Gary Oldman

Gary Oldman (born March 21, 1958) is an English actor, born Leonard Gary Oldman in London, England. He won a scholarship to the Rose Bruford Drama College, where he received a BA in Drama in 1979. He later studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of stage plays including The Pope's Wedding, for which he received Time Out's Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985 - 1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor of 1985. Oldman first appeared on screen in the film Remembrance in 1982, going on to win his first starring role in Sid and Nancy (1986), in which he played the rocker Sid Vicious. He has become known for playing eccentrics and for his mastery of accents. He has played a variety of famous characters including Dracula, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lee Harvey Oswald, Commissioner Gordon, Shakespeare's Rosencrantz, Sid Vicious, Albert Milo, Sirius Black, Pontius Pilate and the Devil. Other roles that would be a stretch for any other actor include the roles of a black pimp, a disfigured serial killer victim, an aged Senate chairman, a futuristic villain, a few corrupt cops, a sadistic prison warden, a Russian terrorist, a violent football hooligan and the villain on Lost in Space.