Gary Oldman

Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker.

Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy Film Awards.

His films have grossed over $11 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time.

Gary Leonard Oldman was born in New Cross, London, on 21 March 1958, the son of Leonard Bertram Oldman (1921–1985), a former sailor who also worked as a welder, and Kathleen (née Cheriton; 1919–2018).

He said his father was an alcoholic who left the family when Oldman was seven years old.

Oldman studied with the Young People's Theatre in Greenwich during the mid-1970s, while working jobs on assembly lines, as a porter in an operating theatre, selling shoes and beheading pigs in an abattoir.

He applied unsuccessfully to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), which welcomed him to try again the following year, but advised him to find something else to do for a living.

When asked by Charlie Rose if he had reminded RADA of this, Oldman joked that "the work speaks for itself".

He played piano as a child, but he gave up his musical aspirations to pursue an acting career after seeing Malcolm McDowell's performance in the film The Raging Moon (1971).

Oldman began acting in theatre in 1979 and made his film debut in Remembrance (1982).

He appeared in London's Royal Court and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, with credits including Cabaret, Romeo and Juliet, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Saved, The Country Wife and Hamlet.

He won a scholarship to attend the Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, south-east London, from which he graduated with a BA in Acting in 1979.

Oldman described himself as a "shy" but diligent worker during his time there, performing roles such as Puck in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

After leaving drama school, Oldman was the first in his year to receive professional work; he stated that this was not a result of being the most talented actor, but rather diligence and application.

In 1979, he starred in Thark, opposite Annette Kerr, at York's Theatre Royal.

Subsequent plays included Cabaret, Privates on Parade and Romeo and Juliet.

In December 1979, Oldman appeared as Puss in Dick Whittington and His Cat, staged at York.

He also acted in Colchester, then with Glasgow's Citizens Theatre; Oldman's work ethic and trademark intensity would make him a favourite with audiences in Glasgow during the 1980s.

He also toured Europe and South America with the Citizens Theatre company.

From 1980 to 1981, Oldman appeared in The Massacre at Paris (Christopher Marlowe), Desperado Corner (Shaun Lawton) and Robert David MacDonald's plays Chinchilla and A Waste of Time.

He performed in a 6-month West End run of MacDonald's Summit Conference, opposite Glenda Jackson, in 1982.

Also that year, Oldman made his film debut in Colin Gregg's Remembrance, and would have starred in Don Boyd's Gossip if that film had not collapsed.

The following year, he landed a starring role as a skinhead in Mike Leigh's film Meantime, and moved on to Chesterfield to assume the lead role in Entertaining Mr Sloane (Joe Orton).

He then went to Westcliffe to star in Saved (Edward Bond).

Saved proved to be a major breakthrough for Oldman.

Max Stafford-Clark, artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre, had seen Oldman's performance and cast him as Scopey, the lead role of Bond's The Pope's Wedding, in 1984.

He rose to prominence in British film with his portrayals of Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987) and Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), and gained recognition for his role in the television film The Firm (1989).

Regarded as a member of the "Brit Pack", he achieved greater recognition as a New York gangster in State of Grace (1990), Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991) and Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

Oldman portrayed villainous roles in True Romance (1993), Léon: The Professional (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), Air Force One (1997) and The Contender (2000).

In a 1995 interview with Charlie Rose, he said, "Something about Malcolm just arrested me, and I connected, and I said, 'I wanna do that.'"

Growing up in south London, Oldman supported his local football club, Millwall, but also followed Manchester United because he idolised George Best.

Oldman also wrote and directed the film Nil by Mouth (1997).

Since 2022 he has starred in the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses.

His older sister, Maureen, is an actress better known as Laila Morse; she performed in Oldman's directorial debut Nil by Mouth (1997), before taking on her most famous role of Mo Harris in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.

Oldman attended West Greenwich School in Deptford, leaving at the age of 16 to work in a sports shop.

He also earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his role on the NBC sitcom Friends in 2001.

He has also appeared in music videos for David Bowie, Guns N' Roses and Annie Lennox.

He has also played franchise roles such as Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series, James "Jim" Gordon in The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012) and Dreyfus in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014).

In 2011, he learned from his mother that his father had played for Millwall just after World War II: "Just after the war, [my mother] ran a boarding house for football playersMillwall players. And I knew that my dad was involved somehow with the reserve team. But two weeks ago my mum said, 'Oh yeah, your dad played for Millwall. When he was young he had a couple of first team games.'"

He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017), and was nominated for his portrayals of George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) and Herman J. Mankiewicz in Mank (2020).