Anthony Hopkins names the greatest British actor of all time: “A back-street Marlon Brando”
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(Credits: Far Out / TIFF)
From The Silence of the Lambs to The Father, Anthony Hopkins has had an incredibly diverse career, proving his versatility as one of Hollywood’s most adaptable stars. Yet, before he became well-known in the film industry, the Welsh-born actor started out on the stage, spending years performing at London’s The Old Vic theatre.
Hopkins might now be known for appearing in countless American productions, but his career firmly began in Britain, making his screen debut in the television series The Man in Room 17. By 1967, he’d acted in his first film, the medium-length Lindsay Anderson drama The White Bus, adapted from a short story by Shelagh Delaney.
The 1960s was a brilliant decade for British cinema, with the kitchen sink movement emerging to enduring success. These were stories of working-class disillusionment and post-war malaise, often exploring complex themes like interracial relationships, pregnancy and abortion, and poverty. Defining an era with their grittiness and unrestrained realism, films like Tony Richardson’s A Taste of Honey, adapted from Delaney’s play of the same name, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Billy Liar, and Poor Cow feel like time capsules of an era that wasn’t as Swinging as we might like to think.
While Hopkins didn’t star in any feature-length kitchen sink dramas – only appearing in two films, both of which were historical dramas, during the ‘60s – he recognised a certain actor who made his name during the period as one of the country’s greatest stars.
In a 1994 interview with Playboy Magazine, he revealed, “I think the first British actor who really worked well in cinema was Albert Finney. He was a back-street Marlon Brando. He brought a great wittiness and power to the screen. The best actor we’ve had.”
Finney made his film debut with The Entertainer, directed by Richardson, which starred Laurence Olivier in the main role. It was a highly celebrated film, even earning Olivier an Oscar nomination, and it thus marked the start of an impressive filmography for Finney. He appeared in another kitchen sink classic soon after, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which saw him act alongside Shirley Anne Field as a working-class machinist who embarks on an affair with a married woman.
The actor earned a Bafta nomination for his performance, and within three years, he was leading another classic British film, Tom Jones. Directed by Richardson, Finney played Jones, a foundling who grows up to discover a world of sex, infidelity, and various humourous and adventure-filled scrapes. The film was a huge success, signalling that the British film industry had huge potential, but unfortunately, it has always been eclipsed by Hollywood, declining following this period of success.
Hopkins spoke rather harshly about this period in British cinema, adding, “The problems with the British film industry started in the Sixties when directors made films for their friends, not for the public. They were making films about washing lines and brass bands in North Country towns. So what? Who cares?”
So, while he was a fan of Finney, it seems he didn’t care too much about the groundbreaking stories that the actor appeared in, finding them to be the reason for British cinema’s decline.
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