Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (b.1957) is an English actor. Known as the “world’s greatest actor,” Day-Lewis is famous for his exceptional versatility, on-screen intensity, and exhaustive preparation for the demands of each role.
Born in London, Day-Lewis is the son of British Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis. Daniel initially performed with the Bristol Old Vic and Royal Shakespeare theatrical companies. His first leading roles in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985,) A Room with a View (1985,) and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) won him international acclaim.
Highly selective in his roles, Day-Lewis is the first actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor thrice—for My Left Foot (1989,) There Will Be Blood (2007,) and Lincoln (2012;) he was nominated for three more.
A method actor, Day-Lewis often remains in character even when he’s off the stage-set of a film. He learned Czech to play a philandering doctor in the adoption of Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, listened to rapper Eminem’s music to channel anger in Gangs of New York, and confined himself to a wheelchair for My Left Foot—he even had the film’s crew push him around the set and spoon-feed him. His deep immersion in the characters he plays has often left him depressed after “emerging” from the roles.
Day-Lewis’s other prominent films include In the Name of the Father (1993,) The Crucible (1996,) Gangs of New York (2002) and Phantom Thread (2017.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Daniel Day-Lewis
Being at the center of a film is a burden one takes on with innocence—the first time. Thereafter, you take it on with trepidation.
—Daniel Day-Lewis
Topics: Fame
You don’t merely give over your creativity to making a film — you give over your life! In theatre, by contrast, you live these two rather strange lives simultaneously; you have no option but to confront the mould on last night’s washing-up.
—Daniel Day-Lewis
Topics: Acting, Actors
I suppose I have a highly developed capacity for self-delusion, so it’s no problem for me to believe that I’m somebody else.
—Daniel Day-Lewis
The thing about performance, even if it’s only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities.
—Daniel Day-Lewis
Topics: Actors, Acting
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
John Cleese British Comic Actor, Writer
Patrick Stewart British Actor
Stephen Fry English Actor, Writer
Michael Palin English Actor, Writer, Television Traveler
Roger Moore English Actor
Laurence Olivier English Actor, Producer,, Director
Harry Lloyd British Actor
Dustin Hoffman American Actor
Sean Connery Scottish Actor
Kate Winslet English Actress