Gary Oldman

Gary Oldman

Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English screen and stage actor, filmmaker and musician who has garned acclaim for his diverse performances. Oldman has won two BAFTA Awards and a Saturn Award, and has been nominated for Academy-, Emmy- and Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as the Palme d'Or and two additional BAFTA Awards. A Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Court Theatre alumnus, he is a classically-trained actor who appeared in many stage productions in the late 1970s and 1980s, gaining particular recognition for his roles in the works of Edward Bond. Meanwhile, he made his film debut in 1982 and rose to prominence with his portrayals of Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987) and a football firm leader in The Firm (1989); pre-eminent film critic Roger Ebert once hailed Oldman as "the best young British actor around." His turns as an Irish-American gangster in State of Grace (1990), Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991) and Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) brought him international fame, and he became renowned for his theatre-influenced acting style.

Oldman subsequently became a popular casting choice for villains, starring as the antagonist of films such as True Romance (1993), Léon: The Professional (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), Air Force One (1997), and The Contender (2000); Norman Stansfield from Léon: The Professional has been named as one of cinema's greatest villains. Meanwhile, he played Ludwig van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved (1994) and an artist based on Julian Schnabel in Basquiat (1996). Oldman would later earn renown as sympathetic characters, playing an actor based on himself in the Friends double episode, "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding" (2001); Sirius Black in Harry Potter films Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Goblet of Fire (2005), Order of the Phoenix (2007) and Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011); James Gordon in Batman Begins (2005) and its sequels, The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012); and George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011). Aside from acting, Oldman wrote and directed Nil by Mouth (1997) and has recorded music with artists such as David Bowie and Glen Matlock.