Biography
Whether playing a punk rocker, an assassin, a war vet, or a ghoul, Gary Oldman has consistently amazed viewers with his ability to completely disappear into his roles. Though capable of portraying almost any type of character, Oldman has put his stamp on those of the twisted villain/morally ambiguous weirdo variety, earning renown for his interpretations of the darker side of human nature.
Born Leonard Gary Oldman in New Cross, South London, on March 21, 1958, Oldman was raised by his mother and two sisters after his father, an alcoholic welder, left them when Oldman was seven. Nine years later, Oldman left high school to work in a sporting goods store; in his spare time, he studied literature and later acting under the tutelage of Roger Williams. He went on to act with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and, after attending drama school on a scholarship, worked with the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. Oldman next worked in London's West End, where, in 1985, he won a Best Actor and a Best Newcomer award for his performance in The Pope's Wedding. By this time, he had made his film debut in
Remembrance (1982) and had appeared in two television movies, notably Honest, Decent and True (1985).
Oldman got his first big break when he was cast as Sid Vicious in
Sid and Nancy (1986),
Alex Cox's disturbing docudrama account of the punk rocker's tragic relationship with Nancy Spungen. Oldman's unnervingly accurate portrayal of the doomed rocker won rave reviews and effectively propelled him out of complete obscurity. The following year, he turned in a completely different but equally superb performance as famed playwright Joe Orton in
Stephen Frears'
Prick Up Your Ears and earned a Best Actor nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for his work. After moving to the U.S. that same year, Oldman appeared in
Nicolas Roeg's
Track 29 (1988), and in 1990, he had one of his most memorable -- to say nothing of cultish -- roles as Rosencrantz opposite
Tim Roth as Guildenstern in
Tom Stoppard's brilliant
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
Oldman's first American role in a major Hollywood film was that of alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in
Oliver Stone's
JFK (1991). He then gave a creepy, erotic performance in the title role of
Francis Ford Coppola's rendition of
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), a lavish film that proved to be the most commercially successful (next to
JFK) of Oldman's career to date. In addition to playing such eccentrics as Drexl Spivey, a white pimp with dreadlocks who tries to prove himself a black Rastafarian in
True Romance (1993), Oldman went on to play more conventional characters, as evidenced by his straightforward portrayal of a crooked cop in
Luc Besson's
The Professional (1994), his performance as Beethoven in
Immortal Beloved (1994), and his role as Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in the disastrous 1995 adaptation
The Scarlet Letter.
In 1997, Oldman made his directorial bow with
Nil by Mouth, a bleak, semi-autobiographical drama about a dysfunctional blue-collar London family that Oldman dedicated to his late father. The film proved to be a controversial hit at that year's Cannes Festival, and the first-time director won a number of international awards and a new dose of respect for his work. He subsequently returned to acting with
Luc Besson's
The Fifth Element that same year, made while he took a break from editing
Nil by Mouth. He also gave an enduringly cheesy portrayal of the sinister Russian terrorist bent on wresting world domination from American president
Harrison Ford in the blockbuster
Air Force One (1997) and followed that up by playing yet another villain in the 1998 feature-film version of the classic TV series
Lost in Space.
Oldman has made headlines for his private as well as professional life over the years, both for his well-publicized battles with alcohol and his marriages to actresses
Lesley Manville and
Uma Thurman. In addition to his son Alfie with Manville, Oldman has two children by his third wife, American model and photographer Donya Fiorentino (though the two are now divorced). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide