Photo by Jasmin Hunter; used under Creative Commons Attribution license.
Gary Oldman is one of those actors who so immerses himself in every movie role he takes that, despite his distinctive features, you sometimes have to blink a few times to be sure it’s really him you’re seeing. His remarkable ability to modify his voice to perfectly suit any character he undertakes serves to enhance the illusion.
It was 53 years ago, on March 21, 1958, that (Leonard) Gary Oldman was born in London. His talents manifested themselves early enough to earn him a scholarship to Britain’s Rose Bruford Drama College, from which he moved to stage productions and thence to a film career that can only be described as “eclectic.” Oldman has played, among many other roles, Dracula and Beethoven, Sid Vicious and Pontius Pilate.
His roles that have earned him a spot in the annals of geekdom are, primarily, the villain Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in the love-it-or-hate-it cult favorite The Fifth Element, Sirius Black in the Harry Potter film series and Jim Gordon in the (ongoing) Christopher Nolan “Batman” films. He also played Dr. Smith in the movie adaptation of Lost in Space, but the less said about that the better.
So please join all of us at GeekDad in wishing Gary Oldman a very happy 53rd birthday, and, we hope, many more to come!
