Gary Oldman
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Gary Oldman was born in London, England. When he was older, he won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, where he received a BA in Theatre Arts in 1979. He later studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early 80s, including The Pope's Wedding, for which he received Time Out's Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985-1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor of 1985. Oldman is 1.78m in height (5 foot 10 inches). He is particularly known for playing eccentric characters.
He first appeared on the screen in the film Remembrance in 1982, going on the win his first starring role in Sid and Nancy (1986), in which he played the rocker Sid Vicious. He has played a variety of characters including Dracula, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lee Harvey Oswald, Pontius Pilate, and the Devil.
In 1997 he directed, produced, and wrote Nil by Mouth, partially based on his life, which went on to win the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film, a BAFTA Award, the Channel 4 Director's Award, and the Empire Award, and was declared by the British Film Academy as one of the 100 best films of all time.
