Oscar Profile #50: Daniel Day-Lewis

Born April 29, 1957 in Greenwich, England, Daniel Day-Lewis is the second child of British poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon, whose father was legendary British producer Sir Michael Balcon.

He made his film debut at the age of 13 as a child vandal in John Schlesinger’s 1971 film, Sunday Bloody Sunday while still in acting school. On stage and in TV movies from then on, he had his first significant screen role as one of the mutineers in Ted Donaldson’s 1984 version of The Bounty.

He burst onto the international stage with two films that opened in New York on the same day in May, 1986, Stephen Frears’ My Beautiful Laundrette in which he played the gay lover of a London Pakistani and James Ivory’s A Room With a View in which he played an effete snob in early 20th Century rural England. His versatility won him the New York Film Critics award for Best Supporting Actor for both roles.

His first starring role of note was as the Czech doctor with an active libido in Philip Kaufman’s 1988 film, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The following year he won multiple awards including another New York Film Critics award and his first Oscar as cerebral palsy afflicted Irish poet-painter Christy Brown in Jim Sherdian’s My Left Foot.

Another change of pace for the chameleon actor found him playing a highly athletic Hawkeye in Michael Mann’s 1992 film of James Fenimore Cooper’s oft-filmed The Last of the Mohicans.

Although generally well-received, his portrayal of the young husband in love with his wife’s cousin in Martin Scorsesse’s 1993 film of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence does not give him the kind of power role we are used to seeing him in. He is easily eclipsed by his female co-stars, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder. Happily, however, his reunion with My Left Foot director Jim Sheridan later that year proved more fortuitous as he received his second Best Actor Oscar nomination for the Irish troubles drama, In the Name of the Father.

Having lived together with actress Isabelle Adjani from 1989 to 1994, she gave birth to his first son after their break-up in 1995. It was later in 1995 during the filming of Nicholas Hytner’s film of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible that he met Miller’s daughter, Rebecca who he would marry in 1996 and with whom he has since had two more sons.

His role in Sheridan’s 1997 film, The Boxer brought him his third Golden Globe nomination, but no Oscar bid this time around.

Taking time out from his acting career, Day-Lewis was working as a cobbler in Florence, Italy when he was persuaded by Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio to play the Civil War era New York Irish gangster in 2002’s Gangs of New York for which he won numerous awards including his third Oscar nomination.

His portrayal of Daniel Plainview, the manic oil prospector in turn-of-the-20th-century Texas in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 film, There Will Be Blood added to his awards trophy chest, culminating in his second Oscar win.

His highly anticipated starring role as the Italian director in Rob Marshall’s 2009 film version of the musical Nine was a critical and commercial flop, proving to be a disappointment for all concerned, but he has two eagerly awaited films in the wings, as the 16th President in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and as 17th Century missionary priest, Cristovaio Ferreira in Martin Scorsese’s Silence.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE/A ROOM WITH A VIEW (1986), directed by Stephen Frears/James Ivory

Rarely, if ever, has an actor burst onto the international scene with two such wildly divergent performances and both on the same day.

In Stephen Frears’ My Beautiful Laundrette, which was originally made for British TV, Daniel Day-Lewis plays a lower-class gay ex-skinhead whose boyfriend is an ambitious Pakistani businessman in Margaret Thatcher’s London. That performance alone was sit-up-and-take-notice impressive, but then he shows up in the ensemble of James Ivory’s wonderful film of E.M. Forster’s A Room With a View as a repressed bookish snob and impediment to the true romance that is budding under his nose. You can imagine his character from the first film wanting to punch out the lights out of character from the second.

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING (1988), directed by Philip Kaufman

Philip Kaufman’s film of Milan Kundera’s novel of the Prague Spring of 1968 followed by the devastating Russian invasion features another fine performance by Daniel Day-Lewis as a Czech brain surgeon, married to bookish Juliette Binoche, but having an affair with an internationally famed painter, played by Lena Olin. Day-Lewis, always a perfectionist, has said he was not happy with his performance, largely because he found speaking with a Czech accent false in that he didn’t speak Czech. He was also uncomfortable with the film’s heavy sexuality, his oft-repeated line from the film being “take off your clothes.”

MY LEFT FOOT (1989), directed by Jim Sheridan

Daniel Day-Lewis’ penchant for staying in character through filming peaked with his portrayal of the cerebral palsy afflicted Christy Brown in Jim Sheridan’s first feature film. Playing Christy from the age of 17 through early adulthood, the actor insisted on being fed during meal breaks as his character had to be fed in the film. The result, however, is as powerful an on-screen performance as has ever been given. He and child actor Hugh O’Conor are seamless in their transition and the film never relies on sentimentality to tell the admittedly sad story of a difficult life, warts and all. His “surprise” Oscar win shouldn’t have been a surprise at all.

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER (1993), directed by Jim Sheridan

Based on Gerry Conlon’s autobiographical book, the reunion of Daniel Day-Lewis and his My Left Foot director gave them another opportunity to breathe cinematic life into a true story, that of a young man whose coerced confession leads to the arrest of his father as well as himself. The acting of Day-Lewis and Pete Postlethwaite as his father is superb as is the contribution of Emma Thompson as the British lawyer who fights for their release. All three were Oscar nominated for their efforts.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson’s film of Upton Sinclair’s There Will Be Blood was thought to be un-filmable and even after it was previewed to ecstatic reviews, it was said to be a film that would not be embraced by the Academy. That was kind of odd considering its chief competition that year was the Coen Brothers’ equally dark No country for Old Men. The film went on, of course, to receive eight nominations and two wins for its cinematography and for Day-Lewis’ extraordinary portrayal of an anti-religious, greedy oil man.