Daniel Day-Lewis by Frederique Worthy

Sources

fworthy1 — 2013-01-22 15:32:18 UTC

"Daniel Day-Lewis Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2013..

"My Left Foot (film)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Jan. 2013. Web. 18 Jan 2013.

Background, Early Life

fworthy1 — 2013-01-22 15:45:59 UTC

Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis was born on April 29, 1957, in London, England, as the second child of England's Poet Laureate Cecil-Day Lewis and his actress wife, Jill Balcon. He grew up in London and for the first part of his childhood years, he and his older sister Tamasin attended a south London public school. Daniel didn't seem to like it there, so he was relocated to Sevenoaks, a private school in Kent. Again, he didn't like his surroundings. What's more he was not at the top of the class. It didn't matter, because he showed talents such as carpentry, craftmanship, woodworking, and like his mother's side of the family, he turned to acting.

Acting Career, Early 1980s

fworthy1 — 2013-01-22 16:55:20 UTC

Such love for acting led Daniel to apply to Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, shortly after he graduated from high school. When Daniel went into Bristol Old Vic, he went into acting with the same dedication he had toward his craftmanship. This is how he would later gain his reputation as a method actor. In the early 1980's Daniel was going back and forth between films and stage performances. He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company while in 1982, he was given a minor part in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi, with Ben Kingsley as the titular character. In 1984, he worked with Anthony Hopkins and Sir Laurence Olivier in The Bounty.

Acting Career, Early 1980s, Continued

fworthy1 — 2013-01-22 17:24:31 UTC

He portrayed Cecil Vyse in 1986's A Room With A View, opposite Helena Bonham Carter. His roles from here on only brought more attention to him. Though he gained momentum in the world of movies and acting, it was in 1987 that he was given his first "leading man" role in a book-based film, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, with Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin. According to my source, Daniel took the initiative to learn the language of Czech (seeing as the book was based in Czechoslovakia--modern day Czech Republic--and so was the film), all while staying in character (for all eight months he spent filming) as Tomas, a womanizing brain surgeon. After he'd made this movie, people all over began to take notice....

Acting Career, 1989-Today

fworthy1 — 2013-01-22 17:31:24 UTC

Even so, Daniel's "breakout" movie came around in 1989. Irish director Jim Sheridan sent Daniel the script for a film he wanted to create, entitled My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown. Daniel, after reading the opening scene, called Sheridan and affirmed his interest in the film. To prepare for his role as the famous Irish poet/painter born with cerebral palsy, he made daily visits to cerebral palsy patients in the surrounding area where Christy may have lived. Here, he learned to successfully feign the condition, and at the beginning of 1992 he was nominated for his first Academy Award. Subsequently, he won. This only lead to bigger and better movies. Later on in the year, he was cast in another book-based film: Michael Mann's Last of the Mohicans. He was cast as Hawkeye, a Caucasian man who at a young age was adopted by Mohican Chingachgook, played by Wes Studi.

A Complete Filmography

fworthy1 — 2013-01-22 20:07:20 UTC

Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971)

Gandhi (1982)

The Bounty (1984)

My Beautiful Launderette (1985)

A Room With A View (1985)

Stars and Bars (1988)

Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

My Left Foot (1989)

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

In The Name of the Father (1993)

The Age of Innocence (1993)

Eversmile, New Jersey (n/a)

The Crucible (1996)

The Boxer (1997)

Gangs of New York (2002)

The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005)

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Nine (2009)

Lincoln (2012)

fworthy1 — 2013-01-22 20:08:31 UTC