Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, CBE (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh film, stage and television actor. Considered to be one of film's greatest living actors, he is best known for his portrayal of cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the 1991's The Silence of the Lambs, its sequel, Hannibal, and its prequel, Red Dragon. His other notable film credits include The Elephant Man, Dracula, Legends of the Fall, The Remains of the Day, The Mask of Zorro, The World's Fastest Indian, Hearts in Atlantis, Nixon and Fracture. Hopkins was born and raised in Wales, and also became a U.S. citizen on 12 April 2000. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003 and was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2008.

Hopkins was born in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales, the son of Muriel Anne (née Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His schooldays were unproductive. A loner with dyslexia, he found that he would rather immerse himself in art, such as painting and drawing or playing the piano, than attend to his studies. In 1949, to instill discipline, his parents insisted he attend Jones' West Monmouth Boys' School in Pontypool, Wales. He remained there for five terms and was then educated at Cowbridge Grammar School, Cowbridge, Wales.

Hopkins was influenced and encouraged to become an actor by compatriot Richard Burton, whom he met briefly at the age of 15. To that end, he enrolled at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, Wales from which he graduated in 1957. After a two-year spell conscription into the Army for National Service, he moved to London where he trained at RADA.