Gary Oldman

Gary Oldman, born in 1958, British motion-picture and stage actor, known for his intense, charismatic performances in a wide variety of roles. Born in New Cross, south London, Oldman studied acting at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama and at the Greenwich Young People's Theater. He began his acting career on stage, performing in several plays with both the Royal Court Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Oldman made his film debut in Remembrance (1981), before catapulting his career with an electrifying performance as notorious British punk rock star Sid Vicious in the biographical film Sid and Nancy (1986). He gained further critical acclaim as British playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987). After Oldman filmed Track 29 (1988) in the United States, he performed in several Hollywood productions, including Chattahoochee (1990) and State of Grace (1990). Oldman played the role of accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991), by American director Oliver Stone, and starred as the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), by American director Francis Ford Coppola.

Oldman's restless intensity lends itself to menacing character roles. For example, he played a homicidal drug dealer and pimp in True Romance (1993) and a dangerously corrupt policeman in Romeo is Bleeding (1994). Oldman also portrayed German composer Ludwig van Beethoven as an obsessive genius on the edge of madness in Immortal Beloved (1994). His other films include The Scarlet Letter (1995) and Basquiat (1996).