Ranked #25 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Assumed Irish citizenship. Moved to County Wicklow, Ireland in 1993.
Relationship with French Actress Isabelle Adjani (1989-1994). Father of her son Gabriel-Kane, born 9 April 1995.
Brother of Tamasin Day-Lewis.
Chosen by People magazine as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" in the world. [1990]
Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars" in film history (#11). [1995]
Several times offered and turned down the role of Aragorn (Strider) in 'Peter Jackson (I) 's "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy.
Son-in-law of playwright Arthur Miller.
According to Harvey Weinstein, Day-Lewis was taking time off to work as a cobbler in Florence, Italy when he, director Martin Scorsese and 'Leonard DiCaprio' lured him into coming back to New York "on false pretenses" so they could eventually persuade him to accept lead role in Gangs of New York (2002).
Describes himself as "a lifelong study of evasion."
According to Gangs of New York (2002) co-star John C. Reilly, Day-Lewis got sick during shooting in Italy, refusing to trade his character's threadbare coat for a warmer coat because the warmer coat did not exist in the 19th century; doctors finally forced him to take antibiotics.
Announced that Day-Lewis will star in "Rose and the Snake," co-written and to be directed by his wife, Rebecca Miller. (25 February 2003)
Has three sons: Gabriel-Kane Adjani (b. 9 April 1995), Ronan Cal Day-Lewis (b. 14 June 1998), and Cashel Blake Day-Lewis (b. May 2002).
Chosen by People magazine as one of the "50 Most Beautiful" people in the world [2003].
Is a skilled woodworker in addition to being able to make his living as a cobbler.
He listened to Eminem to get into an angry, self-righteous frame of mind as Bill the Butcher while shooting Gangs of New York (2002).
Not only does he and Michelle Pfeiffer share a birthday, but they were married on the same day, albeit three years apart.
He was Jonathan Demme's first choice for the part of Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia (1993). He turned the part down to work on In the Name of the Father (1993) and Tom Hanks was cast in "Philadelphia" instead. He earned an Oscar nomination for best actor in "In the Name of the Father: but Hanks won the best actor Oscar for "Philadelphia", the part Day-Lewis turned down.
Always quiet and introverted, he said that he was not popular in school and was mocked as an outsider while growing up in England, partially because he was of half-Jewish/half-Irish stock. The upside was that, instead of socializing, he developed a rich fantasy life that later helped him to delve so deeply into his characters.
He was the first of three consecutive British actors to win the Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role, Jeremy Irons being next and Anthony Hopkins the third. Each of them coincidentally won at their first nomination in the Academy Awards.
In The Crucible, Joan Allen plays his wife. In The Boxer, Emily Watson plays his wife. Both have played Reba McLain. Allen played the part in Manhunter, Watson played the part in the remake, Red Dragon.
Was considered for the role of Jesus Christ in Passion of the Christ (2004) but director Mel Gibson thought he looked too "European" and the part went to James Caviezel.
He lived apart from his wife Rebecca Miller while she was directing him in 'The Ballad of Jack and Rose' (2005). This is in keeping with his habit of being isolated while he is in character and shooting a film, in part the reason he is hesitant to take more film work.
Frequently called the "English Robert De Niro" early in his career, Day-Lewis recently referred to De Niro as his "champion".
Shares his birthday with Uma Thurman and comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
Considered doing an adaptation of "Rose and the Snake" in the early 1990s, but the project fell through. After meeting and marrying Rebecca Miller she convinced him to take the lead part and directed him in the adaptation 'The Ballad of Jack and Rose' (2005).
After Michael Madsen was found to be unavailable for the part, Day-Lewis tried to get the role of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction' (1994), one of very times that he actively pursued a part. However, by that point in the casting, Quentin Tarantino in mind for the part.
From his earliest roles, Daniel Day-Lewis, impressed audiences and critics alike, moving easily from a flamboyant punk-rocker in My Beautiful Laundrette to a delightfully foppish Victorian suitor in Merchant-Ivory's A Room With A View. Together, these performances earned him 1986's New York Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor. He made his film debut in 1971 with an uncredited role as a child vandal in John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday, followed by supporting roles in both Gandhi and The Bounty.
Though Day-Lewis has continued to turn in one highly-praised performance after another, it was his role as writer, artist and Cerebral Palsy sufferer Christy Brown in My Left Foot for director Jim Sheridan which won him an Academy Award for Best Actor. He received his second Oscar nomination for In The Name Of The Father, his second collaboration with Sheridan--the true story of a man unjustly imprisoned for 15 years. His third Academy Award nomination for Gangs Of New York reunited him with acclaimed director Martin Scorsese, for whom he had played the aristocratic Newland Archer in The Age of Innocence.
His other wide-ranging roles include the early American adventurer Hawkeye in The Last Of The Mohicans, Philip Kaufman's film version of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, in which he won praise for his memorable lead role and in the Arthur Miller classic The Crucible, in which he portrayed the repressed Puritan John Proctor, opposite Winona Ryder and directed by Nicholas Hytner.
Day-Lewis trained at the Bristol Old Vic School. He then devoted over a decade in the 1970's and early 1980's to perform with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company, Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Theatre, turning in notable performances in Another Country, Dracula, Futurists and Hamlet.
