Actor Gary Oldman left his hand and footprints in the cement at TCL Chinese Theatre Aug. 22. The British actor won the best actor Oscar in 2018 for his role as Winston Churchill in ‘Darkest Hour.’
Courtesy photo
Wave Wire Services
HOLLYWOOD — Gary Oldman placed his handprints and footprints in cement in the forecourt of the TCL Chinese Theatre Aug. 22, honoring him for a career that has brought him three best actor Oscar nominations.
“I am all too aware of the hundreds of talented artists that have preceded me and their contribution to the world of cinema,” Oldman told the crowd. “Roughly 200 celebrities have had their hands and their feet and their signatures imprinted in the concrete forecourt of this beautiful picture palace since its first ceremony in 1927.
“Never in my wildest dreams as a young boy growing up in south London could I have imagined standing here one day as an honoree.”
Born on March 21, 1958, in London, Oldman began his career in 1979 in a production of the 1927 farce “Thark” at the York Theatre Royal in York, England.
Oldman made his film debut in “Remembrance,” a 1982 ensemble drama about junior enlisted sailors on a Royal Navy ship who are about to embark on a six-month naval exercise. He began his rise to prominence in 1986 with his portrayal of Sex Pistols second bassist Sid Vicious in “Sid and Nancy.”
In the 1990s, Oldman portrayed Lee Harvey Oswald in “JFK,” Count Dracula in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” and villains in “True Romance,” “Murder in the First,” “The Fifth Element,” “Air Force One” and “Lost in Space.”
Oldman received the his first Oscar nomination in 2011 for his portrayal of fictional MI6 spy George Smiley in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”
He won the best actor Oscar in 2018 for his role as Winston Churchill in his early days as the British prime minister in “Darkest Hour.”
Oldman’s other Oscar nomination also came for the portrayal of a real person, screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz in “Mank,” released in 2020.
Oldman also portrayed President Harry S Truman in the Oscar winner for best picture of 2023 “Oppenheimer.”
The actor was also part of the casts of the Harry Potter films as Harry Potter’s godfather Sirius Black. He also played Commissioner Jim Gordon in “Batman Begins” and in its the sequels, “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Oldman currently stars as British spy Jackson Lamb in the Apple TV+ thriller series “Slow Horses,” receiving outstanding lead actor in a drama series Emmy nominations in 2024 and July.
Oldman was knighted by King Charles III June 13 for services to drama, telling the entertainment news website Deadline, “I’m gobsmacked.”
In a 2022 interview with the Sunday Times, Oldman suggested he might retire when “Slow Horses” concludes its run.
“I’d be very happy and honored and privileged to go out as Jackson Lamb and then hang it up,” he said.
