Categories: Movies

The Talent Behind Sirius Black: Profile of Actor, Gary Oldman

Gary Oldman, although best known by the mass of Harry Potter fans as Harry’s beloved Godfather, Sirius Black, has had a fascinating career that has spanned decades. With an impressive and successful stage repertoire and more than 40 films to his credit, Oldman is still one of the most underrated and underappreciated actors of this generation. With his turn in the Potter films, especially an outstanding performance in the recently released “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” Oldman is finally getting the world wide claim he deserves. The question is, does he want it?

Leonard Gary Oldman was born in March 21^st, 1958 in New Cross London, England. His father was a Welder and his mother a homemaker. Gary’s father left the family early in his life for a younger woman, leaving his mother and two much older sisters to raise him.

Gary had a somewhat troubled childhood that he escaped from by making up stories and mimicking his favorite characters. Gary hated school and left at the age of 15 with no skills or aspirations to speak of. He took several odd jobs to support himself over the years, including of all things, beheading pigs in a slaughterhouse. However, soon enough Oldman’s love of acting and his talent would bring him out of that life and into his destiny. He received a scholarship to Britain’s Rose Bruford Drama College and was soon on his way.

After studying at Greenwich’s Young People’s Theater, Oldman made his professional debut at York’s Royal Theater in London in the play “Dick Whittington and His Wonderful Cat”. After this, he continued to have a successful theater career for years as a member of the prestigious Royal Court and Royal Shakespeare Company.

Although Gary Oldman’s theater career was a success, he eventually felt the desire to venture in to films and made his debut in the movie Sid and Nancy, a film based on the life of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols. This debut was a success for Oldman, so much that the performance was rated #62 in Premier Magazine’s top 100 greatest performances of all time. It also led to many high profile roles, including; Beethoven, Lee Harvey Oswald, and playwright Joe Orton, which in 1988 garnered Oldman a BAFTA nomination. Gary also was nominated for two BAFTA awards for his critically acclaimed screenplay and directorial debut for the film Nil by Mouth. Some say it was much too heavy and intense, though, and led to Oldman’s future career troubles.

Over the years, Gary Oldman’s personal life has seen many ups and downs. He’s had several high profile relationships including an engagement to Isabella Rossellini and a two year marriage to Uma Thurman. His most volatile relationship, however, was with his third wife, Donya Fiorentino. The couple ended up, upon their divorce, in a heated custody battle for their two children, in which Gary won the battle, accusing Donya of alcoholism and drug addiction.

Gary, in addition to the problems in his relationships, also had a spending habit, such as a love of expensive art, that would eventually put him in debt over 2 million dollars, including a tax debt of over 200,000 dollars in 2004. Gary, as much as he despised high profile, blockbuster movie roles, continuously worked in them for the paychecks. Movies like The Fifth Element and Air Force One gained Gary even more recognition and the money he needed, but they did not make him happy, and he eventually became burned out on the commercialism and took a year off acting all together. When he began acting again, although he still knew he’d need to take on the high profile roles, would only act in ones he believed in.

It’s lucky for Harry Potter fans that Gary Oldman believed in the role of Sirius Black, because it would be impossible to imagine anyone else doing such a brilliant portrayal of the misunderstood “Prisoner of Azkaban”.

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/biographies/gary_oldman_biog.html

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