Daniel Day-Lewis: A Biography - Hardcover

Read quickly, Jenkins' prose numbs because it is so rich with detail on so many interesting and accomplished people in the life of Daniel Day-Lewis. A minibiography of Cecil Day-Lewis, Daniel's father, once England's Poet Laureate and a renowned crime writer, fires the beginning, and an assortment of anecdotes about other members of Daniel's circle stoke it--his mother, Jill Balcon, an actress and the daughter of Sir Michael Balcon, head of Ealing Film Studios; Balcon himself; Tamasin, Daniel's talented sister; Kingsley Amis, in whose home Cecil died; Sarah Campbell, a Bedales schoolmate and Daniel's first significant lover; and on. Once Jenkins accounts for a biography on his young subject, the "wolfishly good-looking Englishman," an accounting that concludes dramatically with Daniel's decision to pursue acting rather than cabinetmaking, every reader should be primed to accept everything the writer wants to attribute to the credentialed actor. Jenkins quotes Day-Lewis on the best screenplays he has read: "It's like poetry: if someone knows how to use very few words, it's far more effective than someone who uses a great many more to say less." My Beautiful Laundrette, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, The Age of Innocence, D. Day-Lewis' work speaks for him, and this biography is very respectful. Bonnie Smothers

Anglo-Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis's memorable performances in such movies as The Unbearable Lightness of Being, My Beautiful Laundrette, The Age of Innocence and My Left Foot have enhanced his luster as a screen idol. London-based critic Jenkins's amiable biography fails to penetrate the protective armor of the elusive, nomadic star (who refused to be interviewed), but fans will enjoy the anecdote-studded account of his stage and screen career as well as the sporadic personal glimpses. Intimidated by his famous father Cecil Day-Lewis, crime novelist, poet laureate and classicist, Daniel lived in his father's shadow, set himself ever more demanding challenges and found in acting the vehicle for his restless, escapist chameleon nature. Jenkins writes perceptively of Day-Lewis's cinematic career, his theatrical roles as Hamlet and as poet Vladimir Mayakovsky in Futurists, and retreads fanzine territory such as the actor's on-and-off relationship with French actress Isabelle Adjani. Photos.
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