appeared next in The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005, written and directed by his wife, Rebecca Miller) and There Will Be Blood (2007, with Paul Dano), for which he again won the Oscar as best actor.
His dad was English Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, and his grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, a film producer and former head of Ealing Studios... His father-in-law was American playwright Arthur Miller.
An actor whose on-screen intensity is rivalled only by his off-screen intensity, Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the most acclaimed and least understood performers of his generation. The stories surrounding his complete immersion in his roles are legendary, from his insistence on remaining in a wheelchair between takes for My Left Foot to his refusal to accept manufactured cigarettes in favor of rolling his own, 18th-century style, while filming The Last of the Mohicans.
Day-Lewis' highly cerebral approach to his work may emanate in part from his background. Born in London on April 29, 1957, he was the son of Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis and actress Jill Balcon. The influence of the cinema was particularly strong on his mother's side: she was the daughter of Sir Michael Balcon, the one-time head of Ealing Studios. Educated at various public schools, Day-Lewis took an early interest in acting. After dropping out of school at the age of thirteen, he managed to get a small part in John Schlesinger's Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971). Following his debut, he decided to focus on his theatrical training, which he received at the Bristol Old Vic. He acted with that theatre and with the Royal Shakespeare Company for the rest of the decade, and in 1982 he made his second film appearance, playing a street thug in Gandhi.
It was in 1986 that Day-Lewis first stepped into the realm of international acclaim. Two films which featured him in prominent roles, My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room With a View, opened on the same day in New York. A gay street punk in the former and an insufferable Edwardian prig in the latter, Day-Lewis astonished critics and audiences with his chameleon-like versatility. The New York Film Critics Circle took particular note of his talent, naming him the year's Best Supporting Actor for his work in both films. It was only a matter of time before Day-Lewis achieved leading man status, and two years later he did just that in Philip Kaufman's adaptation of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The acclaim the actor received for his portrayal of a philandering Czech surgeon paled in comparison to that surrounding his performance as the cerebral palsy-stricken author and artist Christy Brown in Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot (1989). Day-Lewis won American and British Academy Awards as Best Actor for his work, sealing a reputation as one of the most engaging leading men of his generation.
A subsequent return to the stage in Richard Eyre's National Theatre production of Hamlet ended abruptly when Day-Lewis walked off the stage one night, mid-performance, due to "nervous exhaustion." He took a hiatus from film until 1992, when he reappeared, toned up and oiled down, to star in Last of the Mohicans. The film was a success, and it went some way towards giving Day-Lewis a reputation as an unconventional sex symbol. The following year, he returned to the other side of the Atlantic to star in Sheridan's In the Name of the Father, playing an Irish man wrongfully convicted of taking part in an IRA bombing. Best Actor Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations followed suit for his powerful performance. That same year, Day-Lewis' versatility was again on display, as he starred as a turn-of-the-century New York society man in Martin Scorsese's lavish adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.
Day-Lewis' screen appearances subsequently took on a more sporadic quality, and it was not until 1996 that he was again visible to film audiences. That year, he starred in Nicholas Hytner's adaptation of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. His portrayal of the tragically adulterous John Proctor netted strong reviews, as did his work in the following year's The Boxer, his third collaboration with Sheridan. Starring as a former boxer trying to make a new life for himself after being imprisoned for fourteen years for his work with the IRA, Day-Lewis turned in another powerful performance. Although the film received mixed reviews, the actor earned a Golden Globe nomination for his work.
Subsequently forsaking film work for the simple life of a cobbler in Italy, Day-Lewis was reportedly drawn out of his self imposed exile through the efforts of producer Harvey Weinstein, actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former collaborator Scorsese. Lured to New York and back into the hustle and bustle of the film industry, it seemed that Scorsese had finally found an actor capable of the focused yet unhinged intensity that Gangs of New York's Bill the Butcher demanded. Once again submerging himself so much in the character that the lines of reality and fantasy would become blurred (rumors persisted that he would speak with his film accent even while off-screen in addition to taking lessons by a genuine butcher), Day-Lewis' decidedly methodic approach to creating convincing screen characters would ultimately pay off as many cited his Oscar nominated performance as one of the most convincing of the talented actor's career.
Day-Lewis typically disappeared from sight yet again after Gangs, waiting two years before appearing again in a movie, this time being directed by his wife in the drama The Ballad of Jack & Rose, but he would again be showered with praise for his portrayal of Daniel Plainview, the ambitious, misanthropic center of Paul Thomas Anderson's There WIll Be Blood. Day-Lewis appeaed in all but one scene of the two hour and forty minute movie, and his dominating performance garnered him nearly every industry and ciritics award at the end of 2007 including an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
Day-Lewis, who grew up in London, is the son of actress Jill Balcon and the Anglo-IrishPoet Laureate, Cecil Day-Lewis. Despite his training in the classical presentational acting style at the Bristol Old Vic, he is a method actor, known for his constant devotion to and research of his roles.[2] Often, he will remain completely in character for the duration of the shooting schedule of his films, even to the point of adversely affecting his health.[3] He is known as one of the most selective actors in the film industry, having starred in only five films since 1997,[3] with as many as five years between roles.[2]
Day-Lewis was born in London, the son of poet Cecil Day-Lewis and actress Jill Balcon. His father, who was of Anglo-Irish background, lived mainly in England from the age of two and later became the United Kingdom's Poet Laureate. His mother was Jewish, and his maternal grandparents' families had immigrated to Britain from Lithuania and Poland.[4][5] His maternal grandfather, Sir Michael Balcon, was the head of Ealing Studios.[6] Two years after his birth, the family moved to Croom's Hill, Greenwich, where Day-Lewis grew up along with his older sister, Tamasin Day-Lewis, who became a documentary filmmaker and television chef.[7]
Living in middle-class Greenwich, Day-Lewis found himself among tough South London kids, and, being of part Jewish ancestry and posh, he was often bullied.[8] He mastered the local accent and mannerisms and credits that with being his first convincing performances.[8][9] Later in life, he was known to speak of himself as very much a disorderly character in his younger years, often in trouble for shoplifting and other petty crimes.[9][10]
In 1968, Day-Lewis's parents, finding his behaviour to be too wild, sent him to the independent Sevenoaks School in Kent, as a boarder.[10] Though he detested the school, he was introduced to his three most prominent interests, woodworking, acting, and fishing. His disdain for the school grew, and after two years at Sevenoaks, he was transferred to another independent school, Bedales in Petersfield, which his sister attended, and which had a more relaxed and creative ethos.[10] The transfer led to his film debut at the age of 14 in Sunday Bloody Sunday in which he played a vandal in an uncredited role. He described the experience as "heaven", for getting paid £2 to vandalize expensive cars parked outside his local church.[7]
Leaving Bedales in 1975, his unruly attitude had faded and he needed to make a career choice. Although he had excelled onstage at the National Youth Theatre, he decided to become a cabinet-maker, applying for a five-year apprenticeship. However, due to lack of experience, he was not accepted.[10] He then applied (and was accepted) at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which he attended for three years, eventually performing at the Bristol Old Vic itself.[10] At one point he played understudy to Pete Postlethwaite, opposite whom he would later play in In the Name of the Father.[11]
Career
1980s
During the early '80s, Day-Lewis worked in theatre and television including Frost in May (where he played an impotent man-child) and How Many Miles to Babylon? as a World War I[12] officer torn between allegiances to Britain and Ireland) for the BBC. Eleven years after his film debut, Day-Lewis continued his film career with a small part in Gandhi (1982) as Colin, a street thug who bullies the title character, only to be immediately chastised by his high-strung mother. In late 1982 he had his big theatre break when he took over the lead in Another Country. The following year, he had a supporting role as the conflicted, but ultimately loyal first mate in The Bounty, after which he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream.[10]
Next he played a gay man in an interracial relationship in the film My Beautiful Laundrette. Day-Lewis gained further public notice with A Room with a View (1986), in which he portrayed an entirely different character: Cecil Vyse, the proper upper-class fiancé of the main character (played by Helena Bonham Carter).[13]
In 1987, Day-Lewis assumed leading-man status by starring in Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, co-starring Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche, as a Czech surgeon whose hyperactive and purely physical sex life is thrown into disarray when he allows himself to become emotionally involved with a woman. During the eight-month shoot he learned Czech and first began to refuse to break character on or off the set for the entire shooting schedule.[10]
Day-Lewis threw his personal version of "method acting" into full throttle in 1989 with his performance as Christy Brown in Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot which garnered him numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor. Daniel prepared for his role by frequent visits to Sandymount School Clinic in Dublin, where he formed friendships with several people with disabilities, some of whom had no speech. [THE GOOD SAMARITANS - MEMOIR OF A BIOGRAPHER, ANTHONY J. JORDAN WESTPORT BOOKS 2008.P. 40 ISBN 9780952444756 ] During filming, his eccentricities came to the fore, due to his refusal to break character.[10] Playing a severely paralyzed character on screen, off screen Day-Lewis had to be moved around the set in his wheelchair, and crew members would curse at having to lift him over camera and lighting wires, all so that he might gain insight into all aspects of Brown's life, including the embarrassments.[9] He broke two ribs during filming from assuming a hunched-over position in his wheelchair for so many weeks.[14]
Day-Lewis returned to the stage in 1989 to work with Richard Eyre, in Hamlet at the National Theatre, but collapsed in the middle of a scene where the ghost of Hamlet's father first appears to his son.[10] He began sobbing uncontrollably and refused to go back on stage;[15] he was replaced by Ian Charleson before a then-unknown Jeremy Northam finished what little was left of the production's run. Although the incident was officially attributed to exhaustion, one rumour following the incident was that Day-Lewis had seen the ghost of his own father.[10][16] He confirmed on the British celebrity chat show Parkinson, that this was true.[17] He has not appeared on stage since.[17]
1990s
In 1992, three years after his Oscar win, The Last of the Mohicans was released. Day-Lewis's character research for this film was well-publicized; he reportedly underwent rigorous weight training and learned to live off the land and forest where his character lived, camping, hunting, and fishing.[10] He even carried a long rifle at all times during filming in order to remain in character and learned how to skin animals.[10][18]
He returned to work with Jim Sheridan on In the Name of the Father, in which he played Gerry Conlon, one of the Guildford Four who were wrongfully convicted of a bombing carried out by the Provisional IRA. He lost a substantial amount of weight for the part, kept his Northern Irish accent on and off the set for the entire shooting schedule, and spent stretches of time in a prison cell.[18] He also insisted that crew members throw cold water at him and verbally abuse him.[18] The film earned him his second Academy Award nomination, his third BAFTA nomination, and his second Golden Globe nomination.
In 1996, Day-Lewis starred in a film version ofThe Crucible, the play by Arthur Miller, again opposite Winona Ryder. Daniel met his wife, Rebecca Miller, while filming "The Crucible".[20] He followed that with Jim Sheridan's The Boxer as a former boxer and IRA member recently released from prison. His preparation included training with former boxing world champion Barry McGuigan.[21]
Following The Boxer, Day-Lewis took a leave of absence from acting by going into "semi-retirement" and returning to his old passion of woodworking.[21] He moved to Florence, Italy, where he became intrigued by the craft of shoemaking, eventually apprenticing as a shoemaker.[10] For a time his exact whereabouts and actions were not made publicly known.[22] Day-Lewis has declined to discuss this period of his life, stating that "it was a period of my life that I had a right to without any intervention of that kind."[1]
2000s
After a five-year absence from filming, Day-Lewis returned to act in multiple Academy Award-nominated films such as Gangs of New York, a film directed by Martin Scorsese (with whom he had worked on The Age of Innocence) and produced by Harvey Weinstein. In his role as the villain gang leader "Bill the Butcher", he starred along with Leonardo DiCaprio, who played Bill's young protegé. He began his lengthy, self-disciplined process by taking lessons as an apprentice butcher, and while filming, he was never out of character between takes (including keeping his character's New York accent).[10] At one point during filming, having been diagnosed with pneumonia, he refused to wear a warmer coat or to take treatment because it was not in keeping with the period; however, he was eventually persuaded to seek medical treatment.[23] His performance in Gangs of New York earned him his third Academy Award nomination and won him the BAFTA Award for Best Actor.
After Gangs of New York, Day-Lewis's wife, director Rebecca Miller (daughter of playwright Arthur Miller), offered him the lead role in her film The Ballad of Jack and Rose, in which he played a dying man with regrets over how his life had evolved and over how he had raised his teenage daughter. During filming he arranged to live separately from his wife in order to achieve the "isolation" needed to focus on his own character's reality.[7] The film received mixed reviews.[24]
Day-Lewis rarely talks publicly about his personal life. He had a relationship with French actress Isabelle Adjani, which lasted six years and eventually ended after a split and reconciliation.[10][15] Their son Gabriel Day-Lewis was born in 1995 in New York, several months after the relationship between the two actors had ended. Gabriel now lives with him in New York, attending Elisabeth Irwin High School.[15]
In 1996, while working on the film version of the stage-play The Crucible, he visited the home of playwright Arthur Miller where he was introduced to the writer's daughter, Rebecca Miller. They married later that year. The couple have two sons, Ronan Cal Day-Lewis (born 14 June 1998) and Cashel Blake Day-Lewis (born in May 2002) and divide their time between their homes in the U.S. and Ireland.[7] Day-Lewis currently holds dual British and Irish citizenship,[31][32] He became an Irish citizen in 1993.[33] He is a supporter of Millwall Football Club.[34] On 15 July 2010, he received an honorary doctorate in letters from the University of Bristol, in part because of his attendance at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in his youth.[35] Day-Lewis is an agnostic.[36]
^Jackson, Laura (2005). Daniel Day-Lewis: the biography. Blake. pp. 3. ISBN1857825578. "Michael Balcon's family were Latvian refugees from Riga who had come to England around the turn of the century. The family of his wife, Aileen Leatherman, whom he married in 1924, came from Poland."
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