All All. Sign In. Steven Spielberg's The Great Escape. List activity. Daniel Day-Lewis. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon , an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing Studios.
His older sister, Tamasin Day-Lewis , is a documentarian. Daniel was educated at Sevenoaks School in Kent, which he despised, and the more progressive Bedales in Petersfield, which he adored.
He studied acting at the Bristol Old Vic School. Daniel made his film debut in Sunday Bloody Sunday , but then acted on stage with the Bristol Old Vic and Royal Shakespeare Companies and did not appear on screen again until , when he landed his first adult role, a bit part in Gandhi Notable theatrical performances include Another Country , Dracula and The Futurists His first major supporting role in a feature film was in The Bounty , quickly followed by My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room with a View The latter two films opened in New York on the same day, offering audiences and critics evidence of his remarkable range and establishing him as a major talent.
In , he assumed leading-man status in Philip Kaufman 's The Unbearable Lightness of Being , followed by a comedic role in the unsuccessful Stars and Bars He returned to the stage to work again with Eyre, as Hamlet at the National Theater, but was forced to leave the production close to the end of its run because of exhaustion, and has not appeared on stage since. He took a hiatus from film as well until , when he starred in The Last of the Mohicans , a film that met with mixed reviews but was a great success at the box office.
Subsequently, he teamed again with Jim Sheridan to star in In the Name of the Father , a critically acclaimed performance that earned him another Academy Award nomination. He worked with Scorsese again to star in Gangs of New York , another critically acclaimed performance that earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
