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Adhesive

Adhesive, also known as glue, cement, mucilage, or paste, is any non-metallic substance applied to one or both surfaces of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation.

The use of adhesives offers certain advantages over other binding techniques such as sewing, mechanical fastenings, and welding. These include the ability to bind different materials together, the more efficient distribution of stress across a joint, the cost-effectiveness of an easily mechanized process, and greater flexibility in design. Disadvantages of adhesive use include decreased stability at high temperatures, relative weakness in bonding large objects with a small bonding surface area, and greater difficulty in separating objects during testing. Adhesives are typically organized by the method of adhesion followed by reactive or non-reactive, a term which refers to whether the adhesive chemically reacts in order to harden. Alternatively, they can be organized either by their starting physical phase or whether their raw stock is of natural or synthetic origin.

Adhesives may be found naturally or produced synthetically. The earliest human use of adhesive-like substances was approximately 200,000 years ago, when Neanderthals produced tar from the dry distillation of birch bark for use in binding stone tools to wooden handles. The first references to adhesives in literature appeared approximately 2000 BC. The Greeks and Romans made great contributions to the development of adhesives. In Europe, glue was not widely used until the period AD 1500–1700. From then until the 1900s increases in adhesive use and discovery were relatively gradual. Only since the 20th century has the development of synthetic adhesives accelerated rapidly, and innovation in the field continues to the present.

History

The earliest evidence of human adhesive use was discovered in central Italy when three stone implements were discovered with birch bark tar indications. The tools were dated to about 200,000 before present in the Middle Paleolithic. It is the earliest example of tar-hafted stone tools.

An experimental archeology study published in 2019 demonstrated how birch bark tar can be produced in an easier, more discoverable process. It involves directly burning birch bark under an overhanging rock surface in an open-air environment and collecting the tar that builds up on the rock.

Although sticky enough, plant-based, single-component adhesives can be brittle and vulnerable to environmental conditions. The first use of compound adhesives was discovered in Sibudu, South Africa. Here, 70,000-year-old stone segments that were once inserted in axe hafts were discovered covered with an adhesive composed of plant gum and red ochre (natural iron oxide) as adding ochre to plant gum produces a stronger product and protects the gum from disintegrating under wet conditions. The ability to produce stronger adhesives allowed middle Stone Age humans to attach stone segments to sticks in greater variations, which led to the development of new tools. A study of material from Le Moustier indicates that Middle Paleolithic people, possibly Neanderthals, used glue made from a mixture of ocher and bitumen to make hand grips for cutting and scraping stone tools.

More recent examples of adhesive use by prehistoric humans have been found at the burial sites of ancient tribes. Archaeologists studying the sites found that approximately 6,000 years ago the tribesmen had buried their dead together with food found in broken clay pots repaired with tree resins. Another investigation by archaeologists uncovered the use of bituminous cements to fasten ivory eyeballs to statues in Babylonian temples dating to approximately 4000 BC.

In 2000, a paper revealed the discovery of a 5,200-year-old man nicknamed the "Tyrolean Iceman" or "Ötzi", who was preserved in a glacier near the Austria-Italy border. Several of his belongings were found with him including two arrows with flint arrowheads and a copper hatchet, each with evidence of organic glue used to connect the stone or metal parts to the wooden shafts. The glue was analyzed as pitch, which requires the heating of tar during its production. The retrieval of this tar requires a transformation of birch bark by means of heat, in a process known as pyrolysis.

The first references to adhesives in literature appeared in approximately 2000 BC. Further historical records of adhesive use are found from the period spanning 1500–1000 BC. Artifacts from this period include paintings depicting wood gluing operations and a casket made of wood and glue in King Tutankhamun's tomb. Other ancient Egyptian artifacts employ animal glue for bonding or lamination. Such lamination of wood for bows and furniture is thought to have extended their life and was accomplished using casein (milk protein)-based glues. The ancient Egyptians also developed starch-based pastes for the bonding of papyrus to clothing and a plaster of Paris-like material made of calcined gypsum.

From AD 1 to 500 the Greeks and Romans made great contributions to the development of adhesives. Wood veneering and marquetry were developed, the production of animal and fish glues refined, and other materials utilized. Egg-based pastes were used to bond gold leaves, and incorporated various natural ingredients such as blood, bone, hide, milk, cheese, vegetables, and grains. The Greeks began the use of slaked lime as mortar while the Romans furthered mortar development by mixing lime with volcanic ash and sand. This material, known as pozzolanic cement, was used in the construction of the Roman Colosseum and Pantheon. The Romans were also the first people known to have used tar and beeswax as caulk and sealant between the wooden planks of their boats and ships.

In Central Asia, the rise of the Mongols in approximately AD 1000 can be partially attributed to the good range and power of the bows of Genghis Khan's hordes. These bows were made of a bamboo core, with horn on the belly (facing towards the archer) and sinew on the back, bound together with animal glue.

In Europe, glue fell into disuse until the period AD 1500–1700. At this time, world-renowned cabinet and furniture makers such as Thomas Chippendale and Duncan Phyfe began to use adhesives to hold their products together. In 1690, the first commercial glue plant was established in The Netherlands. This plant produced glues from animal hides. In 1750, the first British glue patent was issued for fish glue. The following decades of the next century witnessed the manufacture of casein glues in German and Swiss factories. In 1876, the first U.S. patent (number 183,024) was issued to the Ross brothers for the production of casein glue.

The first U.S. postage stamps used starch-based adhesives when issued in 1847. The first US patent (number 61,991) on dextrin (a starch derivative) adhesive was issued in 1867.

Natural rubber was first used as material for adhesives in 1830, which marked the starting point of the modern adhesive. In 1862, a British patent (number 3288) was issued for the plating of metal with brass by electrodeposition to obtain a stronger bond to rubber. The development of the automobile and the need for rubber shock mounts required stronger and more durable bonds of rubber and metal. This spurred the development of cyclized rubber treated in strong acids. By 1927, this process was used to produce solvent-based thermoplastic rubber cements for metal to rubber bonding.

Natural rubber-based sticky adhesives were first used on a backing by Henry Day (US Patent 3,965) in 1845. Later these kinds of adhesives were used in cloth backed surgical and electric tapes. By 1925, the pressure-sensitive tape industry was born. Today, sticky notes, Scotch Tape, and other tapes are examples of pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA).

A key step in the development of synthetic plastics was the introduction of a thermoset plastic known as Bakelite phenolic in 1910. Within two years, phenolic resin was applied to plywood as a coating varnish. In the early 1930s, phenolics gained importance as adhesive resins.

The 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s witnessed great advances in the development and production of new plastics and resins due to the First and Second World Wars. These advances greatly improved the development of adhesives by allowing the use of newly developed materials that exhibited a variety of properties. With changing needs and ever evolving technology, the development of new synthetic adhesives continues to the present. However, due to their low cost, natural adhesives are still more commonly used.

Types
Adhesives are typically organized by the method of adhesion. These are then organized into reactive and non-reactive adhesives, which refers to whether the adhesive chemically reacts in order to harden. Alternatively they can be organized by whether the raw stock is of natural, or synthetic origin, or by their starting physical phase.

Drying
There are two types of adhesives that harden by drying: solvent-based adhesives and polymer dispersion adhesives, also known as emulsion adhesives. Solvent-based adhesives are a mixture of ingredients (typically polymers) dissolved in a solvent. White glue, contact adhesives and rubber cements are members of the drying adhesive family. As the solvent evaporates, the adhesive hardens. Depending on the chemical composition of the adhesive, they will adhere to different materials to greater or lesser degrees.

Polymer dispersion adhesives are milky-white dispersion often based on polyvinyl acetate (PVAc). They are used extensively in the woodworking and packaging industries. They are also used with fabrics and fabric-based components, and in engineered products such as loudspeaker cones.

Pressure-sensitive
Pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA) form a bond by the application of light pressure to bind the adhesive with the adherend. They are designed to have a balance between flow and resistance to flow. The bond forms because the adhesive is soft enough to flow (i.e., "wet") to the adherend. The bond has strength because the adhesive is hard enough to resist flow when stress is applied to the bond. Once the adhesive and the adherend are in close proximity, molecular interactions, such as van der Waals forces, become involved in the bond, contributing significantly to its ultimate strength.

PSAs are designed for either permanent or removable applications. Examples of permanent applications include safety labels for power equipment, foil tape for HVAC duct work, automotive interior trim assembly, and sound/vibration damping films. Some high performance permanent PSAs exhibit high adhesion values and can support kilograms of weight per square centimeter of contact area, even at elevated temperatures. Permanent PSAs may initially be removable (for example to recover mislabeled goods) and build adhesion to a permanent bond after several hours or days.

Removable adhesives are designed to form a temporary bond, and ideally can be removed after months or years without leaving residue on the adherend. Removable adhesives are used in applications such as surface protection films, masking tapes, bookmark and note papers, barcode labels, price marking labels, promotional graphics materials, and for skin contact (wound care dressings, EKG electrodes, athletic tape, analgesic and trans-dermal drug patches, etc.). Some removable adhesives are designed to repeatedly stick and unstick. They have low adhesion, and generally cannot support much weight. Pressure-sensitive adhesive is used in Post-it notes.

Pressure-sensitive adhesives are manufactured with either a liquid carrier or in 100% solid form. Articles are made from liquid PSAs by coating the adhesive and drying off the solvent or water carrier. They may be further heated to initiate a cross-linking reaction and increase molecular weight. 100% solid PSAs may be low viscosity polymers that are coated and then reacted with radiation to increase molecular weight and form the adhesive, or they may be high viscosity materials that are heated to reduce viscosity enough to allow coating, and then cooled to their final form. Major raw material for PSA's are acrylate-based polymers.

Contact
Contact adhesives form high shear-resistance bonds with a rapid cure time. They are often applied in thin layers for use with laminates, such as bonding Formica to countertops, and in footwear, as in attaching outsoles to uppers. Natural rubber and polychloroprene (Neoprene) are commonly used contact adhesives. Both of these elastomers undergo strain crystallization.

Contact adhesives must be applied to both surfaces and allowed some time to dry before the two surfaces are pushed together. Some contact adhesives require as long as 24 hours to dry completely before the surfaces are to be held together. Once the surfaces are pushed together, the bond forms very quickly. Clamps are typically not needed due to the rapid bond formation.

Hot

Hot adhesives, also known as hot melt adhesives, are thermoplastics applied in molten form (in the 65–180 °C range) which solidify on cooling to form strong bonds between a wide range of materials. Ethylene-vinyl acetate-based hot-melts are particularly popular for crafts because of their ease of use and the wide range of common materials they can join. A glue gun (shown at right) is one method of applying hot adhesives. The glue gun melts the solid adhesive, then allows the liquid to pass through its barrel onto the material, where it solidifies.

Thermoplastic glue may have been invented around 1940 by Procter & Gamble as a solution to the problem that water-based adhesives, commonly used in packaging at that time, failed in humid climates, causing packages to open. However, water-based adhesives are still of strong interest as they typically do not contain volatile solvents.

Anaerobic
Anaerobic adhesives cure when in contact with metal, in the absence of oxygen. They work well in a close-fitting space, as when used as a Thread-locking fluid.

Multi-part
Multi-component adhesives harden by mixing two or more components which chemically react. This reaction causes polymers to cross-link into acrylates, urethanes, and epoxies.

There are several commercial combinations of multi-component adhesives in use in industry. Some of these combinations are:
 * Polyester resin & polyurethane resin
 * Polyols & polyurethane resin
 * Acrylic polymers & polyurethane resins

The individual components of a multi-component adhesive are not adhesive by nature. The individual components react with each other after being mixed and show full adhesion only on curing. The multi-component resins can be either solvent-based or solvent-less. The solvents present in the adhesives are a medium for the polyester or the polyurethane resin. The solvent is dried during the curing process.

Pre-mixed and frozen adhesives
Pre-mixed and frozen adhesives (PMFs) are adhesives that are mixed, deaerated, packaged, and frozen. As it is necessary for PMFs to remain frozen before use, once they are frozen at −80 °C they are shipped with dry ice and are required to be stored at or below −40 °C. PMF adhesives eliminate mixing mistakes by the end user and reduce exposure of curing agents that can contain irritants or toxins. PMFs were introduced commercially in the 1960s and are commonly used in aerospace and defense.

One-part
One-part adhesives harden via a chemical reaction with an external energy source, such as radiation, heat, and moisture.

Ultraviolet (UV) light curing adhesives, also known as light curing materials (LCM), have become popular within the manufacturing sector due to their rapid curing time and strong bond strength. Light curing adhesives can cure in as little as one second and many formulations can bond dissimilar substrates (materials) and withstand harsh temperatures. These qualities make UV curing adhesives essential to the manufacturing of items in many industrial markets such as electronics, telecommunications, medical, aerospace, glass, and optical. Unlike traditional adhesives, UV light curing adhesives not only bond materials together but they can also be used to seal and coat products. They are generally acrylic-based.

Heat curing adhesives consist of a pre-made mixture of two or more components. When heat is applied the components react and cross-link. This type of adhesive includes thermoset epoxies, urethanes, and polyimides.

Moisture curing adhesives cure when they react with moisture present on the substrate surface or in the air. This type of adhesive includes cyanoacrylates and urethanes.

Natural
Natural adhesives are made from organic sources such as vegetable starch (dextrin), natural resins, or animals (e.g. the milk protein casein and hide-based animal glues). These are often referred to as bioadhesives.

One example is a simple paste made by cooking flour in water. Starch-based adhesives are used in corrugated board and paper sack production, paper tube winding, and wallpaper adhesives. Casein glue is mainly used to adhere glass bottle labels. Animal glues have traditionally been used in bookbinding, wood joining, and many other areas but now are largely replaced by synthetic glues except in specialist applications like the production and repair of stringed instruments. Albumen made from the protein component of blood has been used in the plywood industry. Masonite, a wood hardboard, was originally bonded using natural wood lignin, an organic polymer, though most modern particle boards such as MDF use synthetic thermosetting resins.

Synthetic
Synthetic adhesives are made out of organic compounds. Many are based on elastomers, thermoplastics, emulsions, and thermosets. Examples of thermosetting adhesives are: epoxy, polyurethane, cyanoacrylate and acrylic polymers. The first commercially produced synthetic adhesive was Karlsons Klister in the 1920s.

Application
Applicators of different adhesives are designed according to the adhesive being used and the size of the area to which the adhesive will be applied. The adhesive is applied to either one or both of the materials being bonded. The pieces are aligned and pressure is added to aid in adhesion and rid the bond of air bubbles.

Common ways of applying an adhesive include brushes, rollers, using films or pellets, spray guns and applicator guns (e.g., caulk gun). All of these can be used manually or automated as part of a machine.

Mechanisms of adhesion
For an adhesive to be effective it must have three main properties. Firstly, it must be able to wet the base material. Wetting is the ability of a liquid to maintain contact with a solid surface. It must also increase in strength after application, and finally it must be able to transmit load between the two surfaces/substrates being adhered.

Adhesion, the attachment between adhesive and substrate may occur either by mechanical means, in which the adhesive works its way into small pores of the substrate, or by one of several chemical mechanisms. The strength of adhesion depends on many factors, including the means by which it occurs.

In some cases, an actual chemical bond occurs between adhesive and substrate. Thiolated polymers, for example, form chemical bonds with endogenous proteins such as mucus glycoproteins, integrins or keratins via disulfide bridges. Because of their comparatively high adhesive properties, these polymers find numerous biomedical applications. In others, electrostatic forces, as in static electricity, hold the substances together. A third mechanism involves the van der Waals forces that develop between molecules. A fourth means involves the moisture-aided diffusion of the glue into the substrate, followed by hardening.

Methods to improve adhesion
The quality of adhesive bonding depends strongly on the ability of the adhesive to efficiently cover (wet) the substrate area. This happens when the surface energy of the substrate is greater than the surface energy of the adhesive. However, high-strength adhesives have high surface energy. Thus, they bond poorly to low-surface-energy polymers or other materials. To solve this problem, surface treatment can be used to increase the surface energy as a preparation step before adhesive bonding. Importantly, surface preparation provides a reproducible surface allowing consistent bonding results. The commonly used surface activation techniques include plasma activation, flame treatment and wet chemistry priming.

Failure

There are several factors that could contribute to the failure of two adhered surfaces. Sunlight and heat may weaken the adhesive. Solvents can deteriorate or dissolve adhesive. Physical stresses may also cause the separation of surfaces. When subjected to loading, debonding may occur at different locations in the adhesive joint. The major fracture types are the following:

Cohesive fracture
Cohesive fracture is obtained if a crack propagates in the bulk polymer which constitutes the adhesive. In this case the surfaces of both adherends after debonding will be covered by fractured adhesive. The crack may propagate in the center of the layer or near an interface. For this last case, the cohesive fracture can be said to be "cohesive near the interface".

Adhesive fracture
Adhesive fracture (sometimes referred to as interfacial fracture) is when debonding occurs between the adhesive and the adherend. In most cases, the occurrence of adhesive fracture for a given adhesive goes along with smaller fracture toughness.

Other types of fracture
Other types of fracture include:
 * The mixed type, which occurs if the crack propagates at some spots in a cohesive and in others in an interfacial manner. Mixed fracture surfaces can be characterised by a certain percentage of adhesive and cohesive areas.
 * The alternating crack path type which occurs if the cracks jump from one interface to the other. This type of fracture appears in the presence of tensile pre-stresses in the adhesive layer.
 * Fracture can also occur in the adherend if the adhesive is tougher than the adherend. In this case, the adhesive remains intact and is still bonded to one substrate and remnants of the other. For example, when one removes a price label, the adhesive usually remains on the label and the surface. This is cohesive failure. If, however, a layer of paper remains stuck to the surface, the adhesive has not failed. Another example is when someone tries to pull apart Oreo cookies and all the filling remains on one side; this is an adhesive failure, rather than a cohesive failure.

Design of adhesive joints

As a general design rule, the material properties of the object need to be greater than the forces anticipated during its use. (i.e. geometry, loads, etc.). The engineering work will consist of having a good model to evaluate the function. For most adhesive joints, this can be achieved using fracture mechanics. Concepts such as the stress concentration factor and the strain energy release rate can be used to predict failure. In such models, the behavior of the adhesive layer itself is neglected and only the adherents are considered.

Failure will also very much depend on the opening mode of the joint.
 * Mode I is an opening or tensile mode where the loadings are normal to the crack.
 * Mode II is a sliding or in-plane shear mode where the crack surfaces slide over one another in direction perpendicular to the leading edge of the crack. This is typically the mode for which the adhesive exhibits the highest resistance to fracture.
 * Mode III is a tearing or antiplane shear mode.

As the loads are usually fixed, an acceptable design will result from combination of a material selection procedure and geometry modifications, if possible. In adhesively bonded structures, the global geometry and loads are fixed by structural considerations and the design procedure focuses on the material properties of the adhesive and on local changes on the geometry.

Increasing the joint resistance is usually obtained by designing its geometry so that:
 * The bonded zone is large
 * It is mainly loaded in mode II
 * Stable crack propagation will follow the appearance of a local failure.

Shelf life
Some glues and adhesives have a limited shelf life. Shelf life is dependent on multiple factors, the foremost of which being temperature. Adhesives may lose their effectiveness at high temperatures, as well as become increasingly stiff. Other factors affecting shelf life include exposure to oxygen or water vapor.

title: Adhesive


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Anthony Hopkins

Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Laurence Olivier Award. He has also received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2005 and the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2008. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama in 1993.

After graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 1957, Hopkins trained at RADA (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) in London. He was then spotted by Laurence Olivier, who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre in 1965. Productions at the National included King Lear (his favourite Shakespeare play), Coriolanus, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. In 1985, he received acclaim and a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in the David Hare play Pravda. His last stage play was a West End production of M. Butterfly in 1989.

Hopkins early film roles include The Lion in Winter (1968), A Bridge Too Far (1977), and The Elephant Man (1980). He won two Academy Awards for Best Actor for playing Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and an octogenarian with dementia in The Father (2020), becoming the oldest Best Actor Oscar winner for the latter. His other Oscar-nominated films include The Remains of the Day (1993), Nixon (1995), Amistad (1997), and The Two Popes (2019). Other notable films include 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), Howards End (1992), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Shadowlands (1993), Legends of the Fall (1994), The Mask of Zorro (1998), and the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Thor franchise (2011–2017).

For his work on television, Hopkins received a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his performance in War and Peace (1972). He won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976) and The Bunker (1981). Other notable projects include the BBC film The Dresser (2015), PBS's King Lear (2018), and the HBO series Westworld (2016–2018).

Early life and education
Philip Anthony Hopkins was born in the Margam district of Port Talbot, Wales, on 31 December 1937, the son of Annie Muriel (née Yeates) and baker Richard Arthur Hopkins. One of his grandfathers was from Wiltshire, England. He stated his father's working-class values have always underscored his life, "Whenever I get a feeling that I may be special or different, I think of my father and I remember his hands – his hardened, broken hands." His school days were unproductive; he would rather immerse himself in art, such as painting and drawing, or playing the piano than attend to his studies. In 1949, to instil discipline, his parents insisted he attend Jones' West Monmouth Boys' School in Pontypool. He remained there for five terms and was then educated at Cowbridge Grammar School in the Vale of Glamorgan. In an interview in 2002, he stated, "I was a poor learner, which left me open to ridicule and gave me an inferiority complex. I grew up absolutely convinced I was stupid."

Hopkins was inspired by fellow Welsh actor Richard Burton, whom he met at the age of 15. He later called Burton "very gracious, very nice" but elaborated, "I don't know where everyone gets the idea we were good friends. I suppose it's because we are both Welsh and grew up near the same town. For the record, I didn't really know him at all." He enrolled at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, from which he graduated in 1957. He next met Burton in 1975 as Burton prepared to take over Hopkins's role as the psychiatrist in Peter Shaffer's Equus, with Hopkins stating, "He was a phenomenal actor. So was Peter O'Toole – they were wonderful, larger-than-life characters." He spent two years doing his national service between 1958 and 1960, which he served in the British Army's Royal Artillery regiment where he was known as "Gunner Hopkins", before moving to London to study at RADA (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) from where he graduated in 1963.

1960–1979: National Theatre and film debut
Hopkins made his first professional stage appearance in the Palace Theatre, Swansea, in 1960 with Swansea Little Theatre's production of Have a Cigarette. In 1965, after several years in repertory, he was spotted by Laurence Olivier, who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre in London. Hopkins became Olivier's understudy, and filled in when Olivier was struck with appendicitis during a 1967 production of August Strindberg's The Dance of Death. Olivier later noted in his memoir, Confessions of an Actor, that, "A new young actor in the company of exceptional promise named Anthony Hopkins was understudying me and walked away with the part of Edgar like a cat with a mouse between its teeth." Up until that night, Hopkins was always nervous prior to going on stage. This has since changed, and Hopkins quoted his mentor as saying: "He [Olivier] said: 'Remember: "nerves" is vanity – you're wondering what people think of you; to hell with them, just jump off the edge'. It was great advice."

He made his small-screen debut in a 1967 BBC broadcast of A Flea in Her Ear. His first starring role in a film came in 1964 in Changes, a short directed by Drewe Henley, written and produced by James Scott and co-starring Jacqueline Pearce. In 1968, Hopkins got his break in The Lion in Winter playing Richard the Lionheart, a performance which saw him nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He portrayed Charles Dickens in the BBC television film The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens in 1970, and Pierre Bezukhov in the BBC's mini series War and Peace (1972), receiving the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his performance in the latter. Making a name for himself as a screen actor, he appeared in Frank Pierson's neo-noir action thriller The Looking Glass War (1970), and Étienne Périer's When Eight Bells Toll (1971). The first of five collaborations with director Richard Attenborough, in 1972 Hopkins starred as British politician David Lloyd George in Young Winston, and in 1977 he played British Army officer John Frost in Attenborough's World War II-set film A Bridge Too Far.

In 1973 he again portrayed David Lloyd George in the BBC miniseries The Edwardians which aired in the US in 1974 on Masterpiece Theatre. Hopkins starred in a film adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play A Doll's House (1973) alongside Claire Bloom, Ralph Richardson, Denholm Elliott, and Edith Evans. He then appeared in the comedy The Girl from Petrovka (1974) with Goldie Hawn and Hal Holbrook and also starred in the Richard Lester suspense film Juggernaut opposite Richard Harris and Omar Sharif. In October 1974, Hopkins played the psychologist Dysart in the original Broadway production of Sir Peter Shaffer's play Equus, starring opposite Peter Firth. For this performance, he received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play for the 1974–75 season. In 1978 he starred in the sequel to National Velvet (1944), entitled International Velvet with Tatum O'Neal, Christopher Plummer, which was directed by Bryan Forbes. In 1978 he also starred in Attenborough's psychological horror film Magic about a demonic ventriloquist's puppet with Gene Siskel adding it as one of the best films of the year. In 1979, Hopkins appeared as Prospero in a production of The Tempest held at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

1980–1989: Rise to prominence
In 1980, he starred in David Lynch's The Elephant Man as the English doctor Sir Frederick Treves, who attends to Joseph Merrick (portrayed by John Hurt), a severely deformed man in 19th century London. The film received critical praise and attention from critics and received eight Academy Award nominations including for Best Picture. That year he also starred opposite Shirley MacLaine in A Change of Seasons and famously didn't get along with MacLaine, adding "she was the most obnoxious actress I have ever worked with." The film was an immense box office and critical failure. In 1981, he starred in the CBS television film The Bunker portraying Adolf Hitler during weeks in and around his underground bunker in Berlin before and during the Battle of Berlin. John O'Connor praised Hopkins in his New York Times review: "The portrait becomes all the more riveting through an extraordinarily powerful performance from Anthony Hopkins. His Hitler is mad, often contemptible, but always understandable. Part of the problem, perhaps, is that the monster becomes a little too understandable. He is not made sympathetic, exactly, but he is given decidedly pathetic dimensions, making him just that much more acceptable as a dramatic and historical character." For his performance he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. That same year he starred as Paul the Apostle opposite Robert Foxworth as Saint Peter in the biblical drama and miniseries Peter and Paul (1981).

In 1983, Hopkins also became a company member of The Mirror Theater Ltd's Repertory Company. In 1984, he portrayed Deeley in Harold Pinter's play Old Times at the Roundabout Theatre in New York. In 1984, he starred opposite Mel Gibson in The Bounty as William Bligh, captain of the Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty, in a more accurate retelling of the mutiny on the Bounty. The following year he starred as Quasimodo in the CBS television film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982). The film also starred Derek Jacobi, David Suchet, Tim Pigott-Smith, Nigel Hawthorne, and John Gielgud. He also starred in Strangers and Brothers (1984), Arch of Triumph (1984), Guilty Conscience (1985), Mussolini and I (1985), and The Tenth Man (1988). In 1985, Hopkins starred opposite Colin Firth in the Arthur Schnitzler play The Lonely Road at The Old Vic in London. That same year, he featured as Lambert Le Roux in the National Theatre production of Pravda in Sir David Hare and Howard Brenton's satirical play on the British newspaper industry in the Thatcher era. Receiving acclaim for his performance, Hopkins won the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement. Frank Rich in his New York Times review wrote, "Mr. Hopkins creates a memorable image of a perversely brilliant modern-day barbarian."

In 1986, he starred in David Hare's production of King Lear, Hopkins's favourite Shakespeare play, at the National Theatre. The next year, he starred as Antony in the National Theatre production of Antony and Cleopatra opposite Judi Dench, and in 1989, Hopkins made his last appearance on stage in a West End production of M. Butterfly. "It was a torment", he claimed in a later interview. Of a matinee where nobody laughed, there was, he said "not a titter". When the lights came up, the cast realised the entire audience was Japanese. "Oh God," he recalled, "You'd go to your dressing room and someone would pop their head round the door and say, 'Coffee? Tea?' And I'd think, 'An open razor, please.'" In 1989 he starred as Abel Magwitch in the miniseries Great Expectations which was broadcast on ITV in the UK and The Disney Channel in the US. The adaptation of the Dickens' novel also starred Jean Simmons and John Rhys-Davies. He received his fourth Primetime Emmy Award nomination, this time for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.

1990–1998: Stardom and acclaim
Hopkins won acclaim among critics and audiences as the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1991, with Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, who also won for Best Actress. The film won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, and Hopkins also picked up his first BAFTA for Best Actor. Hopkins reprised his role as Lecter twice; in Ridley Scott's Hannibal (2001), and Red Dragon (2002). His original portrayal of the character in The Silence of the Lambs has been labelled by the AFI as the number-one film villain. Director Jonathan Demme wanted a British actor for the role, with Jodie Foster stating, "Lecter is a manipulator and has a way of using language to keep people at bay. You wanted to see that Shakespearean monster." At the time he was offered the role, Hopkins was making a return to the London stage, performing in M. Butterfly. He had come back to Britain after living for a number of years in Hollywood, having all but given up on a career there, saying, "Well that part of my life's over; it's a chapter closed. I suppose I'll just have to settle for being a respectable actor poncing around the West End and doing respectable BBC work for the rest of my life."

Hopkins reprised the role, returning to the iconic villain in adaptations of the first three of the Lecter novels by Thomas Harris. The author was reportedly pleased with Hopkins's portrayal of his antagonist. However, Hopkins stated that Red Dragon (2002) would feature his final performance as the character and that he would not reprise even a narrative role in the latest addition to the series, Hannibal Rising (2007). The following year, After winning the Oscar for Silence of the Lambs, Hopkins was featured in Mark Joffe's film Spotswood and the science fiction film Freejack and also played supporting roles as Charlie Chaplin's biographer in Richard Attenborough's biographical drama Chaplin (1992) and Professor Van Helsing in Francis Ford Coppola's horror adaptation Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

In 1992, Hopkins starred in Merchant-Ivory's period film based on the E. M. Forster novel Howards End. Hopkins acted alongside Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter where he played the cold businessman Henry Wilcox. The film received enormous critical acclaim, with critic Leonard Maltin calling it "extraordinarily good on every level." The following year, Hopkins reunited with Merchant-Ivory and Emma Thompson in The Remains of the Day (1993), a film set in 1950s post-war Britain based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. David Hunter of The Hollywood Reporter praised Hopkins' performance describing it as "colossal" and a "tour de force". The film was ranked by the British Film Institute as the 64th greatest British film of the 20th century. Starring as the butler Stevens, Hopkins named it among his favourite films. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance and received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor.

Hopkins portrayed Oxford academic C. S. Lewis in the 1993 British biographical film Shadowlands, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor. Also that year he acted opposite Isabella Rossellini in the drama The Innocent (1993) which was adapted from the Ian McEwan novel of the same name. During this period, Hopkins had the chance to work with Bart the Bear in two films: Legends of the Fall (1994) and The Edge (1997). According to trainer, Lynn Seus, "Tony Hopkins was absolutely brilliant with Bart...He acknowledged and respected him like a fellow actor. He would spend hours just looking at Bart and admiring him. He did so many of his own scenes with Bart." Hopkins was Britain's highest paid performer in 1998, starring in The Mask of Zorro and Meet Joe Black, and also agreed to reprise his role as Dr Hannibal Lecter for a fee of £15 million.

2000–2014: Established actor
In 2000, Hopkins narrated Ron Howard's live action remake of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He then reprised the role of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) sequel simply entitled Hannibal (2001). Director Ridley Scott and actress Julianne Moore replaced Jonathan Demme and Jodie Foster who declined to participate in the sequel. Hopkins, who previously starred with Moore in Surviving Picasso (1996), agreed to do the role approving of the script. In the book, Lecter uses bandages to disguise himself as a plastic surgery patient. This was left out of the film because Scott and Hopkins agreed to leave the face alone. Hopkins said: "It's as if he's making a statement—'catch me if you can'. With his big hat, he's so obvious that nobody thinks he's Hannibal Lecter. I've always thought he's a very elegant man, a Renaissance man.": "He's still the sort of Robin Hood of killers. He kills the—what do they call them? The terminally rude."

In the film, Lecter is first seen in Florence "as the classical Lecter, lecturing and being smooth", according to Hopkins. When the film moves to the U.S., Hopkins changed his appearance by building up muscle and cropping his hair short "to make him like a mercenary, that he would be so fit and so strong that he could just snap somebody in two if they got ... in his way". The film broke international box office records receiving $351 million. but received mixed reviews from critics. Hopkins starred in the third film in the series Red Dragon (2002) alongside Ralph Fiennes, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film received favourable reviews and was a box office hit.

In 2003, Hopkins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Hopkins stated that his role as Burt Munro, whom he portrayed in his 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian, was his favourite. He also asserted that Munro was the easiest role that he had played because both men have a similar outlook on life. In 2006, Hopkins was the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement. In 2008, he received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the highest award the British Film Academy can bestow. In a 2003 poll conducted by Channel 4 Hopkins was ranked seventh on their list of the 100 Greatest Movie Stars.

On 24 February 2010, it was announced that Hopkins had been cast in The Rite, which was released on 28 January 2011. He played a priest who is "an expert in exorcisms and whose methods are not necessarily traditional". Hopkins, an agnostic who is quoted as saying "I don't know what I believe, myself personally", reportedly wrote a line—"Some days I don't know if I believe in God or Santa Claus or Tinkerbell"—into his character to identify with it. In 2011, Hopkins has said, "what I enjoy is uncertainty. ... I don't know. You don't know." On 21 September 2011, Peter R. de Vries cast Hopkins in the role of the Heineken owner Freddy Heineken, in the film about his kidnapping. Kidnapping Freddy Heineken, was released in 2015.

Hopkins portrayed Odin, the Allfather or "king" of Asgard, in the 2011 film adaptation of Marvel Comics' Thor and would go on to reprise his role as Odin in Thor: The Dark World in 2013, and again in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok. Hopkins portrayed Alfred Hitchcock in Sacha Gervasi's biopic Hitchcock alongside Helen Mirren who played Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville. The film focuses on the filming of Psycho and that which followed. He starred in the comedy action film Red 2 (2013) as the main antagonist Edward Bailey. In 2014, he portrayed Methuselah in Darren Aronofsky's Noah. Hopkins played Order of the Witwiccans member Sir Edmund Burton in Transformers: The Last Knight which was released in June 2017.

2015–present: Career resurgence
In October 2015, Hopkins appeared as Sir in a BBC Two production of Ronald Harwood's The Dresser, alongside Ian McKellen, Edward Fox and Emily Watson. The Dresser is set in a London theatre during the Blitz, where an aging actor-manager, Sir, prepares for his starring role in King Lear with the help of his devoted dresser, Norman. Hopkins described his role as Sir as "the highlight of my life. It was a chance to work with the actors I had run away from. To play another actor is fun because you know the ins and outs of their thinking – especially with someone like Sir, who is a diabolically insecure, egotistical man." He spoke again on the impact the role had on him in 2018, "When I was at the Royal National Theatre all those years ago, I knew I had something in me, but I didn't have the discipline. I had a Welsh temperament and didn't have that 'fitting in' mechanism. I would fight, I would rebel. I thought, 'Well, I don't belong here.' And for almost 50 years afterwards, I felt that edge of, 'I don't belong anywhere, I'm a loner.' But in The Dresser, when Ian [McKellen] responded, it was wonderful. We got on so well and I suddenly felt at home, as though that lack of belonging was all in my imagination, all in my vanity".

Beginning in October 2016, Hopkins starred as Robert Ford in the HBO sci-fi series Westworld where he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his performance. Hopkins starred as Lear in the 2018 television film King Lear acting alongside Emma Thompson, Florence Pugh, and Jim Broadbent which was broadcast on BBC Two on 28 May 2018. Hopkins received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for his performance. Vulture stated the film "capture[d] the heart of the classic Shakespeare tragedy" and described Hopkins' performance as "devastating".

In 2019, Hopkins portrayed Pope Benedict XVI opposite Jonathan Pryce as Pope Francis in Fernando Meirelles's The Two Popes. He stated, "The great treasure was working with – apart from [director] Meirelles – Pryce. We're both from Wales. He's from the north, and I'm from the south". The film is set in the Vatican City in the aftermath of the Vatican leaks scandal and follows Pope Benedict XVI as he attempts to convince Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to reconsider his decision to resign as an archbishop as he confides his own intentions to abdicate the papacy. In August 2019, the film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival to critical acclaim. The film started streaming on 20 December 2019, by Netflix. The performances of Pryce and Hopkins, as well as McCarten's screenplay, received high praise from critics, and all three men received nominations for their work at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and British Academy Film Awards.

In 2020, Hopkins played a man struggling with Alzheimer's disease in The Father. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it received critical acclaim, with many critics praising Hopkins's performance and calling him a standout and Oscar frontrunner. The film also stars Olivia Colman as his daughter. It is based on a Tony Award nominated play Le Père by Florian Zeller, who also directed the film. The Father was released on 18 December 2020 by Sony Pictures Classics. In a Q&A at the Telluride Film Festival Hopkins praised both Colman and Zeller saying comparing the working experience saying it "might've been the highlight of my life". Hopkins mentioned how lucky he's been over the past five years working with Ian McKellen in The Dresser, Emma Thompson in King Lear, and Jonathan Pryce in The Two Popes. Hopkins won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in The Father, making it his fourth BAFTA and his third for Best Actor. He also won a second Academy Award for Best Actor for his role, becoming the oldest person to win an acting Oscar. Hopkins did not attend the Oscars ceremony, but accepted the award in a video posted on social media, from Wales, the following day, saying: "Here I am in my homeland in Wales. And at 83 years of age, I did not expect to get this award. I really didn't and am very grateful to the Academy and thank you." He also paid tribute to fellow nominee Chadwick Boseman, who had died the previous year.

In 2022, he acted in James Gray's semi-autobiographical coming of age drama Armageddon Time (2023). Hopkins starred alongside Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway. Hopkins received positive reviews for his turn as a kindly elderly grandfather. A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, "Hopkins finds the essential grit hiding underneath the twinkle". That same year he reunited with Florian Zeller, acting in The Son (2022) alongside Hugh Jackman. In 2023, Hopkins starred as stockbroker and humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton in the biographical drama film One Life, and also played Sigmund Freud in Freud's Last Session. Hopkins also appeared in the Netflix science fiction film Rebel Moon directed by Zack Snyder.

Single
In a 2012 interview, Hopkins stated, "I've been composing music all my life and if I'd been clever enough at school I would like to have gone to music college. As it was I had to settle for being an actor." In 1986, he released a single called "Distant Star", which peaked at No. 75 in the UK Singles Chart. In 2007, he announced he would retire temporarily from the screen to tour around the world. Hopkins has also written music for the concert hall, in collaboration with Stephen Barton as orchestrator. These compositions include The Masque of Time, given its world premiere with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in October 2008, and Schizoid Salsa.

Albums
On 31 October 2011, André Rieu released an album including a waltz which Hopkins had composed in 1964, at the age of 26. Hopkins had never heard his composition, "And the Waltz Goes On", before it was premiered by Rieu's orchestra in Vienna; Rieu's album was given the same name as Hopkins's piece.

In January 2012, Hopkins released an album of classical music, entitled Composer, performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and released on CD via the UK radio station Classic FM. The album consists of nine of his original works and film scores, with one of the pieces titled "Margam" in tribute to his home town near Port Talbot in Wales.

Directing
In 1990, Hopkins directed a film about his Welsh compatriot, poet Dylan Thomas, titled Dylan Thomas: Return Journey, which was his directing debut for the screen. In the same year, as part of the restoration process for the Stanley Kubrick film Spartacus, Hopkins was approached to re-record lines from a scene that was being added back to the film; this scene featured Laurence Olivier and Tony Curtis, with Hopkins recommended by Olivier's widow, Joan Plowright to perform her late husband's part thanks to his talent for mimicry.

In 1995, he directed August, an adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya set in Wales. His first screenplay, an experimental drama called Slipstream, which he also directed and scored, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. In 1997, Hopkins narrated the BBC natural documentary series, Killing for a Living, which showed predatory behaviour in nature. He narrated episode 1 through 3 before being replaced by John Shrapnel.

Reception and acting style
Hopkins is renowned for his preparation for roles. He indicated in interviews that once he has committed to a project, he will go over his lines as many times as is needed (sometimes upwards of 200) until the lines sound natural to him, so that he can "do it without thinking". This leads to an almost casual style of delivery that belies the amount of groundwork done beforehand. While it can allow for some careful improvisation, it has also brought him into conflict with the occasional director who departs from the script or demands what the actor views as an excessive number of takes. Hopkins has stated that after he is finished with a scene, he simply discards the lines, not remembering them later on. This is unlike others who usually remember their lines from a film, even years later.

In the mid-1970s, he started a collaboration with Richard Attenborough who called him "the greatest actor of his generation". Attenborough, who directed Hopkins on five occasions, found himself going to great lengths during the filming of Shadowlands (1993) to accommodate the differing approaches of his two stars (Hopkins and Debra Winger), who shared many scenes. Whereas Hopkins preferred the spontaneity of a fresh take and liked to keep rehearsals to a minimum, Winger rehearsed continuously. To allow for this, Attenborough stood in for Hopkins during Winger's rehearsals, only bringing him in for the last one before a take. The director praised Hopkins for "this extraordinary ability to make you believe when you hear him that it is the very first time he has ever said that line. It's an incredible gift."

Renowned for his ability to remember lines, Hopkins keeps his memory supple by learning things by heart such as poetry and Shakespeare. In Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997), Hopkins astounded the crew with his memorisation of a seven-page courtroom speech, delivering it in one go. An overawed Spielberg could not bring himself to call Hopkins "Tony" and insisted on addressing him as Sir Anthony throughout the shoot.

In a 2016 interview with the Radio Times, Hopkins spoke of his ability to frighten people since he was a boy growing up in Port Talbot, Wales. "I don't know why but I've always known what scares people. When I was a kid I'd tell the girls around the street the story about Dracula and I'd go 'th-th-th' (the sucking noise which he reproduced in The Silence of the Lambs). As a result, they'd run away screaming." He recalled going through the script of Silence of the Lambs for the first time with fellow cast members. "I didn't know what they were going to make of it but I'd prepared it—my first line to Jodie Foster was: 'Good morning. You're one of Jack Crawford's aren't you?' Everyone froze. There was a silence. Then one of the producers said, 'Holy crap, don't change a thing'." On Hopkins's approach to playing villains, Miranda Sawyer in The Guardian writes, "When he portrays deliberately scary people, he plays them quietly, emphasising their sinister control."

Speaking on his favourite performances which inspired him in his own approach to acting, Morgan Freeman mentioned Hopkins' portrayal of the butler Stevens in The Remains of the Day. Discussing how he learnt "stillness" from José Ferrer, Freeman continued, "It’s what I learn from the great actors that I work with. Stillness. That’s all and that’s the hardest thing. The other actor still like that is Anthony Hopkins. Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen–that stillness becomes a radiance. It’s all about eloquent stillness. I’ve told Hopkins that that performance was one of the great lessons for me as an actor."

Hopkins is a well-known mimic, adept at turning his native Welsh accent into whatever is required by a character. In the 1991 restoration of Spartacus, he recreated the voice of his late mentor Laurence Olivier in a scene for which the soundtrack had been lost. His interview on the 1998 relaunch edition of the British television talk show Parkinson featured an impersonation of comedian Tommy Cooper. Hopkins has said acting "like a submarine" has helped him to deliver credible performances in his thrillers. He said, "It's very difficult for an actor to avoid, you want to show a bit. But I think the less one shows the better."

Awards, honours and legacy
Hopkins was appointed a CBE in 1987 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to the arts" at Buckingham Palace in 1993. In 1988, he was awarded an honorary D.Litt. degree and in 1992 received an honorary fellowship from the University of Wales, Lampeter. He was made a freeman of his home town, Port Talbot, in 1996.

Hopkins has also been honored with various lifetime achievement awards for his work in film and television. In 2006, Gwyneth Paltrow presented him with the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. In 2008, Richard Attenborough presented Hopkins with the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Hopkins has also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003. In 2021, Hopkins won the Oscar for the Best Actor for The Father. He became the oldest nominee and winner of the award.

Personal life
Hopkins resides in Malibu, California. He had moved to the United States once before, during the late 1970s, to pursue his film career, but returned to London in the late 1980s. However, he decided to return to the US following his 1990s success. Retaining his British citizenship, he became a naturalised American citizen on 12 April 2000, with Hopkins stating: "I have dual citizenship; it just so happens I live in America".

Hopkins has been married three times. He was married to actress Petronella Barker from 1966 to 1972, Jennifer Lynton from 1973 to 2002, and Stella Arroyave since 2003. Hopkins met Arroyave, a Colombian-born antiques dealer in the early 2000s, and he credits her with helping him overcome his feelings of depression at the time. On Christmas Eve 2013, he celebrated his 10th wedding anniversary by having a blessing at a private service at St Davids Cathedral in St Davids. He has a daughter from his first marriage. The two are estranged; when asked if he had any grandchildren, he said, "I don't have any idea. People break up. Families split and, you know, 'Get on with your life.' People make choices. I don't care one way or the other."

Hopkins previously suffered from alcoholism; he has stayed sober since he stopped drinking just after Christmas 1975. He said, "I made that quantum leap when I asked for help. I just found something and a woman talked to me and she said, just trust in God. And I said, well, why not?" When asked, "Did you literally pray?" Hopkins responded: "No, I didn't. I think because I asked for help, which is a form of prayer." In January 2020, when asked if he was still agnostic, he responded, "Agnosticism is a bit strange. An agnostic doubts and atheism denies. I'm not a holy Joe; I'm just an old sinner like everyone else. I do believe more than ever now that there is a vast area of our own lives that we know nothing about. As I get older, I can cry at the drop of a hat because the wonderful, terrible passion of life is so short. I have to believe there's something bigger than me. I'm just a microbe. That, for me, is the biggest feeling of relief – acknowledging that I am really nothing. I'm compelled to say, whoever's running the show, thank you very much."

Hopkins quit smoking using the Allen Carr method. In 2008, he embarked on a weight loss programme, and by 2010, he had lost 5st 10 lb (80 lb or 36 kg). In January 2017, in an interview with The Desert Sun, Hopkins said that he had been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome three years earlier, but that he was "high end". In 2020, he said that "it's a great gift, actually".

He has a pet cat named Niblo, which he adopted in Budapest. Hopkins eschews meat and prefers a pescatarian diet.

He is a fan of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, and once remarked in an interview how he would love to appear in the series. Writer John Sullivan saw the interview, and with Hopkins in mind created the character Danny Driscoll, a local villain. However, filming of the new series coincided with the filming of The Silence of the Lambs, making Hopkins unavailable. The role instead went to Roy Marsden.

Philanthropy
Hopkins has offered his support to various charities and appeals, notably becoming President of the National Trust's Snowdonia Appeal, raising funds for the preservation of Snowdonia National Park in north Wales. In 1998 he donated £1 million towards the £3 million needed to aid the Trust's efforts in purchasing parts of Snowdon. Prior to the campaign, Hopkins wrote Anthony Hopkins' Snowdonia, which was published in 1995. Due to his contributions to Snowdonia, in addition to his film career, in 2004 Hopkins was named among the 100 Welsh Heroes in a Welsh poll.

Hopkins has been a patron of the YMCA centre in his home town of Port Talbot, south Wales, for more than 20 years, having first joined the YMCA in the 1950s. He supports other various philanthropic groups. He was a Guest of Honour at a Gala Fundraiser for Women in Recovery, Inc., a Venice, California-based non-profit organisation offering rehabilitation assistance to women in recovery from substance abuse. He is also a volunteer teacher at the Ruskin School of Acting in Santa Monica, California. Hopkins served as the Honorary Patron of The New Heritage Theatre Company in Boise, Idaho from 1997 to 2007, participating in fundraising and marketing efforts for the repertory theatre.

Hopkins contributed toward the refurbishment of a £2.3 million wing at his alma mater, the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, named the Anthony Hopkins Centre. It opened in 1999.

Hopkins is a prominent member of the environmental protection group Greenpeace and as of early 2008 featured in a television advertisement campaign, voicing concerns about whaling in Japan. He has also been a patron of RAPt (Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust) since its early days and in 1992 helped open their first intensive drug and alcohol rehabilitation unit at Downview (HM Prison), a women's prison in Surrey, England.

Hopkins is an admirer of the late Welsh comedian Tommy Cooper. On 23 February 2008, as patron of the Tommy Cooper Society, he unveiled a commemorative statue in the entertainer's home town of Caerphilly. For the ceremony, he donned Cooper's trademark fez and performed a comic routine.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Anthony Hopkins


text:
Ardal O'Hanlon

Ardal O'Hanlon (born 8 October 1965) is an Irish comedian, actor, and author. He played Father Dougal McGuire in Father Ted (1995–1998), George Sunday/Thermoman in My Hero (2000–2006), and DI Jack Mooney in Death in Paradise (2017–2020). His novel The Talk of the Town was published in 1998.

Early life
O'Hanlon was born in Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, the son of Fianna Fáil TD and physician Rory O'Hanlon and Teresa (née Ward). He is the third of six children, and has three brothers and two sisters.

O'Hanlon was schooled in Blackrock College in Dublin and graduated, in 1987, from the National Institute for Higher Education, Dublin (now Dublin City University), with a degree in communication studies.

Career
Together with Kevin Gildea and Barry Murphy, O'Hanlon founded the International Comedy Cellar, upstairs in the International Bar on Dublin's South Wicklow Street. Dublin had no comedy scene at the time. As a stand up, O'Hanlon won the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition in 1994. For a time he was the presenter of The Stand Up Show.

He was spotted by Graham Linehan, who was to cast him as Father Dougal McGuire in Father Ted (1995–98). During filming, O’Hanlon went to buy shoes. Still being in costume, the seller thought he was a real priest and offered the footwear for free. In 1995 he received the Top TV Comedy Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards for this role. In 1995, he appeared (as Father Dougal) in a Channel 4 ident ("Hello, you're watching ... television"), and during Comic Relief on BBC1. This was followed by the award-winning short comedy film Flying Saucer Rock'n'Roll. In a 2019 interview, O'Hanlon admitted that he had attempted to distance himself from Father Ted once the show had finished.

O'Hanlon moved into straight acting alongside Emma Fielding and Beth Goddard in the ITV comedy-drama Big Bad World, which aired for two series in summer 1999 and winter 2001. He also played a minor role in The Butcher Boy as Joe's (Francie's best friend) father, and appeared in an episode of the original Whose Line is it Anyway?.

In 2000, O'Hanlon starred in the comedy series My Hero, in which he played a very naive superhero from the planet Ultron. His character juggled world-saving heroics with life in suburbia. He stayed in the role until the first episode of series 6 in July 2006, when he was replaced by James Dreyfus during the same episode.

O'Hanlon also provided the voice of the lead character in the three Christmas television cartoon specials of Robbie the Reindeer. He appeared in the 2005 BBC One sitcom Blessed, written by Ben Elton; at the 2005 British Comedy Awards, it was publicly slated by Jonathan Ross, albeit in jest. Towards the end of 2005, he played an eccentric Scottish character, Coconut Tam, in the family based film, The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby. He has also appeared on radio, including an appearance on Quote... Unquote on BBC Radio 4 on 18 July 2011. Appropriately, one of his questions concerned a quotation from Father Ted. In 2015, he appeared as incompetent angel Smallbone in the sitcom The Best Laid Plans, on the same channel.

In 2006, O'Hanlon wrote and presented an RTÉ television series called Leagues Apart, which saw him investigate the biggest and most passionate football rivalries in a number of European countries. Included were Roma vs Lazio in Italy, Barcelona vs Real Madrid in Spain, and Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce in Turkey. He followed this with another RTÉ show, So You Want To Be Taoiseach? in 2007. It was a political series in which O'Hanlon gave tongue-in-cheek advice on how to go about becoming Taoiseach of Ireland.

He appeared in the Doctor Who episode "Gridlock", broadcast on 14 April 2007, in which he played a catlike creature named Thomas Kincade Brannigan. O'Hanlon appears in series 3 of the TV show Skins, playing Naomi Campbell (Lily Loveless)'s politics teacher named Kieran, who attempted to kiss her. He then went on to form a relationship with Naomi's mother (Olivia Colman). O'Hanlon plays the lead role in Irish comedy television programme Val Falvey, TD on RTÉ One. In 2012, he performed in the Edinburgh Fringe.

In February 2011, O'Hanlon returned to the Gate Theatre, Dublin starring in the Irish premiere of Christopher Hampton's translation of Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage, alongside Maura Tierney. Later that year, he appeared in the comedy panel show Argumental.

O'Hanlon has written a novel, The Talk of the Town (known in the United States as Knick Knack Paddy Whack), which was published in 1998. The novel is about a teenage boy, Patrick Scully, and his friends.

In February 2015, he officially launched the 2015 Sky Cat Laughs Comedy Festival, which took place in Kilkenny from 28 May–1 June. In 2015 he played the role of Peter the Milkman in the Sky One sitcom After Hours.

On 2 February 2017, it was announced he would play the lead role in the BBC crime drama Death in Paradise taking the role of DI Jack Mooney following Kris Marshall's departure the same day. He announced his intention to leave the series in early 2020 and was replaced by Ralf Little.

On 25 November 2021, it was announced that he would participate in series 13 of Taskmaster. He finished in 4th place ahead of Judi Love.

In January 2024, he presented his first Irish language show, Inis na nIontas, on TG4, exploring the islands around the coast of Ireland.

Personal life
O'Hanlon met his wife Melanie as a teenager. They have three children. He is a supporter of Leeds United.

title: Ardal O'Hanlon