Born on December 31, 1937 in the steel mining town of Port Talbot, South Wales, Hopkins grew up convinced he would amount to nothing. But at 17, he discovered acting at the YMCA and quickly found himself with a scholarship to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, a stint that was briefly interrupted by service with the Royal Artillery. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and making his London debut as Metellus Cimber in “Julius Caesar,” he joined the National Theatre in 1965 when Laurence Olivier served as artistic director. When Olivier fell prey to appendicitis, Hopkins took over in "Dance of Death" (1966), then went on to play Lear, Antony and others at the famed Old Vic. While his stage career was on the rise, however, his personal life was in rapid decline. Hopkins was a an alcoholic, walked out on his first wife, Petronella Barker, in 1969 and later abandoned a production of Macbeth. Moving to Los Angeles, CA in 1974, Hopkins quit drinking two days before his 38th birthday and became a lifelong member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Though he eschewed the stage later in his career, it was his theatrical training that enabled him to change shape and transform himself to a dazzling array of characters. As Lloyd George in "Young Winston" (1972), Hopkins initiated a five picture association with director Richard Attenborough which would see him segue from Lieutenant Colonel John Frost in "A Bridge Too Far" (1977) to the volatile, obsessed ventriloquist in "Magic" (1978) to the quiet, scholarly C S Lewis in "Shadowlands" (1993). He exhibited similar range in his work with the Merchant-Ivory team, beginning with his chillingly understated upper crust nasty in "Howards End" (1992) and proceeding through the mild-mannered all-too-perfect butler in "The Remains of the Day" (1993) to the ferocious energy and relentless sexuality of Pablo Picasso in "Surviving Picasso" (1996).

Hopkins' indelible portrayal of Lechter, the brilliant, cultivated serial killer at the center of Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs,” paved the way for a succession of meaty and challenging roles, including an enjoyable turn as Dr. Van Helsing in Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992) and a barnstorming performance as the stricken father in the Western epic, "Legends of the Fall" (1994). Immersing himself in countless hours of film and videotape for his title role in Oliver Stone's "Nixon" (1995), Hopkins fashioned a riveting performance that was as much an internal product of his own remembered inadequacies as a Welsh schoolboy as it was external mimicry of the 37th President of the USA. He directed and starred in "August" (1996), an adaptation of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" (for which he also composed its melancholy, lyrical score), and then played bookish billionaire Charles Morse who devises many of the best survival strategies after a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness pits Alec Baldwin and him against nature in Lee Tamahori's "The Edge (1997). Hopkins followed quickly with another portrayal of an American president, this time as John Quincy Adams in Steven Spielberg's "Amistad" (1997).

In 1998, Hopkins starred in a pair of remakes, playing William Parrish in "Meet Joe Black" (filmed twice before as "Death Takes a Holiday,” a 1934 feature and a 1971 ABC-TV movie) and the aged, original swashbuckler Don Diego, who trains a thief (Antonio Banderas) as his successor in "The Mask of Zorro." Later in the year, he was cast as Dr Ethan Powell in "Instinct,” a film loosely based on a novel by Daniel Quinn. As an anthropologist who lived for three years in the wilds with a family of gorillas, Powell discovered a secret which can not be revealed until a psychiatrist uncovers the truth behind a homicidal attack for which the doctor stands accused. In 1999, Hopkins took on the mighty title role in Julie Taymor's adaptation of "Titus." He briefly considered retiring after this role but found himself unable to give up his desire t