The Hollywood icon Daniel Day-Lewis “loves everything about”
If there were ever a contemporary actor to have mastered the craft of cinematic performance, then Daniel Day-Lewis would certainly be in the running. After all, the London-born star has been adorned with a whopping three Academy Awards, a feat that only a handful of other performers can boast.
The likes of Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman, Frances McDormand and Walter Brennan join Day-Lewis on the elusive list of three-time Oscar-winning actors, though Katharine Hepburn leads the charge with four. Among Day-Lewis’ wins are his impressive performances in My Left Foot and There Will Be Blood.
Day-Lewis is, of course, far more than just his Academy Award recognition, though, and has given some of the greatest on screen efforts in the history of cinema, including those in In the Name of the Father, Gangs of New York, Last of the Mohicans, Phantom Thread, The Boxer and The Age of Innocence. Hell, he even quit for a while to become a shoemaker.
Quite simply, Day-Lewis is a master actor and is fully deserving of his widespread acclaim, but it has never been just about Hollywood for him. Like any actor, Day-Lewis has his personal heroes and when he once named his favourite movies of all time, including High Noon, Kes, Mean Streets and On the Waterfront, he stated his love for a true icon of Hollywood, Audrey Hepburn.
At the time, Day-Lewis had offered his admiration for two of Hepburn’s movies, beginning with her 1953 effort in William Wyler’s romantic comedy Roman Holiday, in which she starred alongside Gregory Peck and subsequently won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’, while the film itself won ‘Best Story’.
Just a year later, Hepburn appeared in another of Day-Lewis’ favourite movies, Billy Wilder’s romantic comedy-drama Sabrina, based on Samuel A. Taylor’s 1953 play Sabrina’s Fair. Also starring Humphrey Bogart and William Holden, Sabrina served as the last film that Wilder made for Paramount Pictures, ending a 12-year working relationship with the studio.
Hepburn was clearly a star that Day-Lewis deeply admired, and it was likely that he took a handful of acting cues from the Hollywood icon that undoubtedly influenced his own. Of his impression of Hepburn, Day-Lewis noted, “I love her. I love everything about her. She was so beautiful… She’s so fresh and her sense of humour is so bewitching.”
After coming through as a chorus girl in a series of West End musical theatre productions following the end of the Second World War, Hepburn had a string of minor film appearances before her call to stardom came with her effort in Roman Holiday, subsequently becoming the first female actor to win an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA award for a single performance, topping off the year with a further Tony award for her stage turn in Ondine.
From there, Hepburn never looked back and the British actor quickly established herself as a genuine icon of Hollywood with further performances in the likes of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Charade, My Fair Lady, Funny Face and The Nun’s Story. Such efforts saw Hepburn rise to fame as one of the big screen’s most enduring heroes.
Years later, Daniel-Day Lewis would consider Hepburn as one of his favourite actors of all time. It’s difficult not to love everything about Hepburn, from her biographical facets to her brilliant performances and its easy to see why even the great Day-Lewis holds her in such high esteem.
