Daniel Day-Lewis

Daniel Day-Lewis

Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an actor with both British and Irish citizenship. 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 Irish-born British 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. 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. He is known as one of the most selective actors in the film industry, having starred in only six films since 1997, with as many as five years between roles.