In 1992, he appeared in “Howards End” and in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” before starring in “Legends of the Fall” and “The Road to Wellville.”  He made his directorial debut in 1995 with “August,” an adaptation of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” for which he composed the musical score and also played Vanya.  He starred in the title role in “Surviving Picasso” and with Alec Baldwin in “The Edge,” a dramatic adventure written by David Mamet and directed by Lee Tamahori.  “The Mask of Zorro,” directed by Martin Campbell and co-starring Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, was released in July 1998.

Earlier films include “84 Charing Cross Road,” “The Elephant Man,” “Magic” and “A Bridge Too Far” (the latter two films were both written by “Hearts in Atlantis” screenwriter William Goldman).  “The Bounty” and “Desperate Hours” were his first two collaborations with the Dino De Laurentiis Company.  For his American television work, he received two Emmy Awards for “The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case” (1976) in which he portrayed Bruno Hauptmann, and “The Bunker” (1981) in which he portrayed Adolph Hitler.

Born December 31, 1937 in Margam, near Port Talbot, Wales, he is the only child of Muriel and Richard Hopkins.  His father was a baker.  He was educated at Cowbridge Grammar School.  At 17, he wandered into a YMCA amateur theatrical production and knew immediately that he was in the right place.  With newfound enthusiasm, combined with proficiency at the piano, he won a scholarship to the Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff where he studied for two years (1955-1957).

He entered the British Army in 1958 for mandatory military training, spending most of the two-year tour of duty clerking in the Royal Artillery unit at Bulford.

In 1963, he graduated from the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts in London and was then mentored by Sir Laurence Olivier, then the director of the National Theater in Britain.  Two years later, Hopkins was Olivier’s understudy in Strindberg’s “Dance of Death.”  Hopkins made his film debut in 1967, playing Richard the Lionheart in “The Lion in the Winter,” starring Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn.  He received a British Academy Award nomination and the film received an Academy Award® as Best Picture.

American television viewers discovered Hopkins in the 1973 ABC production of Leon Uris’ “QBVII,” the first American mini-series, in which he played the knighted Polish-born British physician Adam Kleno who is ultimately destroyed by his wartime past.  The following year, he starred on Broadway in the National Theatre production of “Equus,” and later mounted another production of the play in Los Angeles where he has lived for 10 years, working extensively in American films and television.

After starring as Captain Bligh in “The Bounty” (1984), he returned to England and the National Theatre in David Hare’s “Pravda,” for which he received the British Theatre Association’s Best Actor Award and The Observer Award for Outstanding achievement at the 1985 Laurence Olivier Awards.  During this time at the National he starred in “Antony and Cleopatra” and “King Lear.”

Hopkins recently appeared in the feature adaptation of Stephen King’s Hearts In Atlantis for director Scott Hicks and the original comedy Bad Company with Chris Rock. He also recorded the narration for the 2000 holiday season’s hit film Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

He will next be seen in the film adaptation of the Philip Roth novel The Human Stain, opposite Nicole Kidman and directed by Robert Benton.

Hopkins became a U.S. citizen in 1999.