Daniel Day Lewis

About Daniel-Day Lewis

Daniel Day-Lewis was born into a creatively inclined family. His father, Cecil Day-Lewis, is the Poet Laureate of England and a successful author (under the pen name Nicholas Blake) and his mother, Jill Balcon, was an actress. His grandfather, Sir Michael Balcon, was one of the most prominent and widely regarded figures in the British film industry, producing over 200 films throughout his long career. With this family heritage, it's no wonder that Daniel Day-Lewis became an actor and his sister, Tamasin, became a filmmaker.

Early Childhood

Cecil Day-Lewis was 53 when his youngest son was born. To celebrate Daniel's birth, he wrote the poem The Newborn. Daniel's father was a workaholic and his mother, Jill Balcon, spent much of her time focused on Cecil and his career. This left Daniel and Tamasin alone to find ways to entertain themselves and occupy their time. As a result, Daniel and his sister developed a very close relationship and would often spend their days imagining up plays and acting them out.

Daniel Day-Lewis Begins Acting

His family lineage and wealth didn't help Daniel Day-Lewis when it came to the local neighborhood boys. Day-Lewis is of Irish and Jewish descent, which subjected him to teasing and bullying by some of the rougher boys in the neighborhood. Instead of fighting back or telling his parents, Daniel Day-Lewis chose to study the boys and copy their behavior. Not only that, he also studied their accents, eventually adopting it himself so in the end, he acted and sounded like everyone else in the neighborhood. Day-Lewis considers this his first acting role.

Minor Film Debut

Daniel's new persona as being a part of the rough crowd actually paid off. In 1971, director John Schlesinger was looking for a few hoodlums to be extras in the film Sunday Bloody Sunday. Schlesinger asked one of the local vendors if he could find some neighborhood boys that fit the bill. The vendor asked Daniel Day-Lewis and his friends if they were interested - they agreed and appeared in the film.

The following years would find Daniel Day-Lewis acting in many of his high school plays and traveling the country with the National Youth Theater. He soon became disenchanted with the theater lifestyle and decided to leave. Along with acting, Daniel also loved woodworking and upon leaving the National Youth Theater, applied for an apprenticeship with a cabinet maker. Day-Lewis didn't receive the apprenticeship due to his lack of experience, so he turned back to acting.

Major Film Debut

In 1984, Daniel Day-Lewis made his first major film debut in a leading role in The Bounty. The following year, he completed the films The Beautiful Launderette and A Room with a View. At this time, the New York Film Critics took notice of Day-Lewis' talents and named him the "Best Supporting Actor" of 1985. Daniel Day-Lewis went on to play major and minor roles on stage, television and film for the next few years, including the lead role in 1988's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. After doing a film with such heavy existential and philosophical subject matter, Day-Lewis turned to comedy, in Stars and Bars.

The Academy Takes Notice

In 1989, Day-Lewis played the lead role of Christy Brown in My Left Foot. The film is based on the story of a man born with severe Cerebral Palsy. Brown was a quadriplegic who had control over only one part his body, his left foot. Daniel Day-Lewis' portrayal of Brown earned him the Oscar award for "Best Actor in a Leading Role." Every film Daniel Day-Lewis has done since then has received critical acclaim, including:

• The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
• The Age of Innocence (1993)
• In the Name of the Father (1993)
• The Crucible (1994)
• The Boxer (1997)
• Gangs of New York (2002)
• The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005)
• There Will Be Blood (2007) – Day-Lewis won his second Oscar for this film.

Future Film Projects

Daniel Day-Lewis has a history of tiring of the film industry, once leaving to become a cabinet maker and again leaving the industry to become a cobbler. It was director Martin Scorsese who lured him back to do Gangs of New York but after finishing There Will Be Blood, he has no major projects in the works.