Gary Oldman is an English actor and filmmaker known as one of the most famous actors of his generation. His varied career, which includes theatre, film, and television, has earned him numerous awards, including BAFTA Awards, Critics’ Choice Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Currently, the Oscar-winning excitement surrounding Gary Oldman is the result of his transformation as Winston Churchill, who has become a media sensation since “Darkest Hour” hit the festival scene last August.
Oldman’s acting career began on stage in 1979 until he got his first leading role in the film in 1983, Meantime, 1983. From then on, his great acting style led to a successful theater career.
Gary Oldman Biography
Gary Oldman was born on March 1, 1958, in New Cross, London, the son of Leonard Bertram Oldman and Kathleen. Growing up does not seem to be such a fairy tale for Oldman, as he once revealed that his father was an alcoholic who left the family when he was seven years old.
As a child, Oldman was a pianist and later a singer. After seeing Malcolm McDowell on stage, he was inspired to put his musical ambitions on ice and dedicate himself to the theatre. He was a student at West Greenwich School in Deptford, and after leaving school at the age of 16, he started working in a sports shop.
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Acting Career
In his quest to become an actor, Gary Oldman enrolled at the Young People’s Theatre in Greenwich in the mid-1970s, while on the side he had jobs like a doorman in an operating theatre, selling shoes, etc. to support his welfare. His attempts to apply to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) were a great failure and he was advised to find another job to earn a living. But Oldman’s determination to become an actor exceeded all opinions others had about his ability to perform on stage.
He later won a scholarship to attend Rose Bruford College in Sidcup in South East London and graduated with a BA in Acting in 1979. He was the first in his class to receive professional work and made his stage debut in the same year as Puss alongside Dick Whittington and His Cat at the Theatre Royal in York.
To appear in countless plays and films in London as part of a dream come true for Oldman. From London to the USA, Oldman has many additions that follow his acting roles in films since the 1980s. A US critic once described his work as “phenomenal”.
In the 1990s, Oldman moved to the United States, where he got a leading role as Count Dracula in the romantic horror movie Dracula, a movie that became a box office success worldwide. His incredible performance in this movie earned him recognition as Best Actor of the Year 1992 by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.
While his career in Hollywood seems to have been successful, not everything went so smoothly for Gary Oldman. Like most celebrities, he had to accept a few setbacks for more than a year when the big movie roles did not fall behind as usual. But since no condition, it was said, was permanent, Oldman returned to celebrity status when he got a major role in the Harry Potter film series in 2004, playing Harry Potter’s godfather Sirius Black.
With his still growing reputation as a great entertainer, Oldman played James Gordon in “Batman Begins”. The 2008 film is described as commercially and critically successful, and according to a prominent film critic, Mark Kermode, the best performance was in the even more successful sequel The Dark Knight by Gary Oldman.
Movies & Other Ventures
His various film roles from 2004 until today range from the role of the hero to the role of the villain. Oldman played in films such as Little Red Riding Hood, the voice of the villain Lord Shen in Kung Fu Panda, Outlaw, Dawn on the Planet of the Apes, The Unborn, Criminals and the Darkest Hour; in the war drama film released in September 2017, Oldman starred as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
As far as his film career is concerned, one would think that acting is all that Gary Oldman could come up with, but guess what? he is also a filmmaker, musician, and writer. It’s worth mentioning that he already directed, produced, and wrote the award-winning film Nile by Mouth in 1997. The film, which is partly based on his own childhood, was a huge success and was crowned with four awards for Best British Film, Best Screenplay, Director’s Prize, and an Empire Award.
When it comes to music, Oldman has not completely forgotten his first childhood love of music. In an interview in 1995 he said he would rather be a musician than an actor – how’s that for a shocker? Gary Oldman, who has been described as a competent pianist, has recorded several pieces of the soundtrack of Sid and Nancy and also sang live and played piano in the 1988 film Track 29. As an extra, he has signed a contract with Simon & Schuster/Atria Publishing label Emily Bestler Books for the vampire book series Blood Riders.
Spouse
Despite his intense private lifestyle, it is known that Gary Oldman was married five times. First, he got married to the English actress Lesley Manville in 1987 and the marriage lasted only two years, shortly after the birth of her son Alfie in 1989. In 1990 he got married to the American actress Uma Thurman and was also divorced after two years. Oldman’s marriage to Donya Fiorentino lasted four years (1997 – 2001) and was blessed with two sons. Their divorce was quite messy, but the actor was granted sole legal and physical custody of their sons in a court decision.
Still open to love and companionship, Gary Oldman met and married the English singer and actress Alexandra Edenborough in Santa Barbara, California on December 31, 2008, and both enjoyed seven years of marital bliss until Edenborough filed for divorce in 2015. As charming as he has proved in his dealings with women, Oldman recently married the writer and art curator Gisele Schmidt in a discreet ceremony in September 2017.
At 59, Gary Oldman has two grandchildren, Matilda and Ozzy Oldman, through his eldest son Alfie and a sister Maureen, who is also an actress.
Gary Oldman Net Worth
In 2012, the net worth of Gary Oldman was estimated at $40 million. With major film roles, in particular “Darkest Hour”, which won him five awards, including the Golden Globe, Oldman is now undoubtedly on the list of the richest celebrities in Hollywood.
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Awards and Nominations
His propensity to win prizes dates back to 1987 when he won the Circle Award of the London film critics for the best actor. 2018 is clearly the best year for Oldman, with 5 awards crowning his hard work. Check out the other awards listed below:
1. Critics’ Circle Theater Award for Best Actor (1986)(The People’s Wedding)
2. BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay (1998)(Nil by Mouth)
3. BAFTA Award for Best British Film (1998)(Nil by Mouth)
4. BFCA Critics’ Choice Alan J. Pakula Award (2002)(The Contender)
5. People’s Choice Award for Favorite Cast (2009)(The Dark Knight)
6. Gotham Independent Film Tribute Award (2011)
7. Empire Award for Best Actor (2012) (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
8. British Independent Film Award – The Variety Award (2017)
9. Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actor (2018) (Darkest Hour)
10. AACTA International Award for Best Actor (2018) (Darkest Hour)
11. Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance (2018) (Darkest Hour)
12. Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture (2018) (Darkest Hour)
13. Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (2018) (Darkest Hour)
14. BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role – (2018) (Darkest Hour).
