Gary Oldman Is More Than Just An Oscar Winner – Here’s What Most Fans Don’t Know
Gary Leonard Oldman was born on March 21, 1958. Oldman would go on to become an actor and filmmaker who has worked in theater, film, and television. Known for his versatility and "big" acting style, Oldman is regarded as one of the greatest screen actors of his generation.
With all the roles he's had over the years, he's gone through significant changes for whatever he was doing. Whether it's playing a Russian hijacker or winning the audience over with his appearance on Friends, Oldman has come a long way since his stage debut in 1979.
Joe Orton
A few years after portraying Sid Vicious, Oldman was in another biopic. This time, he played Joe Orton, an English playwright and author who was known for his scandalous black comedy. The film told the story of Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell, who was played by Alfred Molina.
This isn't one of Oldman's well-known roles. In fact, it was just his third full-length movie. A young, clean shaved Oldman actually looked like the deceased playwright, which makes it all the better. Even Roger Ebert praised the work of Oldman and Molina in the flick.
Rosencrantz
Since Oldman is English, it was fitting for him to play Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Tim Roth played alongside Oldman as Guildenstern and the movie was based on the characters in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet and the play itself.
The movie had a running theme throughout that had many characters, Oldman and Roth included, uncertain to as to which is which. Despite the movie receiving negative reviews, in 2011, Total Film named Oldman's portrayal of Rosencrantz as one of his best performances.
Lee Harvey Oswald
According to Oldman, very little was written about Oswald in JFK. Director Oliver Stone gave him several plane tickets, a list of contacts, and told him to do his own research. Oldman met with Oswald's wife, Marina, and her two daughters to prepare for the role.
Oliver Stone's conspiracy-thriller film about the assassination of John F. Kennedy was embroiled in controversy. Many major American newspapers ran editorials accusing Stone of taking liberties with historical facts, including the film's implication that President Lyndon B. Johnson was part of a group to kill Kennedy.
Count Dracula
Famed director Francis Ford Coppola returned to direct the classic horror novel, Bram Stroker's Dracula. Not only did he succeed in making the movie, but so did Oldman. He delivered one of the most chilling yet seductive iterations of the role yet.
By combining a dark persona with a very charming and sensual voice, Oldman drew audiences in, along with Winona Ryder, to both fall in love with the Count while still fearing him deeply. The movie even became a plot for The Simpsons Treehouse Of Horror episode.
Drexel Spivey
Interestingly enough, Oldman was in True Romance, which was written by Quentin Tarantino. He played an Alabama pimp named Drexl Spivey. The movie even featured household names, including Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, and James Gandolfini. Despite the love the movie received from critics, it was a flop at the box office, earning $12.3 million on a 412.5 million budget.
Playing the antagonist is one of Oldman's strongest talents. He crafted one of cinema's most memorable villains as the brutal, dreadlocked pimp with a scar-faced, dead-eyed, lethal gangster holdout. With all that makeup, Oldman is hardly recognizable.
Norman Stansfield
Oldman continued making a name for himself in one of the most villainous, psychotic and divine performances of his career.In the hypnotic thriller Leon: The Professional, he played a seasoned hitman in New York who agrees to make a 12-year-old his protegee after her family is murdered by a corrupt DEA Agent.
What really made the film a thrill to watch was Oldman's crazy performance as corrupt DEA Agent and drug addict Norman Stansfield. He delivered every line to perfection while killing victims in a psychotic manner. This is one of his most powerful performances of his career.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Thanks to playing Sid Vicious, Oldman once again found himself playing a performer when he starred as Ludwig van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved. At first, he seemed like an unlikely fit for the role, but once the audience saw him, he blew them away with his performance as the arrogant composer.
He captured Beethoven as a believably brilliant figure who struggled with his deafness and other demons. The movie was released the same year as Forrest Gump, and Oldman was overlooked for a well-deserved Oscar nomination that wouldn't come for a few more years.
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale
By this point, Oldman has been a musician, a vampire, JFK's shooter, and now a romantic drama is added to his resume. He co-starred with Demi Moore in The Scarlett Letter, a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Nathaniel Hawthrone.
Unfortunately, Oldman's role of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale wasn't enough to please the critics. The film drew an overwhelming amount of negative reviews. As bad as it was, it won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Remake or Sequel, and Oldman was up for Worst Screen Couple with Moore, which they lost (which I guess counts as a win).
Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg
Oldman would reconnect with another role that was similar to his Stansfield performance. Combined with director Les Besson's humor-centric script, he delivered another villainous performance, this time playing Jean-Baptise Emanuel Zorg in the sci-fi cult-classic, The Fifth Element.
Oldman plays Zorg, the industrialist who is hired by an alien race to track down a collection of elemental stones that could be used to defeat the great evil they were working for. He even had a fight scene with Korben Dallas, who was played by Bruce Willis. In a role that was filled with political satire, Oldman delivered laughs and a strong villain that made it fun to watch.
Egor Korshunov
Oldman's range is so wide that he even convincingly played a Russian Radek loyalist in Air Force One, playing the antagonist who leads the hijacking of the airplane. He didn't have too much to prepare for the role outside of making sure his Russian accent was spot on for the movie.
There's a rather creative theory that President Marshall was in on the hijacking of Air Force One. One Reddit user suggested that President Marshall wanted to have a policy of 'never negotiate, no longer tolerate, no longer be afraid' with terrorists, but his senior advisors chastised him for it in the limo after his speech.
Dr. Zachary Smith
Oldman's second flop, Lost In Space, wasn't the movie fans were hoping it was going to be. He played Dr. Zachary Smith, who turns out to be a spy that sabotages the ship's onboard robot before launch. To be honest, it really wasn't his best movie.
Lost In Space was based on the sixties sci-fi TV show, and it was really bad. It was released at an awkward time for CGI, with critics remarking that it was hard to look at. This movie came out in 1998, years before CGI was used in all the superhero movies.
Rep. Sheldon Runyon
The Contender was loosely based on the Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandal. Oldman not only played Republican Sheldon Runyon, but he also produced the movie too. The film became the focal point of controversy that displeased Oldman very much after its release.
It was alleged that editing cuts were made due to the studio's Democratic leanings. Oldman accused director Rod Lurie of editing the film to make it more Democrat based. After watching the film, Dustin Hoffman placed a phone call to Oldman to commend his work as the Republican politician.
Mason Verger
Despite Hannibal being the poorest-received film in the Hannibal Lecter franchise, one of the few good things from the 2001 film was Oldman's performance. He played the wealthy and surviving Hannibal victim, Mason Verger, who uses his influence to have FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling reassigned to the Lecter case.
As you can tell, Oldman is totally unrecognizable under such disturbing prosthetic makeup for the character's disfigured face. Even lacking a nose and most of the tissue on his face, Oldman still powers through to bring the deprived and psychotic Verger to life.
Richard Crosby
The one time Matt LeBlanc and Oldman got their chance of redemption. After the flop that was Lost In Space, the two actors were on the screen once again, but it was on LeBlanc's Friends in the two-part episode "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding."
Playing Richard Crosby, Oldman kept spitting while saying his lines which annoyed Joey. Not only that, but Joey also missed Chandler and Monica's wedding thanks to Crosby's drunken stupor. For his guest appearance, Oldman was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a comedy series.
O.W. Grant
That's a red-headed Oldman in the movie Interstate 60. He co-starred in the movie along with James Marsden, Amy Smart, and Michael J. Fox. Oldman played One Wish Grant, the immortal offspring of a leprechaun and Cheyenne Indian.
It was Bob Gale's directorial debut which received an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was rather interesting to see Oldman take on a role like he never has before. No matter what he does, he always brings his talents whenever needed.
Sirius Black
He's arguably the character that pulled at the heartstrings of every fan of Harry Potter. Oldman was one of the driving reasons behind why the film portrayal of Sirius Black was so well-loved. After discovering the truth about Black, Harry became as close as James and Sirius once were.
Oldman did a great job portraying Sirius with such a warm and human approach. He wonderfully transferred the character from the pages of the books to the frames on the screen. The best part of it all, he wasn't the only well-known Brit in the film.
James Gordon
Commissioner James Gordonhas always been one of the strongest side characters in the Batman comic books, working tirelessly to bring down the corruption in the city of Gotham. While previous actors didn't show too much strength, Oldman's portrayal of the Commissioner was the first step in a live-action show version that Gordon could take down criminals on his own.
Oldman helped audiences connect to Gordon very quickly, and he didn't stop along the way after making the Batman trilogy. He also helped audiences see a new side of the character, who would later be seen as an even stronger and independent lawman in the TV series Gotham.
Floyd Banner
He's lovable when he's a hero, but there's no denying that Oldman is brilliant at being a villain. He would continue that as the role of a ruthless mobster Floyd Banner in the 2012 film Lawless. While only a villain for the first half of the film, Oldman was still enjoyable to watch.
Audiences got to watch Oldman as Banner for the entirety of the film, seeing him go from an unsympathetic and brutally-violent killer to a close ally and frequent client of the protagonists in the movie. A strong sense of character development wasn't just in the writing, but Oldman's strong performance too.
Winston Churchill
Of all the characters he's played, Oldman went through a significant change in the role of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Oldman's electrifying performance felt like he actually brought Churchill back to the life. Darkest Hour was so great, Oldman was up for Best Actor for the Oscars.
After years of dedication and countless roles, Oldman finally got his Academy Award for Best Actor. Even before he won the Oscar, he was pegged as a heavy favorite to take home the Award. Now, with the career Oldman has had, he can finally say he did it all.
