Daniel Day-Lewis is an Irish actor widely regarded as one of the greatest living performers in the history of cinema. He gained international recognition for his roles in films such as My Beautiful Laundrette, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in My Left Foot. He was also nominated for the same award for his role in In the Name of the Father.

Daniel Day-Lewis was born on April 29, 1957, in London, England. His full name is Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis. He was born into an artistic family. His father, Cecil Day-Lewis, was a renowned poet appointed by the British government to write poems for state ceremonies. His mother, Jill Balcon, was an actress. His grandfather, Sir Michael Balcon, was one of the most influential figures in British cinema and headed the legendary Ealing Studios. His older sister, Tamasin Day-Lewis, became a documentary filmmaker.

When Daniel Day-Lewis was two years old, his family moved from London to Croom’s Hill in Greenwich. His childhood was spent there. He lost his father at the age of fifteen. His father, who was 53 when Daniel was born, had struggled with health problems and was unable to form a close relationship with his son—something Day-Lewis later said he deeply regretted.

During his Greenwich years, Daniel Day-Lewis was known as a rebellious and unruly child. He later admitted that he often stole from shops and had little respect for rules or authority. In 1968, his parents sent him to Sevenoaks Boarding School in Kent, hoping to discipline him. He disliked the school intensely but discovered two lifelong passions during this period: woodworking and acting.

While performing in the play Cry, the Beloved Country, he appeared on stage with his face painted black. However, his first appearance on the big screen came not from that play but from Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), directed by John Schlesinger. At just 14 years old, Daniel Day-Lewis experienced his first professional film role and later described acting as “feeling like being in heaven.”

Two years later, he enrolled at the Bedales School in Petersfield, where he had always wanted to study. After graduating in 1975, his previously unruly personality matured, and he joined the National Youth Theatre as a professional actor. Although he was highly successful on stage, he found backstage life unsettling and briefly decided to become a carpenter. When his application for a five-year apprenticeship was rejected, he enrolled at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where he trained for three years and regularly performed in the school’s theatre. During this time, he served as an understudy to Pete Postlethwaite, with whom he would later co-star in In the Name of the Father.

After an eleven-year break from cinema, Daniel Day-Lewis returned to the screen with Gandhi (1982). His first major breakthrough came with The Bounty. His performances in My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room with a View (1985) drew critical acclaim, with New York film critics stating that he deserved the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1987, director Philip Kaufman cast him alongside Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, adapted from the novel by Milan Kundera.

In 1989, Daniel Day-Lewis starred in My Left Foot, directed by Jim Sheridan, portraying a writer who could control only his left foot. This physically and emotionally demanding role earned him his first Academy Award for Best Actor and established him as a major force in Hollywood.

In 1993, he moved to Ireland, a country he deeply admired, and later became an Irish citizen. His performances in The Last of the Mohicans, The Age of Innocence, and In the Name of the Father solidified his reputation as one of the finest actors in the world. He was often referred to as “the British Robert De Niro,” a comparison he humbly rejected, stating that De Niro was his own champion.

Notoriously private, Daniel Day-Lewis was in a long and turbulent relationship with French actress Isabelle Adjani between 1989 and 1995. They had a son, Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis (born 1995). He later described this relationship as “the most volatile relationship in the world.”

In 1996, while working on The Crucible, he met Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur Miller. They married the same year and had two sons: Ronan Day-Lewis (born 1998) and Cashel Day-Lewis (born 2002).

After completing The Boxer in 1997, Daniel Day-Lewis moved to Florence, Italy, to pursue his passion for woodworking and shoemaking, declaring that he had little interest in acting at the time.

In 2002, Martin Scorsese persuaded him to return to cinema on the condition that filming take place in Italy. His portrayal of Bill “The Butcher” Cutting in Gangs of New York was widely hailed as one of the greatest performances of all time, and the film received ten Academy Award nominations.

Daniel Day-Lewis starred in There Will Be Blood (2007), delivering another iconic performance as Daniel Plainview. He won his second Academy Award for Best Actor in 2008 for this role.

In 2013, he won his third Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln, directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, becoming the first male actor in history to win three Oscars in the Best Actor category.

Selected Filmography:
1971 – Sunday Bloody Sunday
1982 – How Many Miles to Babylon?
1982 – Frost in May
1982 – Gandhi
1984 – The Bounty
1985 – My Brother Jonathan
1985 – My Beautiful Laundrette
1985 – A Room with a View
1988 – The Unbearable Lightness of Being
1989 – My Left Foot
1992 – The Last of the Mohicans
1993 – The Age of Innocence
1993 – In the Name of the Father
1996 – The Crucible
1997 – The Boxer
2002 – Gangs of New York
2007 – There Will Be Blood
2009 – Nine
2013 – Lincoln

Source: Biyografiler.com