Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman is a highly regarded English actor and filmmaker, born on March 21, 1958, in London. With a career spanning over three decades, he has been recognized as one of the greatest contemporary actors, celebrated for his versatility and depth in portraying complex characters. Oldman rose to fame in the 1990s with notable villainous roles, including his acclaimed performance as punk musician Sid Vicious in "Sid and Nancy" (1986) and the vampire in "Bram Stoker’s Dracula" (1992). He received widespread acclaim for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in "Darkest Hour" (2017), which earned him an Academy Award.
Oldman began his career in theater, performing with prestigious companies like the Royal Court Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company before transitioning to film. He has starred in major franchises such as the "Harry Potter" series and the "Dark Knight" trilogy, showcasing his ability to adapt to various genres. Beyond acting, Oldman has directed films, including the semi-autobiographical "Nil by Mouth," which received BAFTA awards. Despite facing personal challenges, including struggles with alcoholism, he remains an influential figure in cinema and serves as a role model for aspiring actors.
Subject Terms
Gary Oldman
Actor
- Born: March 21, 1958
- Place of Birth: London, England
Education: Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama
Significance: Considered one of the greatest actors of contemporary times, Gary Oldman has appeared in films for more than thirty years. He shot to stardom playing a series of villainous roles in the 1990s, following his portrayal of Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986). The recipient of several other drama awards, Oldman received his first Academy Award for his performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017).
Background
Gary Oldman was born on March 21, 1958, in London, England. The youngest of three siblings, he grew up in the working-class neighborhood of New Cross in southeast London. His welder father, Leonard, struggled with alcoholism and abandoned the family when Oldman was seven years old. His mother, Kathleen, worked two jobs, including as a pub singer, to support the family. Oldman left school when he was sixteen and worked odd jobs.
Inspired by Malcolm McDowell’s performance in a wheelchair in the 1971 British romance The Raging Moon, Oldman decided to become an actor. His initial attempt to study drama was stymied after he failed his audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He then studied drama with the Greenwich and Lewisham Young People’s Theatre. That led to his admission to—and a scholarship for—the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama (now the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance), where he earned a bachelor’s degree in theater arts with honors in 1979.
Acting Career
Oldman began his acting career in the 1980s, performing onstage in repertory productions before joining the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland. He went on to work with the Royal Court Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company in London’s West End. He quickly earned a reputation for his talent and received the British Theatre Association/Drama Magazine Award for Best Actor in 1985 for his performance in The Pope’s Wedding.
Oldman first appeared onscreen as an alcoholic in Remembrance (1982). Other early films include the television movie Meantime (1983), where he played a skinhead, and Honest, Decent and True (1986), where he portrayed a gay artist. His first major role was as the punk rock musician Sid Vicious in the Sex Pistols biopic Sid and Nancy (1986). The movie became a cult classic and won Oldman the Evening Standard Film Award. His performance as the murdered playwright Joe Orton in the 1987 biopicPrick Up Your Ears earned him a best-actor nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards and cemented his reputation as a notable up-and-coming actor. Other early films included Track 29 (1988) and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990).
In the 1990s Oldman played a series of villains. He played a gangster in State of Grace(1990), a suspected assassin in JFK (1991), the vampire Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), a drug dealer in True Romance (1993), a psychotic drug-enforcement agent inLéon: The Professional (1994), a weapons manufacturer in The Fifth Element (1997), and a terrorist in Air Force One (1997). He earned rave reviews for his ability to portray the many layers of his characters. As Vicious, he showed both his character’s depravity and his kindness, for example. As Dracula, he showed the dual nature of a satanic predator and seemingly sincere suitor. As Jackie Flannery, the Irish American gangster in State of Grace, he showed both extreme wantonness and loyalty to family and friends. In JFK, he showed the dangerousness of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald while also highlighting aspects of his personality that raised credible doubt about his guilt.
In 1997 Oldman directed the semiautobiographical Nil by Mouth, based on a screenplay he wrote. The movie portrayed a working-class family with an abusive, alcoholic father in the South London neighborhood where Oldman grew up. Nil was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and earned him BAFTA Awards for best original screenplay and outstanding film of the year.
Despite playing numerous villains, Oldman avoided being typecast due to his versatility and adaptability. He was especially adept at adopting different accents and changing his looks. In 2000 Oldman appeared as a scheming Republican congressman determined to squelch the US president’s nomination of a female vice president in The Contender. His performance won him a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for best supporting role.
In the mid-2000s Oldman took a break from the types of films that had established his career to work in two franchises. He played Commissioner James Gordon in the Dark Knight trilogy (2005–12) and Sirius Black in four of the Harry Potter film adaptations (2004–11). In the later 2000s and early 2010s Oldman also provided voice-overs for several animated feature films, including Planet 51 (2009) and Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011).
In 2012 Oldman received his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Cold War spy George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), as well as a BAFTA nod for best actor. After having gone on to appear in a number of further films in subsequent years, including RoboCop (2014), Child 44 (2015), Criminal (2016), and The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017), Oldman secured what many critics considered a long-overdue Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in 2017’s Darkest Hour. His performance also garnered him Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Awards for best actor. The role required him to drastically change his appearance through prosthetics and extensive cosmetics. He then marked the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century with starring roles in the action-thriller Hunter Killer (2018) as well as four films in 2019, the crime-mystery Killers Anonymous, the horror-mystery Mary, the crime-comedy The Laundromat, and the dramatic action film The Courier. In 2020, Oldman starred in the movie Mank, which appeared on the streaming service Netflix.
Oldman appeared in three movies in 2021, Crisis, The Woman in the Window, and in archival footage in Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard. In 2023, Oldman appeared in the box office smash hit and Academy Award–winning film Oppenheimer as President Harry S. Truman. In 2022, Oldman began starring in the critically acclaimed television show, Slow Horses. Oldman's performance in Slow Horses earned him a 2024 Golden Globe nomination. In January 2024, the streaming service Apple TV+ announced it had renewed Slow Horses for a fifth season.
Impact
A critically acclaimed actor, Oldman is well known for his theatrical range and for imbuing characters, even potentially one-dimensional villains, with a sense of depth. He has not only enriched the movies in which he appeared and entertained audiences for decades, but also served as a role model for aspiring actors, including Stephen Graham and Johnny Harris. He has inspired movie buffs who continue to critique and rank his roles and performances.
Personal Life
By 2020 Oldman had been married five times, to Lesley Manville (1987–89), Uma Thurman (1990), Donya Fiorentino (1997–2001), Alexandra Edenborough (2008–15), and Gisele Schmidt (2017–). He shares a son, Alfie, with Manville, and two sons, Gulliver and Charles, with Fiorentino. Following his divorce from Fiorentino, Oldman gained custody of their sons and took fewer roles in order to spend time with them. The family live in Los Angeles, California. Oldman has said candidly in interviews that he is a recovering alcoholic.
Bibliography
"Apple TV+ Announces Fifth Season for Acclaimed Five-time BAFTA Award-nominated Espionage Drama Slow Horses Starring Academy Award Winner Gary Oldman." Apple TV+ Press, 2 Jan. 2024, www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2024/01/apple-tv-announces-fifth-season-for-acclaimed-five-time-bafta-award-nominated-espionage-drama-slow-horses-starring-academy-award-winner-gary-oldman/. Press release.
Freeman, Thomas. “Gary Oldman Is Turning 60, So Revisit His 10 Best Roles of All Time.” Maxim, 21 Mar. 2018, www.maxim.com/entertainment/gary-oldman-10-best-roles-ranked-2018-3. Accessed 27 June 2019.
"Gary Oldman." IMDb, 2023, www.imdb.com/name/nm0000198/. Accessed 18 Apr. 2023.
“Gary Oldman Biography.” Tribute.ca, Tribute Entertainment Media Group, 2019, www.tribute.ca/people/gary-oldman/1324. Accessed 27 June 2019.
Heath, Chris. “The Gary Oldman Story That Almost Wasn’t.” GQ, 24 Feb. 2012, www.gq.com/story/gary-oldman-interview-chris-heath-oscar-nomination. Accessed 27 June 2019.
Leigh, Danny. “Gary Oldman and the Decline of the Working-Class British Actor.” The Guardian, 15 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/15/gary-oldman-working-class-british-actor-darkest-hour. Accessed 27 June 2019.
O’Connell, Max. “The Journey of a Remarkable Artist: The Career of Gary Oldman.” Balder & Dash, RogerEbert.com, 12 Feb. 2018, www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/the-journey-of-a-remarkable-artist-the-career-of-gary-oldman. Accessed 27 June 2019.