Born in New Cross, South London, 1958. Oldman was raised by his mother
and two sisters after his father, an alcoholic welder, left them when
Gary was aged seven. Gary would later develop an alcohol problem akin
to his fathers, and meet a future wife in rehabilitation. After working
with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre under the tutelage of Roger
Williams, he attempted to join London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
(RADA) but was rejected. He later won a scholarship to attend the Rose
Bruford Drama College. Oldman made his film debut in Remembrance (1982).
This was rapidly followed by a brief appearance as an explosive skinhead
in Mike Leigh's Meantime
(1983).
Oldman first gained international recognition when cast as Sid Vicious
in Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy (1986), an uncompromising account of the
punk icon’s tragic relationship with Nancy Spungen. The following year,
he turned in an equally superb portrayal of doomed playwright Joe Orton
in Stephen Frears' biopic Prick
up Your Ears (1987). Oldman married Lesley Manville, with whom he
had a son, Alfie. Two years later they divorced and in 1990, Oldman
married actress Uma Thurman, but they divorced consequently in 1992.
After 1987, he moved out to the U.S to launch a successful career in
Hollywood. Oldman's first major role in a Hollywood film was that of
alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone's JFK (1991). He
then gave an eerie performance in the title role of Francis Ford Coppola's
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Similarly impressive was his brief yet
notable appearance in True Romance (1993) as a white Rastafarian pimp.
Subsequently he became stereotyped in Hollywood blockbusters as the
archetypal charismatic villain or bad guy; an inhumane warden in the
prison drama Murder in the First (1995), a terrorist in Wolfgang Petersen's
Air Force One (1997), and Dr. Zachary Smith in the film version of 60s
sci-fi series Lost In Space (1998).
In 1997, Oldman wrote, directed and produced his directorial debut
Nil by Mouth,
an unflinching, semi-autobiographical examination of a dysfunctional
working-class family. The film proved to be a hit. He subsequently returned
to acting in Luc Besson's futuristic The Fifth Element (1997), chiefly
in return for Besson’s support in producing Nil By Mouth. In 1997, he
also married photographer Donya Fiorentino; they later divorced in 2001.
After portraying many faces in earlier films, Oldman asked to be unbilled
for his role as the man with no face, Mason Verger, in Ridley Scott’s
Hannibal (2001). Oldman’s burning ambition remains to further his career
as a director.
