Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins CBE (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, composer, director and film producer. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, three BAFTAs, two Emmys and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. In 1993, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. Hopkins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003, and in 2008 he received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

In 1968, Hopkins achieved recognition in film, playing Richard the Lionheart in The Lion in Winter. In the mid-1970s, Richard Attenborough, who would direct five Hopkins films, called him “the greatest actor of his generation.” In 1991, he portrayed Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor. He reprised the role in its sequel Hannibal and the prequel Red Dragon. Other notable films include: The Elephant Man (1980), 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), Howards End (1992), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Shadowlands (1993), Legends of the Fall (1994), Meet Joe Black (1998), The Mask of Zorro (1998), as well as Thor (2011) and its 2013 and 2017 sequels. Hopkins has since been nominated for five other Academy Awards for the films The Remains of the Day (1993), Nixon (1995), Amistad (1997), The Two Popes (2019) and The Father (2020), the latter of which made him the oldest Best Actor nominee to date.