Daniel Day Lewis - The Quintessential Actor of Our Times

Born Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis in London, England on April 29, 1957, Daniel Day-Lewis, as he is known to the world, is both actor and Renaissance man. He has taken the world of character development and acting to another realm altogether. Day-Lewis is a much more private and intimate actor when it comes to his personal life than the flaunting that seems to go hand and hand with the American style of actor/celebrity role modeling. He is respected immensely for his off-screen living as much as he is for his stunning on-screen performances.

His career humbly begun in 1971 with an uncredited role in Sunday Bloody Sunday as Child Vandal. Thereafter, it did not take him long to leave his acting mark wherever his talent and agent took him. Who can forget him mesmerizing performance in the lovely and quaint moving file entitled A Room with a View (1985) as Cecil Vyse. His esteemed ability to transfer himself through words and period costume or scenery still to today sends chills up ones spine. Day-Lewis films are especially poignant and touching in content and purpose.

The professionalism that accompanies this man from the minute he steps foot onto a film shoot until the minute the film is wrapped and he leaves is awe-inspiring. There only a hand full on modern day actors who possess this capability. Day-Lewis has mastered the art of not simply acting but being a professional actor. Not one to play the Hollywood celebrity game he is the quintessential actors actor. His personal life away from his on-screen film work is untouchable. And, yet the moment his films are due for release he emerges almost out of shadows and takes the movie going public on a journey through time and dimension with a single word uttered from the character he his portraying.

In such films as The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) as Tomas and My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989) portraying Christy Brown, Day-Lewis portrays the vulnerable and exposed flaws of his characters hauntingly. More recently was his knock-out performance in the 2007 acclaimed film There Will Be Blood that won him the praise of the film industry and entire world. The power of his performances causes the likes of Oscars and Golden Globes attention, praise and respect time and time again. He is simply breathtaking to watch. The less known about his life away from his work as an actor lends greatly to the onscreen mystique this actor possesses.

Other actors like Sean Penn and Cate Blanchette and Leonardo Dicaprio just to name a few have the ability to safe guard their personals so well until the audience only sees the characters they portray on-scene and nothing else. The most beautiful aspect of an actor ultimately is his effortless ability to become the character and convince the audience of the character above all else while at the same time keeping a part of his own identity hidden from public sight or overexposure at all times.