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IMDbPro

Daniel Day-Lewis

  • Actor
  • Music Department
  • Soundtrack
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Top 5,000200
Daniel Day-Lewis
From 'My Left Foot' to 'Phantom Thread,' we take a look back at Daniel Day-Lewis's acting career. Which role is your favorite?
Play clip1:32
Daniel Day-Lewis | Career Retrospective
42 Videos
99+ Photos
Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis (pseudonym Cecil Day-Lewis), Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing Studios. His older sister, Tamasin Day-Lewis, is a documentarian. His father was of Northern Irish and English descent, and his mother was Jewish (from a family from Latvia and Poland). Daniel was educated at Sevenoaks School in Kent, which he despised, and the more progressive Bedales in Petersfield, which he adored. He studied acting at the Bristol Old Vic School. Daniel made his film debut in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), but then acted on stage with the Bristol Old Vic and Royal Shakespeare Companies and did not appear on screen again until 1982, when he landed his first adult role, a bit part in Gandhi (1982). He also appeared on British television that year in Frost in May (1982) and How Many Miles to Babylon? (1982). Notable theatrical performances include Another Country (1982-83), Dracula (1984) and The Futurists (1986).

His first major supporting role in a feature film was in The Bounty (1984), quickly followed by My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and A Room with a View (1985). The latter two films opened in New York on the same day, offering audiences and critics evidence of his remarkable range and establishing him as a major talent. The New York Film Critics named him Best Supporting Actor for those performances. In 1986, he appeared on stage in Richard Eyre's "The Futurists" and on television in Eyre's production of The Insurance Man (1986). He also had a small role in a British/French film, Nanou (1986). In 1987, he assumed leading-man status in Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), followed by a comedic role in the unsuccessful Stars and Bars (1988). His brilliant performance as Christy Brown in Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot (1989) won him numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor.

He returned to the stage to work again with Eyre, as Hamlet at the National Theater, but was forced to leave the production close to the end of its run because of exhaustion, and has not appeared on stage since. He took a hiatus from film as well until 1992, when he starred in The Last of the Mohicans (1992), a film that met with mixed reviews but was a great success at the box office. He worked with American director Martin Scorsese in The Age of Innocence (1993), based on Edith Wharton's novel. Subsequently, he teamed again with Jim Sheridan to star in In the Name of the Father (1993), a critically acclaimed performance that earned him another Academy Award nomination. His next project was in the role of John Proctor in father-in-law Arthur Miller's play The Crucible (1996), directed by Nicholas Hytner. He worked with Scorsese again to star in Gangs of New York (2002), another critically acclaimed performance that earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Day-Lewis's wife, Rebecca Miller, offered him the lead role in her film The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005), in which he played a dying man with regrets over how his wife had evolved and over how he had brought up his teenage daughter. During filming, he arranged to live separate from his wife to achieve the "isolation" needed to focus on his own character's reality. The film received mixed reviews. In 2007, he starred in director Paul Thomas Anderson's loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair's novel "Oil!", titled There Will Be Blood (2007). Day-Lewis received the Academy Award for Best Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, and a variety of film critics' circle awards for the role. In 2009, Day-Lewis starred in Rob Marshall's musical adaptation Nine (2009) as film director Guido Contini. He was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and the Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
BornApril 29, 1957
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BornApril 29, 1957
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,000200
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Won 3 Oscars

Double Take: Showstopping Biopic Transformations

Double Take: Showstopping Biopic Transformations

We've rounded up some of the best biopic transformations, including Naomi Ackie in I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
See the full gallery
[object Object]
Photos

Photos867

Daniel Day-Lewis and Eric Schweig in The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Daniel Day-Lewis, Saeed Jaffrey, Gordon Warnecke, and Rita Wolf in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Daniel Day-Lewis, Saeed Jaffrey, Stephen Marcus, Dawn Archibald, Shirley Anne Field, and Jonathan Moore in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Daniel Day-Lewis and Saeed Jaffrey in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Daniel Day-Lewis, Stephen Marcus, Dawn Archibald, Gordon Warnecke, and Jonathan Moore in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Daniel Day-Lewis and Richard Graham in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Daniel Day-Lewis in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

Known for

Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood (2007)
There Will Be Blood
8.2
  • Daniel Plainview
  • 2007
Daniel Day-Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
The Last of the Mohicans
7.7
  • Hawkeye (Nathaniel Poe)
  • 1992
Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln (2012)
Lincoln
7.3
  • Abraham Lincoln
  • 2012
Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, and Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York (2002)
Gangs of New York
7.5
  • Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting
  • 2002

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps in Phantom Thread: Deleted Scenes - For the Hungry Boy (2018)
    Phantom Thread: Deleted Scenes - For the Hungry Boy
  • Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps in Phantom Thread (2017)
    Phantom Thread
  • Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln (2012)
    Lincoln
  • Nicole Kidman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Penélope Cruz, Kate Hudson, and Marion Cotillard in Nine (2009)
    Nine
  • Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood (2007)
    There Will Be Blood
  • Daniel Day-Lewis and Camilla Belle in The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005)
    The Ballad of Jack and Rose
  • Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, and Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York (2002)
    Gangs of New York
  • Daniel Day-Lewis and Emily Watson in The Boxer (1997)
    The Boxer
  • Winona Ryder and Daniel Day-Lewis in The Crucible (1996)
    The Crucible
  • Daniel Day-Lewis in In the Name of the Father (1993)
    In the Name of the Father
  • Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder, and Daniel Day-Lewis in The Age of Innocence (1993)
    The Age of Innocence
  • Daniel Day-Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
    The Last of the Mohicans
  • Daniel Day-Lewis and Mirjana Jokovic in Eversmile New Jersey (1989)
    Eversmile New Jersey
  • My Left Foot (1989)
    My Left Foot
  • Daniel Day-Lewis in Stars and Bars (1988)
    Stars and Bars
    • (as Daniel Day Lewis)

Music Department

  • Daniel Day-Lewis and Camilla Belle in The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005)
    The Ballad of Jack and Rose

Soundtrack

  • Nicole Kidman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Penélope Cruz, Kate Hudson, and Marion Cotillard in Nine (2009)
    Nine

Videos43

Daniel Day-Lewis | Career Retrospective
Clip 1:32
Daniel Day-Lewis | Career Retrospective
Lincoln
Clip 1:09
Lincoln
Lincoln
Clip 0:54
Lincoln
Lincoln
Clip 0:38
Lincoln
Lincoln
Clip 0:47
Lincoln
Lincoln
Clip 0:43
Lincoln
Lincoln
Clip 0:58
Lincoln
Lincoln
Clip 0:46
Lincoln
Lincoln
Clip 0:35
Lincoln
Nine
Interview 1:10
Nine
Nine
Interview 0:57
Nine
Nine
Interview 1:05
Nine

Personal details

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    • Instagram
    • April 29, 1957
    • Greenwich, London, England, UK
    • Rebecca MillerNovember 13, 1996 - present (2 children)
    • Cecil Day-Lewis
    • Michael Balcon(Grandparent)
  • Other works
    Art work reproduced in "The Irish: A Treasury of Art and Literature", edited by Leslie Conron Carola. New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Assoc, 1993. ISBN 08836339.
  • Publicity listings
    • 7 Interviews
    • 24 Articles
    • 6 Pictorials
    • 15 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    According to Gangs of New York (2002) co-star John C. Reilly, he got sick during shooting in Italy, refusing to trade his character's threadbare coat for a warmer coat because the warmer coat did not exist in the 19th century; doctors finally forced him to take antibiotics.
  • Quotes
    [on acting] If I weren't allowed this outlet, there wouldn't be a place for me in society.
    • In-depth and exhaustive preparations for roles
    • The Crucible
      (1996)
      $8,000,000

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