daniel day lewis wins oscar ↓ Leave a comment
Bristol Evening Post Article 25th February 2008
FORMER OLD VIC STUDENT DAY LEWIS WINS OSCAR
Bristol Old Vic-trained Daniel Day Lewis swept to Oscar glory today for his lead role in There Will Be Blood.
The 50-year-old won his second best actor Academy Award for his towering performance as a ruthless, malevolent oilman in the film, which also won best film at the glittering awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
Day-Lewis - who received his first Oscar for My Left Foot in 1990 - picked up his second Academy Award from Helen Mirren, recipient of last year’s best actress gong.
“That’s the closest I’ll ever come to getting a knighthood, so thank you,” he joked.
Perhaps drawing inspiration from his violent character Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, he thanked “the members of the academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town.
“I’m looking at this gorgeous thing you’ve given me and I’m thinking back to the first devilish whisper of an idea that came to him and everything since and it seems to me that this sprang like a golden sapling out of the mad, beautiful head of (director and writer) Paul Thomas Anderson.”
Day-Lewis, renowned for his dedication to method acting, is said to have lived in a tent on a Texan oil field during the making of There Will Be Blood.
The 50-year-old is fiercely private and lives in Co Wicklow, Ireland, with wife Rebecca Miller - daughter of playwright Arthur Miller - and their sons. He has a son from a relationship with actress Isabelle Adjani.
Born in London, the son of actress Jill Balcon and her husband, Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, he holds dual British and Irish citizenship.
Day-Lewis is often spoken of as a recluse but recently told an interviewer he needs peace and quiet in order to prepare for acting jobs.
He said: “I couldn’t work or get ready for a piece of work from a city base, from city life. I need deep, deep quiet and a landscape too that I can be absorbed into.
“So much of the work is in the process of aimless rumination in which things may or may not take seed.”
His breakthrough role was in 1985 British drama My Beautiful Laundrette.
In 1990 he won the best actor Oscar for his performance of writer Christy Brown in My Left Foot.
Two other Oscar nominations followed - In the Name Of The Father(1994) and Gangs Of New York (2003).
Day-Lewis recently scooped the Best Actor Bafta and Golden Globe for There Will Be Blood.
Dick Penny says:
Fantastic news. Daniel is an extraordinary talent and we in Bristol were privileged to see his first performances as he moved from the BOV Theatre School into the Bristol Old Vic Company.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Charles H says:
well done, an inspiration. Well done to the Old Vic for training him to be an oscar winner!!!
March 5th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Alex.T says:
DDL CAME TO BOV ! omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg.Yeah
May 24th, 2008 at 7:56 pm