Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis | |
|---|---|
 Day-Lewis in New York City, 2007 | |
| Born | Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis 29 April 1957 London, England |
| Citizenship | British, Irish |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Spouse | Rebecca Miller (1996–present) |
| Children | Gabriel Kane Ronan Cal Cashel Blake |
Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English actor with both British and Irish citizenship.[1] He has twice won the Academy Award for Best Actor, for portraying Christy Brown in My Left Foot (1989) and Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood (2007). He won Best Actor awards from BAFTA and the Screen Actors' Guild for his role as Bill "The Butcher" Cutting in Gangs of New York (2002), and has received high praise for his role as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012).
Day-Lewis, who grew up in London, is the son of actress Jill Balcon and Poet 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 six films since 1997,[3] with as many as five years between roles.[2]
Early life
Day-Lewis was born in London, the son of poet Cecil Day-Lewis and actress Jill Balcon. Daniel's 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. Daniel's mother was Jewish, and his maternal grandparents' families had emigrated to Britain from Latvia 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, south-east London, 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, Hampshire, 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 vandalise 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 on stage at the National Youth Theatre in London, 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 The Last of the Mohicans and 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.[14] During filming, his eccentricities came to the fore, due to his refusal to break character.[10] Playing a severely paralysed 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.[15]
Day-Lewis returned to the stage in 1989 to work with Richard Eyre, in Hamlet at the National Theatre, London, 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;[16] 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][17] He confirmed on the British celebrity chat show Parkinson, that this was true.[18] He has not appeared on stage since.[18]
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][19]
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.[19] He also insisted that crew members throw cold water at him and verbally abuse him.[19] The film earned him his second Academy Award nomination, his third BAFTA nomination, and his second Golden Globe nomination.
Day-Lewis returned in 1993, playing Newland Archer in Martin Scorsese's adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel The Age of Innocence, opposite Winona Ryder and Michelle Pfeiffer. To prepare for the film, set in America's Gilded Age, he wore 1870s-period aristocratic clothing around New York City for two months, including top hat, cane and cape in cold weather.[20]
In 1996, Day-Lewis starred in a film version of The Crucible, the play by Arthur Miller, again opposite Winona Ryder. Daniel met his wife, Rebecca Miller, the author's daughter, while filming "The Crucible".[21] 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.[22]
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.[22] 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.[23] 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 Scorsese 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 protégé. 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.[24] 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 brought up 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.[25]
In 2007, Day-Lewis appeared in director Paul Thomas Anderson's loose adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel Oil!, titled There Will Be Blood.[26] Day-Lewis received the Academy Award for Best Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role - Motion Picture (which he dedicated to Heath Ledger, saying that he was inspired by Ledger's acting and calling the actor's performance in Brokeback Mountain "unique, perfect"),[27][28] and a variety of film critics' circle awards for the role. In winning the Best Actor Oscar, Day-Lewis joined Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson as the only Best Actor winners awarded an Oscar in two non-consecutive decades.
In 2009, Day-Lewis starred in Rob Marshall's musical adaptation Nine as film director Guido Contini.[29] Day-Lewis was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and the Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role, as well as sharing nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast and the Satellite Award for Best Cast – Motion Picture with the rest of the cast members.
2010s
In November 2010, it was announced that Day-Lewis would play Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln.[30] Based on the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, the film began shooting in Richmond, Virginia in October 2011.[31] The film was released in select US cities on November 9, 2012, and received a US national release on November 16, 2012. Day-Lewis spent a year in preparation for the role, a time he requested from Spielberg.[32] Day-Lewis read over 100 books on Lincoln, and long worked with the film's makeup artist to achieve a physical likeness to Lincoln.[33]
Personal life
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][16] 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.[16]
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;[34][35] he became an Irish citizen in 1993.[36] He is a supporter of south-east London football club Millwall F.C..[37] 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.[38] Day-Lewis has stated that he had "no real religious education", and that he "suppose[s]" that he is a "die-hard agnostic".[39]
In October 2012, he donated to Oxford University papers belonging to his father, the poet Cecil Day-Lewis, including early drafts of the poet's work as well as letters from actor John Gielgud and famous literary figures such as W.H. Auden, Robert Graves, and Philip Larkin.[40]
Filmography
Critical reception
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday Bloody Sunday | 92%[41] | — |
| Gandhi | 88%[42] | — |
| The Bounty | 81%[43] | — |
| My Beautiful Laundrette | 100%[44] | — |
| A Room with a View | 100%[45] | 80[46] |
| Nanou | — | — |
| The Unbearable Lightness of Being | 95%[47] | — |
| Stars and Bars | — | — |
| Eversmile, New Jersey | — | — |
| My Left Foot | 100%[48] | |
| The Last of the Mohicans | 97%[49] | — |
| The Age of Innocence | 82%[50] | 83[51] |
| In the Name of the Father | 95%[52] | 84[53] |
| The Crucible | 71%[54] | |
| The Boxer | 77%[55] | 75[56] |
| Gangs of New York | 75%[57] | 72[58] |
| The Ballad of Jack and Rose | 46%[59] | 59[60] |
| There Will Be Blood | 91%[61] | 92[62] |
| Nine | 37%[63] | 49[64] |
| Lincoln | 91%[65] | 86[66] |
| Average | 83% | 76 |
See also
References
- ^ a b "Day Lewis, Daniel: Gangs Of New York" UrbanCinefile.com.au Accessed 11 October 2008
- ^ a b Parker, Emily. "Sojourner in Other Men's Souls". The Wall Street Journal. 23 January 2008.
- ^ a b Herschberg, Lynn. "The New Frontier's Man" New York Times Magazine, 11 November 2007
- ^ Jackson, Laura (2005). Daniel Day-Lewis: the biography. Blake. p. 3. ISBN 1-85782-557-8.
Michael Balcon's family were Latvian refugees from Riga who had come to England around the turn of the 20th century. The family of his wife, Aileen Leatherman, whom he married in 1924, came from Poland.
- ^ "Day-Lewis gets Oscar nod for new film". Kent News. 17 December 2007. Retrieved 9 January 2008. [dead link]
- ^ Pearlman, Cindy (30 December 2007). "Day-Lewis isn't suffering: 'It's a joy'". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 9 January 2008.[dead link]
- ^ a b c d Segal, David. "Daniel Day-Lewis, Behaving Totally In Character". The Washington Post, 31 March 2005
- ^ a b Corliss, Richard and Carrie Ross Welch. "Dashing Daniel" Time, European Edition, 21 March 1994
- ^ a b c Jenkins, Garry. Daniel Day-Lewis: The Fires Within St. Martin's Press, 1994, ASIN B000R9II4O
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wills, Dominic, "Daniel Day-Lewis Biography". 'Tiscali UK Retrieved 25 February 2006
- ^ FILM; Pete Postlethwaite Turns a Prison Stint Into Oscar Material The New York Times. Retrieved 6 January 2009
- ^ How Many Miles to Babylon? at IMDb
- ^ "Daniel Day-Lewis". The Oscar Site. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
- ^ Anthony J. Jordan (2008). The Good Samaritans – Memoir of a Biographer. Westport Books. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-9524447-5-6.
- ^ An Inspirational Journey: The Making of My Left Foot DVD, Miramax Films, 2005
- ^ a b c Scott, Paul (19 January 2008). "The VERY strange life of reclusive superstar Daniel Day-Lewis". Daily Mail. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
- ^ "Daniel Day-Lewis Q&A" TimeOut.com, 20 March 2006
- ^ a b "[[Parkinson (TV series)|Parkinson]]". Season 35. 25 March 2006.
{{cite episode}}: Missing or empty|series=(help); URL–wikilink conflict (help) - ^ a b c "Daniel Day-Lewis". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
- ^ "Daniel Day-Lewis". Hello!. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
- ^ "Daniel Day-Lewis | Ryder's Romances Winona's long list of loves lost | MSN Arabia Photo Gallery". Arabia.msn.com. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ a b "Daniel Day-Lewis". AskMen. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
- ^ New York Times Biography New York Times, Retrieved 27 February 2006
- ^ "Daniel Day-Lewis aims for perfection". The Daily Telegraph. 22 February 2008. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
- ^ "The Ballad of Jack and Rose" RottenTomatoes.com, Accessed 12 October 2008
- ^ Fleming, Michael and Ian Mohr, There Will Be Blood announcement Variety, Retrieved 25 February 2006
- ^ Diluna, Amy (27 January 2008). "Daniel Day-Lewis Honors Heath Ledger during Screen Actors Guild Awards". New York Daily News. Retrieved 16 February 2008.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|coauthor=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Elsworth, Catherine (28 January 2008). "Daniel Day Lewis, Julie Christie win at Screen Actors Guild Awards". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
- ^ "Daniel Day-Lewis Signed for Nine Film" broadwayworld.com, 1 June 2008
- ^ Shoard, Catherine (19 November 2010). "Daniel Day-Lewis set for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln film". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
- ^ McClintock, Pamela (12 October 2011). "Participant Media Boarding Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln' (Exclusive)". Hollywood Reporter. Los Angeles. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
- ^ Zakarin, Jordan (26 October 2012). "At 'Lincoln' Screening, Daniel Day-Lewis Explains How He Formed the President's Voice". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
- ^ "Daniel Day-Lewis Reveals How He Brought Lincoln To Life". ukscreen.com. 13 November 2012. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
- ^ Devlin, Martina. "Daniel, old chap, sure you're one of our own" Independent.ie 24 January 2008
- ^ "Day-Lewis heads UK Oscars charge.". BBC News. 22 January 2008
- ^ "Daniel Day-Lewis." RottenTomatoes.com, Accessed 12 October 2008
- ^ Sullivan, Chris (1 February 2008). "How Daniel Day-Lewis' notoriously rigorous role preparation has yielded another Oscar contender". The Independent. London. Retrieved 4 July 2010.
- ^ "Bristol University | News from the University | Honorary degrees". Bristol.ac.uk. 15 July 2010. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "Daniel Day-Lewis, 2002". Indexmagazine.com. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "Daniel Day-Lewis Gives Poet Dad's Work to Oxford". The New York Times.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'Sunday Bloody Sunday'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'Gandhi'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'The Bounty'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'My Beautiful Laundrette'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'A Room with a View'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ 'A Room with a View' Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2012-11-14.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'My Left Foot'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'The Last of the Mohicans'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'The Age of Innocence'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ 'The Age of Innocence' Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2012-11-14.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'In the Name of the Father'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ 'In the Name of the Father' Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2012-11-14.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'The Crucible'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'The Boxer'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ 'The Boxer' Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2012-11-14.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'Gangs of New York'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ 'Gangs of New York' Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2012-11-14.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'The Ballad of Jack and Rose'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ 'The Ballad of Jack and Rose' Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2012-11-14.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'There Will Be Blood'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ 'There Will Be Blood' Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2012-11-14.
- ^ [www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nine_2009/ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'Nine'"]. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ 'Nine' Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2012-11-14.
- ^ "Tomato Meter Rating of 'Lincoln'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ 'Lincoln' Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2012-11-14.
External links
Media related to Daniel Day-Lewis at Wikimedia Commons- Daniel Day-Lewis at IMDb
- Extensive Biography at Tiscali UK
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- Use dmy dates from April 2012
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- Actors from London
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- BAFTA winners (people)
- Best Actor Academy Award winners
- Best Actor BAFTA Award winners
- Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
- English agnostics
- English expatriates
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- English film actors
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- Irish film actors
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- People educated at Bedales School
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