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Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, musician, and screenwriter, who is best known for his numerous film roles, such as Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone's 1991 epic political thriller film JFK, Count Dracula in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 gothic horror film Bram Stoker's Dracula, Norman Stansfield in Luc Besson's 1994 action thriller film Léon: The Professional, Ludwig van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, and Sirius Black in the Harry Potter franchise. He also voiced Sir Ruber, Lord Shen, and General Grawl, the main antagonists of Warner Bros.' Quest for Camelot, DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda 2, and Planet 51 (respectively), as well as Ignitus in The Legend of Spyro video game trilogy. Additionally, he portrayed James "Jim" Gordon in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight film trilogy and George Smiley in the 2011 Cold War spy thriller film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the latter of which he received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor, and later won in the same category for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Joe Wright's 2017 war drama film Darkest Hour. He received an additional nomination in the same category for his role as Herman J. Mankiewicz in David Fincher's 2020 black-and-white biographical drama film Mank.

For Disney, he voiced Bob Cratchit, Jacob Marley, and Tiny Tim in Robert Zemeckis' 2009 animated film A Christmas Carol, and portrayed Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale in the 1995 Hollywood Pictures film The Scarlet Letter. He also played Alistair Russell in the 2021 Fox film The Woman in the Window, and was mentioned in Geek Charming.

Oldman was born in New Cross, London, the son of Leonard Bertram Oldman, a former sailor who also worked as a welder, and Kathleen (née Cheriton). He said his father was an alcoholic who left the family when Oldman was seven years old. His older sister, Maureen, is an actress better known as Laila Morse; she performed in Oldman's 1997 directorial debut Nil by Mouth, before taking on her most famous role of Mo Harris in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. Oldman attended West Greenwich School in Deptford, leaving at the age of 16 to work in a sports shop. He played piano as a child, but he gave up his musical aspirations to pursue an acting career after seeing Malcolm McDowell's performance in the 1971 film The Raging Moon. In a 1995 interview with Charlie Rose, he said, "Something about Malcolm just arrested me, and I connected, and I said, 'I wanna do that.'"

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