Many Americans see him as the essence of elegant and rarefied British theatricality. His stripped-down performance as the psychopathic genius Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs (1991) seemed to lift the depraved subject matter of the movie into a timeless and philosophical realm. But the Welsh actor loves America, the movies, and Hollywood. He did indeed begin on the British stage, but claims has never been comfortable there, and in fact, neither the theater nor the movies treated him too well for quite some time. Finally, in his late 50s, he has finally reached the height of his career and seems to feel at home far from his native England - in Los Angeles.

Anthony Hopkins was born in 1938 in the South Welsh village of Port Talbot, the same town where Richard Burton grew up. He was a loner, an academic underachiever, and athletically untalented. His only artistic expression was playing the piano. After high school he unsuccessfully tried clerking in a steel foundry, and found his way into a community theater. He took a few drama school classes, and managed to get a job as an assistant stage manager in Manchester, England, where he was sometimes allowed to act, but was soon fired for being unreliable.

Hopkins was still sufficiently enthusiastic about acting to enroll at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He made his debut at the National Theater in 1964, as Laurence Olivier's understudy in Julius Caesar. His persistent insecurities were recharged by the constant feeling of being in the shadow of Olivier and Richard Burton. He began to drink heavily, which got him fired from the theater and kept him almost "unemployable" for the next ten years. He moved to Hollywood in the early 1970s and began an up-and-down movie career that often seemed to be on the verge of jackpot, but never quite made it. However, in his new corner of the world, far away from the English theater, he quietly built up his actor's skills, control, and restraint, until he burst onto the public eye 20 years later as a unique and proficient actor.