Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English actor. Often described as one of the greatest actors in the history of cinema, he is best known for intense method acting, portrayed with eccentric characters in auteurs’ films. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a record three Academy Awards for Best Actor, as well as four BAFTAs, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Golden Globes. In 2014, Day-Lewis received a knighthood for services to drama.
Born and raised in London, Day-Lewis excelled on stage at the National Youth Theatre before being accepted at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which he attended for three years. Despite his traditional training at the Bristol Old Vic, he is considered a method actor, known for his constant devotion to and research of his roles. Protective of his private life, he rarely grants interviews and makes very few public appearances.
Day-Lewis shifted between theatre and film for most of the early 1980s, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company and playing Romeo Montague in Romeo and Juliet and Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Playing the title role in Hamlet at the National Theatre in London in 1989, he left the stage midway through a performance after breaking down during a scene where the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears before him—this was his last appearance on the stage. After supporting film roles in Gandhi (1982) and The Bounty (1984), he earned acclaim for his breakthrough performances in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), A Room with a View (1985), and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988).
He earned three Academy Awards for Best Actor for his roles as Christy Brown in My Left Foot(1989), oil tycoon Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood (2007), and Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln (2012). He was Oscar-nominated for In the Name of the Father (1993), Gangs of New York (2002), and Phantom Thread (2017). Other notable films include The Last of the Mohicans (1992), The Age of Innocence (1993), The Crucible (1996), and The Boxer (1997). He retired from acting twice, from 1997 to 2000, when he took up a new profession as an apprentice shoe-maker in Italy, and from 2017 to 2024. In 2025, he starred in and co-wrote Anemone, directed by his son Ronan.
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1953 • TV
2025 • Movie
1965 • TV
1974 • TV
1982 • Movie
2012 • Movie
as Ray Stoker
as Colin
as Abraham Lincoln
as Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting
as Daniel Plainview
as Narrator (voice)
as Daniel Day-Lewis (uncredited)
as Hawkeye
as Child Vandal (uncredited)
as Reynolds Woodcock
as Johnny Burfoot
as Gerry Conlon
as Newland Archer
as John Fryer
as Guido Contini
as Cecil Vyse
as Christy Brown
as Self
as Tomas
as John Proctor
Executive Producer
Writer
as Self
3 episodes
as Gordon Whitehouse
1 episodes
as Alex
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as Self
4 episodes
as DJ
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as Jonathan Dakers
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