His incredible transformations and acting prowess have made him one of the most important actors alive. A man who never fit into molds – the “vagrant” years of his youth never left him – and leaving behind the great British school, to draw acting inspiration from American cinema, he wrote his own chapter on the big screen.

THE Gary Oldman, who turns 65 (March 21, 1958) recently announced that his film career is coming to an end, following the other great of his generation, Daniel Day-Lewis, who retired from film and theater a few years ago and while he was at the top. As he said, “careers are winding down and I have other things that interest me in my life outside of acting” and added that he would be more than happy to retire as Jackson Lamb, the special lead character he plays in the TV spy series “Slow Horses”. Of course, he still has some time to reconsider his departure, as the series will continue next year, while he is also participating in Christopher Nolan’s latest film. An autobiographical film about the “father” of the atomic bomb Robert Oppenheimer, which is expected to premiere next July.

Gary Oldman, that “misfit” of film acting with his folk origins, unruly youth, craze for music, alcohol problems and five marriages, most of which ended episodically, managed to impose himself with his interpretations, either as an ideal “villain”, spy and hideous monster, or as a lover, trickster and politician. An actor, a real chameleon, who untied the directors’ hands in difficult situations, was a guarantee, despite his many frivolous or misguided choices.

Best and Shakespeare

Son of Leonard, an ex-seaman and labourer, who was an alcoholic and abandoned little Gary, his mother Kathleen and his older sister Maureen (also an actress) in 1965, he left school at 16 to work in a sporting goods store. Along with this, he left his piano studies, which he had been playing since childhood, to pursue an acting career when he saw Malcolm McDowell’s performance in the movie Tomorrow Will Be Too Late. Growing up in south London he would become a fan of the local football club Millwall, for which his father had played, but he also supported Manchester United, because he adored George Best, famous for his indomitable character, his passion for women and drink . He studied in the mid-70s at the Young People’s Theatre, Greenwich, while working as a porter in a surgery and at the same time butchering pigs at weekends at an abattoir. With many, many closed doors, she received a scholarship to attend Rose Bruford College, from which she graduated with a degree in acting and became familiar with Shakespearean work.

In 1979 he will go up for the first time as a star on the board of York’s Theater Royal. The follow-up will be satisfying for Oldman, who was particularly loved by Glasgow audiences in the early 80s, prompting him to embark on a successful tour of Europe and South America. Somewhere there he made his first appearances in the cinema and on television. In 1984 he won the award for Best Actor in a Drama, which he shared with his future co-star, Anthony Hopkins.

Punk and Hollywood

1986 would be a landmark year for Oldman, as he would star in Alex Cox’s cult film Sid and Nancy, an apotheosis of the punk spirit, although he had turned down the role of Sid twice, as he said, “I wasn’t interested in character and the punk movement. I had never followed him.” He considered the script commonplace, low-level, in front of the plays he performed. The persistence of his agent and the pay finally got him to take the role that would make him famous in Hollywood.

Charming Dracula

The 90s will enter triumphantly for Oldman, as he will star in the powerful “Stretch Your Ears” by Stephen Friars, while two years later his name will take off playing “Dracula” in the film of the same name by Francis Ford Coppola. A role that made all the Draculas of the past forget. Oldman, guided by Coppola in a new approach to the famous role, will evoke an unparalleled terror and at the same time sympathy of the audience, as a cursed yet haunted charming creature.

The episodic divorce

He will come down from the Carpathians triumphant and will now be able to choose any role he wants. This, however, was not so helpful for Oldman’s career, as he would make several wrong choices for uninteresting roles. However, the money was enough and valuable, to pay the alimony of his divorces. Especially about his third marriage, after his separation from Uma Thurman, after two years of married life, with the model Donna Fiorentino, with whom he had two sons, many stories have been heard, after she accused him of domestic violence and drug use substances. Oldman would eventually be cleared of the charges and vindicated for the reports that portrayed him as a monster.

The interpretations of his life

Thus, his path followed a Scottish shower, as on the one hand he gave important performances in films such as “The Dark Knight” and “JFK: History Etched in Our Memory” and on the other he followed the manner of the graphic villain in films such as “Air Force One” and “Unborn”. However, there were also three performances that justified the designation of the leading actor. The first was Thomas Alfredsson’s exquisite and pessimistic spy thriller The Lottery Fell on Smiley, an atmospheric low-key and dark film. Playing a high-ranking M16 agent, Oldman will deliver a magnificent performance that will bring him close to the Oscars for the first time. An Oscar for Best Actor, which will not escape him as transformed into Winston Churchill, in the historical film “The Darkest Hour” by Joe Wright. As his co-nominee Daniel Day-Lewis said “this year I’m going to sit down and give Gary a standing ovation”, which was echoed by everyone present at the Oscars in 2017. Finally, there will be another great performance in his controversial “Munk” David Fincher in 2020, when he will shockingly play the alcoholic Herman Mankiewicz and earn him yet another Best Actor Oscar nomination.

Having spent a stormy life, not only through seas of alcohol, which he quit in 1997, Gary Oldman is close to the end of a path, to break away from the movie sets and the toxic universe of Hollywood. He is probably ready, like Daniel Day-Lewis, to find his sheltered port, to catch his music again, to make his children and grandchildren happy, the life he has left…