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Daniel Day-Lewis

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                            Daniel Day-Lewis
   Daniel Day-Lewis in the 1988 film The Unbearable Lightness of Being
   Born 29 April 1957
        London, England, UK

   Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957), is an Academy
   Award-winning English-born actor. Although born in London, England, he
   became an Irish citizen in 1993.

   After studying at the world renowned Bristol Old Vic Theatre School,
   Daniel Day-Lewis performed in numerous stage plays and films that
   gained him an Academy Award, two BAFTA awards, and four Golden Globe
   nominations. In the midst of his career, he has become known as one of
   the most selective actors in the film industry, starring in only four
   movies in the last ten years. He has also been acknowledged for his
   constant devotion to his roles and copious amounts of research he
   performs. Often he will remain in character and speak in the accents he
   has used on screen throughout the entire shooting schedule. Because of
   his devotion to the method acting technique, he has often been called
   the "British De Niro".

Early life

   Day-Lewis is the son of the late British Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis.
   His mother, who comes from a Jewish family, is actress Jill Balcon,
   daughter of Sir Michael Balcon, former head of Ealing Studios. Two
   years after his birth in London, the Day-Lewis family moved to Croom's
   Hill, Greenwich where Daniel grew up along with his older sister,
   Tamasin Day-Lewis, who later become a renowned documentary filmmaker
   and television chef. Cecil Day-Lewis was already 53 years old at the
   time of his son's birth, and seemed to take little interest in his
   children. Following frequent health problems, he died when Daniel was
   15. Daniel felt unsettled about his lack of emotion, and regretted not
   having been closer to his father.

   Living in Greenwich, Day-Lewis naturally found himself among some tough
   South London kids and being Jewish and "posh", he was often bullied.
   Very quickly, therefore, he mastered the local accent and mannerisms -
   which he believes to have been the first convincing performances he
   gave. 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 illegalties.

   In 1968, Day-Lewis' parents, finding him to be "too wild", sent him to
   Sevenoaks boarding school in Kent. Though he detested the school, he
   was introduced to his two most prominent interests, woodworking and
   acting. He made his debut in Cry, The Beloved Country wearing extensive
   makeup for his role as a Black boy. While his disdain for the school
   grew, he made 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. After two years at Sevenoaks, Daniel
   was transferred to the Bedales School in Petersfield.

   Leaving Bedales in 1975, his unruly attitude had faded and he now had
   to make a career choice. Although he loved acting and had excelled
   onstage at the National Youth Theatre, he found something "seedy" about
   backstage life, and decided to become a cabinet-maker, applying for a
   five-year apprenticeship. However, because of a lack of experience, he
   was not accepted. 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. (At one point he played
   understudy to Pete Postlethwaite, whom he would later play opposite in
   In the Name of the Father, and with whom he shares a brief scene in "
   Last of the Mohicans"- He is the arresting officer when Hawkeye is
   imprisoned for sedition ).

Career

1980s

   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 1984, he had a supporting role as a cowardly
   first mate in The Bounty, after which he joined the Royal Shakespeare
   Company, playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. (He later grew to detest
   the character, however, and often described him as a "wanker").

   The actor was next featured on stage as "The Count" in the stage-play
   of Dracula where he appeared with his hair dyed blond in a throwback to
   Nosferatu. He later let his hair grow out to give a frosted "punk look"
   when he played half of a gay bi-racial couple in My Beautiful
   Laundrette. Day-Lewis gained further public notice when the film was
   released simultaneously with a completely different character in A Room
   with a View (1986), in which he played the effete upper-class fiance of
   the main character (played by Helena Bonham Carter).

   In 1987, Day-Lewis assumed leading man status by starring in Philip
   Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, co-starring Juliette
   Binoche, as a Czech doctor 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.

   Day-Lewis put his personal version of "method acting" into full use in
   1989 with his performance as Christy Brown in Jim Sheridan's My Left
   Foot which won him numerous awards, including the Academy Award for
   Best Actor. During filming, his eccentricities came to the fore, due to
   his refusal to break character.

   Playing a severely paralyzed character onscreen, offscreen Day-Lewis
   had to be wheeled 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 Christy Brown's life,
   including the embarrassments. He also broke two ribs during filming
   from assuming a hunched-over position in his wheelchair for so many
   weeks.

   Daniel Day-Lewis returned to the stage to work with Richard Eyre, as
   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. He began
   sobbing uncontrollably and refused to go back on stage; his understudy
   (a then unknown Jeremy Northam) finished what little was left of the
   production's run. One rumour following the incident was that Day-Lewis
   had seen the ghost of his own father, although the incident was
   officially attributed to exhaustion. He confirmed on the Jonathan Ross
   show on BBC that this rumour was true. He has not appeared on stage
   since.

1990s

   In 1992, three years after his Oscar win, The Last of the Mohicans was
   released. Day-Lewis' 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. He even carried a kentucky rifle at all
   times during filming in order to remain in character.

   While the film carried him to new heights of stardom, Day-Lewis
   preferred less "Hollywood" films such as The Age of Innocence
   co-starring Michelle Pfeiffer and directed by Martin Scorsese. He
   ultimately 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. He also
   insisted that crew members throw cold water and verbal abuse at him.
   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 of The Crucible based on
   the play by Arthur Miller and co-starring Winona Ryder. He followed
   that with Jim Sheridan's The Boxer as a former boxer and IRA member
   recently released from prison. His preparation included training for
   six months with former boxing world champion Barry McGuigan.

   Following The Boxer, Daniel Day-Lewis took a leave of absence from
   acting by putting himself into "semi-retirement" and returning to his
   old passion of woodworking. He moved to Florence, Italy where he became
   intrigued by the craft of shoemaking, eventually apprenticing as a
   cobbler for a time. His exact whereabouts and actions were not publicly
   known.

2000s

   After a three-year absence from filming, Day-Lewis was convinced to
   return to acting by Martin Scorsese (with whom he had worked on The Age
   of Innocence) and Harvey Weinstein to play (opposite Leonardo Di
   Caprio) the villain gangleader, "Bill the Butcher", in Gangs of New
   York. He began his lengthy, self-disciplined process by taking lessons
   as an apprentice butcher. Day-Lewis' dedication to the role even
   threatened his life at one point during filming when he was 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. Also, between takes, he
   would often listen to songs by hip-hop artist Eminem, to help get him
   into the self-righteous frame of mind of the character.

   His performance in Gangs of New York earned him his third Academy Award
   nomination and won him the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. At the time, he
   swore that this film would be his last.

   This was not to be the case, however, when Day-Lewis' own wife,
   director Rebecca 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 teenaged
   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. The film received mixed reviews, while Day-Lewis
   received almost universal praise for his performance.

   In 2006, it was reported in Variety that Paul Thomas Anderson's next
   film would be an adaptation of the controversial novel Oil!, renamed
   There Will Be Blood and starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

Personal life

   Because of his desire for privacy, Day-Lewis rarely talks publicly
   about his personal life, although he had what he would later describe
   as "the most on-off relationship in the world" with French actress
   Isabelle Adjani. The strained relationship lasted six years and
   eventually ended when Adjani notified Day-Lewis, reportedly by fax,
   that she was pregnant. Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis was born in 1995 in New
   York, months after the relationship between the two actors had ended.

   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 fell in love
   and were married two weeks before the film's release. The couple have
   two sons, Ronan (born June 14, 1998), and Cashel (born May 2002) and
   divide their time between their homes in the US and Ireland.

Selected filmography

                         Year Title Role Other notes
   2007 There Will Be Blood Daniel Plainview
   2005 The Ballad of Jack and Rose Jack Slavin
   2002 Gangs of New York Bill "The Butcher" Cutting Oscar Nominee - Best
   Actor in a Leading Role
   1997 The Boxer Danny Flynn
   1996 The Crucible John Proctor
   1993 In the Name of the Father Gerry Conlon Oscar Nominee - Best Actor
   in a Leading Role
   1993 The Age of Innocence Newland Archer
   1992 The Last of the Mohicans Hawkeye (Nathaniel Poe)
   1989 My Left Foot Christy Brown Oscar Winner - Best Actor in a Leading
   Role
   1989 Eversmile, New Jersey Dr. Fergus O'Connell
   1988 Stars and Bars Henderson Dores
   1988 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Tomas
   1985 A Room with a View Cecil Vyse
   1985 My Beautiful Laundrette Johnny
   1985 My Brother Jonathon (TV) Jonathan Dakers
   1984 The Bounty John Fryer
   1982 Gandhi Colin, South African street tough
   1982 Frost in May (TV) Archie Hughes-Forret
   1982 How Many Miles to Babylon? Alex
   1971 Sunday Bloody Sunday Child vandal uncredited

Academy Award and nominations

     * 1989 Won My Left Foot
     * 1993 Nominated In the Name of the Father
     * 2002 Nominated Gangs of New York

    Preceded by:
   Dustin Hoffman
   for Rain Man  Academy Award for Best Actor
                 1989
                 for My Left Foot                 Succeeded by:
                                             Jeremy Irons
                                             for Reversal of Fortune

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