Emil Jannings

Very proficient in money matters, Jannings was one of the highest paid actors of his time. Daniel Day-Lewis attended the same theatre school, the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, with fellow British thespian Miranda Richardson. Because of his involvement in Nazi propaganda, Jannings was prohibited to work after the war, and retired to his farm in Austria. Day-Lewis has also a son from a former relationship with French actress Isabelle Adjani. Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels named him "Artist of the State" in 1941. They live in Ireland and have two sons. He made several pro-Nazi films, ending any chance he may have had for a comeback in the United States. Daniel Day-Lewis is married to actress and director Rebecca Miller, daughter of Arthur Miller (author of The Crucible).

He returned to Europe, where he starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in the classic The Blue Angel, filmed in English simultaneously with its German version Der Blaue Engel. Other film roles have included The Age of Innocence co-starring Michelle Pfeiffer, In the Name of the Father, The Crucible with Winona Ryder, Last of the Mohicans, and Gangs of New York with Leonardo DiCaprio. Born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz in Rorschach, Switzerland, of a German mother and an American father, Jannings, as a theater actor, had a promising Hollywood career come to an end when talkies made his thick German accent difficult to understand. He returned to the stage to work again with Richard Eyre, as Hamlet at the National Theater, but was forced to leave the production close to the end of its run suffering from exhaustion, and has not appeared on stage since. He won the 1927/1928 Oscar for two films -- The Way of All Flesh and The Last Command. His performance as Christy Brown in Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot (1989) won him numerous awards, including the Academy Award for best actor. Emil Jannings (July 23, 1884 - January 3, 1950) was the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 1987 he assumed leading man status in Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being co-starring Juliette Binoche.

The latter two films opened in New York City on the same day. This role was followed by a completely different character in A Room with a View in 1986, where he played a snobbish, clumsy upper-class-dandy. In 1984 he had a supporting role in The Bounty, but came to public notice as half of a gay biracial couple in My Beautiful Laundrette. He then went back to the stage in both Bristol and London, and did not return to movies until appearing in a bit part in Gandhi in 1982.

He was trained on the stage, in Bristol, but he made his film debut in Sunday Bloody Sunday in 1971. Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the gifted actors of his generation, known for his total devotion to the role he plays. His mother is Jill Balcon, actress daughter of Sir Michael Balcon, head of Ealing Studios. Although born in London he holds an Irish passport as his father was the Anglo-Irish poet Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of England.

Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born April 29, 1957) is a British actor. 1990 - Won - Best Actor in a Leading Role - My Left Foot. 1994 - Nominated - Best Actor in a Leading Role - In the Name of the Father. 2002 - Nominated - Best Actor in a Leading Role - Gangs of New York.