We Did OK, Kid by Anthony Hopkins
We Did OK, Kid is that rare substantive revelatory memoir sharing more than is typically glimpsed behind the gilded gates of Hollywood as told in gossip columns or seen in interviews. Anthony Hopkins writes with tremendous honesty and passion about his life, education, formative years as a repertory actor, and favorite roles as well as personal flaws, foibles and weaknesses. Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937 and continues to work as an actor, director, narrator and composer. On January 17, 2025, he hosted a gala Royal Philharmonic Orchestra concert in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia conducted by Maestro Matthew Freeman that included his own compositions. This event occurred just 10 days after the horrific, wide-spread Pacific Palisades fire destroyed the multi-million dollar home he shared with his wife Stella Arroyave Hopkins. It was noted that his speech expressed gratitude and emphasized “music’s power to heal and unite.”
Anthony was born in the small steelworks town of Port Talbot, Wales where his family endured the Great Depression and wartime deprivations. Life there was harsh and it was unmanly to exhibit vulnerability. In the introduction to We Did OK, Kid, he wrote, “I was made of tough stuff. My father was like that – no nonsense, no fuzziness. His advice to me was: Just get on with it. Stand up straight and don’t complain.”
As a boy, Anthony struggled in academics much preferring to paint or play piano which he had begun to study at age four. His family, teachers and peers dismissed the future prospects of the young dreamer and he considered himself to be stupid. Despite misgivings, his parents insisted he be afforded the opportunity for a good education and sent him to boarding school for five terms at West Monmouth Boys’ School in Pontypool followed by Cowbridge Grammar School. The cinema not only provided a welcome break but also sparked keen interest along with a glimmer of emergent hope for the future, particularly when he saw the 1948 adaptation of Hamlet directed by and starring Sir Laurence Olivier. It was the first British film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards and also garnered Oliver the coveted Best Actor Award. Fellow Welshman Richard Burton, whom 15 year-old Hopkins met by chance, also featured prominently as an inspiration.
Discipline and the Making of an Actor
His interest in acting burgeoned and blossomed further when he was accepted by the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff from which he graduated in 1957. Mandatory national service followed between 1958-1960 during which time “Gunner Hopkins” served in the British Army’s Royal Artillery regiment. Following his honorable discharge, he moved to London and successfully auditioned the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) graduating in 1963. His first professional appearance was in 1960 with Swansea Little Theatre. In the British Isles, Repertory Theater was a proving ground for many fine actors training and experience in both performance and production in theater.
Anthony Hopkins was able to routinely hold multiple entire plays in his head and rapidly demonstrated proficiency while earning noteworthy praise. Laurence Olivier invited him to join the Royal National Theatre Company in London where he was soon elevated to be the seasoned master’s understudy. He drew favorable attention in a 1967 BBC television broadcast of “A Flea in her Ear.” A pivotal career event came in 1968 when he co-starred with Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn as Richard the Lionhearted in The Lion in Winter resulting in a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
From his earliest roles, Anthony Hopkins possessed the gift of an adhesive mind; the ability to memorize lines, indeed, entire scripts in relatively short order by repeating the words aloud as many as two hundred times with the stated goal of making the lines sound so natural he “can do it without thinking.” He was noted for being letter perfect at first table readings with cast and directors. Richard Attenborough who directed him in five films, described him as “unquestionably the greatest actor of his generation.”
Hard-Won Self-Reckoning
Renowned for his work on stage and screen, Anthony Hopkins has received numerous honors and awards including two Academy Awards; the first was the 1991 Best Actor for The Silence of the Lambs for his chilling portrayal of Hannibal Lecter, a cannibalistic serial killer. The film won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, bestowed Best Actress to co-star Jodie Foster and catapulted Anthony Hopkins into the realm of superstardom. In 2020 he became the oldest Academy Award Best Actor recipient for the film The Father. There have been four BAFTA Awards, a Lawrence Olivier Award, two Emmys, as well as the lifetime achievement awards: Cecil B. DeMille and BAFTA Fellowship. Joining other British performing luminaries, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for services to drama in 1993.
What was less satisfying in his early life was his stormy first marriage to another member of London’s National Theatre Company actress Petronella Barker, nearly five years his junior. Married in 1966, they produced his only child, Abigail, in 1968 and their divorce was finalized in 1972. Leaving the marriage when she was a baby, he admits that while he providing financial support, he was an absent parent resulting in decades of estrangement regrettably enduring to the present day. In We Did OK, Kid, Hopkins acknowledges that the combination of his alcohol use, bouts of depression and Petronella’s frequent rages led to the marriage break-up and this was a low point in his personal life. He subsequently gave up alcohol entirely in late 1975.
While still married, he met Jennifer Lynton, a production assistant at Pinewood Studios, and shortly after his divorce was finalized, she became his second wife in January, 1973. He reveals in this memoir that although she deserved better treatment, he cheated numerous times and they ultimately drifted apart in 1998. Her preference for remaining in London while he was finding more film opportunities as both actor and director in California contributed to the divorce which was finalized in 2002. Good fortune smiled on him when he met his Colombian born third wife, owner of an antiques shop specializing in Asian art, Stella Arroyave in 2001. Her energy, sunny upbeat nature and close-knit family were an antidote to his brooding depressive nature. They have been happily married since 2003.
The Grace of Carrying On
The memoir ends with the Appendix: “ANTHONY HOPKIN’S COMMONPLACE POETRY BOOK” which contains a selection of the poems he memorized as a lad which he would recite to please his father.
We Did OK, Kid is a warts and all memoir which documents coming to terms with the early hardships, frustrations, alcoholism, chronic depression and mishandled relationships to ultimately embrace his full, long life. The future is yet to be determined but Sir Anthony Hopkins remains energetic and eager to undertake new challenges and projects, one of which will be a biopic about the Maserati Family automotive dynasty.
Sir Anthony sums up his current outlook in the “Tributes” section with ”These are the best of days to wake up each day, look up at the sky, and say, “Good morning, world Here I am again the youngest I will ever be. Let’s have a laugh today.”
We Did OK, Kid is a gem with writing that compares favorably with a stellar roster of fine actor/writers that include Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness, John Gielgud, Peter O’Toole, Dirk Bogarde, Peter Ustinov and David Niven.
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