Oscars 2021: Anthony Hopkins accepts award from Welsh countryside

Olivia Colman and Sir Anthony Hopkins star in The Father

Sir Anthony Hopkins has made history by becoming the oldest person to win an Academy Award for acting.

And in what must be another first, the Port Talbot-born star made his Oscar acceptance speech from Wales.

Sir Anthony has been on holiday in the country for several weeks and sharing glimpses of his trip on social media.

He accepted his second Oscar - this time for his role as a man with dementia in The Father - from open countryside.

In the video posted on social media on Monday, he said: "Here I am in my homeland in Wales and 83 years of age. I did not expect to get this award.

"I really didn't and am very grateful to the academy and thank you."

The award had been tipped to go to the late Chadwick Boseman, who died in August, aged 43, for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Sir Anthony went on to pay tribute to Boseman, whom he said had been "taken from us far too early".

Other Hollywood A-listers rushed to congratulate him, including Hugh Jackman, who called it "a gorgeous performance".

Congratulations also came from another Welsh star, Swansea-born Catherine Zeta-Jones, as well as her husband Michael Douglas.

Alec Baldwin responded: "Holy wow".

Just hours earlier, Sir Anthony shared a video from his father's grave where he recited Dylan Thomas's poem Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.

Last week he shared an image of himself "enjoying the fresh scent of spring in the air" after visiting the playground of his former school, Cowbridge Grammar and also visited shops in the town.

After his visit, Happy Days Vintage Home Store posted a photo of him on Instagram, adding: "So very excited to welcome Sir Anthony Hopkins, his wife and team back to Happy Days for the third time in the last few years!

"Such a mood lifter in these difficult times... Just what we all needed!"

Sir Anthony was in Wales earlier this month when he accepted the best actor Bafta for the same role.

Sir Anthony was born in Margam, Port Talbot, on 31 December 1937.

His parents, Muriel Anne Yeats and Richard Arthur Hopkins, sent him to Jones' West Monmouth Boys' School in Pontypool, before he went to Cowbridge Grammar School.

One of his most celebrated roles is the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence Of The Lambs for which he won won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992.

Sir Anthony became a naturalised US citizen in April 2000 and celebrated by undertaking a 3,000 mile road trip across the country.

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