Daniel Day-Lewis Is Retiring: Here Are Some Of His Greatest Roles

Acting Legend Daniel Day-Lewis has officially announced his retirement from acting, stunning legions of fans, many of whom consider him one of the greatest actors to ever appear on the screen.

According to Variety, 60-year-old Daniel Day-Lewis has one more film set to be released on Christmas day 2017, a drama called Phantom Thread, which is set in the world of high fashion. Little is know about the plot of the film beyond the fact that it reunites Day-Lewis with acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson, who helmed the film There Will Be Blood, for which Day-Lewis won the best acting Oscar in 2008. Day-Lewis had previously won the best actor Oscar in 1990 for My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown in which he played a man born with cerebral palsy. He won his third best acting Oscar in 2013 for a dynamic and complex turn as Abraham Lincoln in Steve Spielberg’s Lincoln.

Daniel Day-Lewis, a method actor, is known for his extreme dedication to his craft. For his role in My Left Foot, Day-Lewis confined himself to a wheelchair in an attempt to fully inhabit the character he played. When he starred in an adaptation of the Milan Kundera novel Unbearable Lightness of Being, Day-Lewis actually learned the Czech language, despite the film being in English.

Daniel Day-Lewis has not given a specific reason for his retirement but his spokeswoman, Leslee Dart, confirmed the news, according to Variety.

“Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as an actor,” Dart said. “He is immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years. This is a private decision and neither he nor his representatives will make any further comment on this subject.”

While it is easy to underestimate the immense talent that Daniel Day-Lewis has brought to the big screen over the years, and any list of his great roles will be sure to omit some truly stellar performances, the following five films provide a glimpse of Day-Lewis at the top of his game.

1. My Left Foot (1989)

In the film that won Daniel Day-Lewis his first of three best acting Oscars, the gifted thespian plays Christy Brown, a man born with cerebral palsy who teaches himself to paint and write using his left foot.

2. The Last of the Mohicans (1993)

Daniel Day-Lewis put in a powerful performance as Hawkeye, a member of the Mohawk tribe of Native Americans assigned with the task of protecting a British colonel’s daughter during the French and Indian war.

3. In the Name of the Father (1993)

Jim Sheridan’s masterful film stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Gerry Conlon, a man convicted and sentenced to prison for an IRA bombing he did not commit after a forced confession. Day-Lewis masterfully portrays Conlon in the film based on Conlon’s autobiography.

4. There Will Be Blood (2007)

Daniel Day-Lewis’s gripping performance as oil baron Daniel Plainview in Paul Thomas Anderson’s brutal tale of obsession and greed is one of the greatest acting performances ever put to celluloid and won Day-Lewis his second best acting trophy. There’s really not much to say beyond that. The film and Day-Lewis’s performance speak for themselves.

https://youtu.be/u02XE6UoIoA

5. Lincoln (2012)

It’s hard to think of this film as one of Daniel Day-Lewis’s finest performances, as he so perfectly embodies the role of Abraham Lincoln that he almost becomes Lincoln while watching. His performance quite deservedly won him his third Oscar for best actor.

https://youtu.be/TjlPb1E5S_o

The three Oscars Daniel Day-Lewis has won for best actor are the most of any male actor in history. With Day-Lewis joining up with master auteur Paul Thomas Anderson for Phantom Thread, it’s entirely possible he might be able to add one more trophy at next year’s ceremony. Either way, his massive talents will surely be missed on screen.

EXCLUSIVE: 3-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis is done acting. https://t.co/syDD3uXI3R pic.twitter.com/Wgwkm8PMdw

— Variety (@Variety) June 20, 2017

[Featured Image by There Will Be Blood/Facebook]