Anthony Hopkins' Net Worth Can Buy The West World
Anthony Hopkins’ net worth is $170 million in 2024. He is one of the richest celebrities alive. This allows him to live in a lovely mansion in Malibu. He is originally from Wales. He got his start in London theater productions. Anthony Hopkins’ net worth is substantial, yet I know of one experience that was valuable for his spiritual development.
Build your net worth. Save your money. Start by choosing the best savings account here:
I Want to Be Alone
“I want to be alone,” was Greta Garbo’s famous line. Quite a few movie stars who achieve fame and fortune, such as Jim Carrey, Keanu Reeves, and Anthony Hopkins find it satisfying but not overly spectacular. The acting is rewarding; however, the trappings of Hollywood can be a big pain, in the you-know-what.
Their pursuit of spiritual and personal development is what gives them motivation. Those who sought fame, or had it thrust upon them, soon realize that what they desire most is privacy and to be left alone.
Hopkins is a complex person who does not suffer fools lightly. He abhors cruelty and idiocy. He is wealthy and yet I know an experience that added more value to his life than all of Anthony Hopkins’ net worth. First, let’s learn how Anthony Hopkins’ net worth came into being and how he achieved fame and fortune. Then, I will tell you what I think is worth even more.
Anthony Hopkins became the oldest person who won the an Academy Award for his role in The Father. Congrats sir!
Early Years
Hopkins came into this world with a new year. The world celebrated New Year’s Eve in 1937 on the night when he was born in Port Talbot in Wales. His mother was a homemaker and his dad was a baker. His family life instilled in him a sense of working-class values.
He did not do well in school. He preferred doing creative things like drawing, painting, or playing the piano to studying. He was a poor learner, which he says gave him an inferiority complex. The other students made fun of him and he felt quite stupid.
Meeting Richard Burton Inspired Him
Hopkins found inspiration from meeting Richard Burton when Hopkins was 15. They came from the same area in Wales. Burton was 12 years older than Hopkins and was already established as an actor. The brief encounter encouraged Hopkins to give acting a try.
Hopkins enrolled in the prestigious Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and then graduated in 1957. He served two years in the British Army, which was mandatory national service, and then when he got out, he went to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Hopkins’ Big Break
When he started acting, Anthony Hopkins’ net worth was barely enough to pay the rent. His first professional appearance was in a play called Have a Cigarette showing at the Palace Theater in Swansea. He worked in repertory theater for five years until Sir Laurence Olivier spotted him and invited him to join the Royal National Theatre in London. Hopkins’ job was to be Olivier’s understudy.
When Olivier took ill with appendicitis, Hopkins stepped in, to play his role as Edgar in The Dance of Death. He did well. He continued in the theater until his first television role in 1967 on the BBC’s A Flea in Her Ear. Then, he got his first film role in 1964 for a short film called Changes.
In 1968, his big break in the theater came with the role of Richard the Lion Heart in The Lion in Winter. This performance earned him a BAFTA Award. Then, he starred in Pravda, Howard Benton, and played the character of Antony in Antony and Cleopatra with Judy Dench. His first Broadway play was Equus.
He did more television and films that included playing Charles Dickens in The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens in 1970. In 1972, he starred in the BBC mini-series War and Peace. Richard Attenborough directed him in Young Winston and A Bridge Too Far and called Hopkins, “the greatest actor of his generation.”
Hollywood Calling
By the 1980s, Hollywood wanted him. He was in The Elephant Man (1980). In 1984, he starred opposite Mel Gibson in The Bounty. He played Professor Van Helsing in the film directed by Francis Ford Coppola called Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). He co-starred with Emma Thompson in Howards End (1992) and The Remains of the Day (1993). After that, he was in Shadowlands (1993), Legends of the Fall (1994), The Edge (1997), The Mask of Zorro (1998), and Meet Joe Black (1998).
In 2005, he starred in The Word’s Fastest Indian about a man who beats the land speed record for an Indian motorcycle on the salt flats. Hopkins says that this was his favorite role of all time because the character he played is the most like him.
Good Guy Plays Evil Monster
Hopkins has been in so many terrific films that is it difficult to choose a favorite one.
Hannibal Lecter
However, the character that he is best known for is the serial killer/cannibal, Hannibal Lector, from The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and its sequels Hannibal (2001) and Red Dragon (2002). He won the Academy Award for his performance in The Silence of the Lambs as Best Actor.
His co-star Jodie Foster won the Oscar for Best Actress. The film won the award for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The character of Hannibal Lector is evil and intriguing at the same time. Hopkins calls him the “Robin Hood of serial killers” because he kills the people who are “terminally rude.”
Westworld Adds to Anthony Hopkins Net Worth
More recently, Hopkins is starring in the television series Westworld, which is now in its fourth season. It is about a futuristic theme park filled with robots that go berserk when they malfunction. Hopkins receives $175,000 per episode. There have been 28 episodes so far before the fourth season begins.
In an interview conducted by Entertainment, with the cast members of Westworld, James Marsden, Jeffrey Wright, and Ed Harris, they explained what it was like to work with Hopkins.
James Marsden says he was nervous about getting naked opposite Hopkins in a three-page scene and called that a “trial by fire.” It was the first time he met and worked with Hopkins.
Jeffrey Wright said he was terrified when being tortured in a scene by the character Hopkins plays. Ed Harris said just being in any scene with the legendary actor is intimidating because your soul is naked.
Knighthood
In 1987, Hopkins received a CBE, which is the British Order of Chivalry for his contributions to the arts and work with charitable organizations. In1993, the Queen of England bestowed upon Anthony Hopkins the title of Sir when she knighted him in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
Join the Wealthry Store.
Charitable Efforts
Part of Anthony Hopkins’ net worth goes to charitable efforts. He donated funds to preserve Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. He wrote a book about this beautiful area called Anthony Hopkins' Snowdonia, which published in 1995.
He supports the YMCA in his home town Of Port Talbot. He has been a member since the 1950s. As a recovering alcoholic, in sobriety for more than 35 years, he likes to help drug and alcohol addiction programs like Women in Recovery that is located in Venice, California. He is an occasional guest teacher at the Ruskin School of Acting in Santa Monica, California.
In 1999, a new wing opened, called the Anthony Hopkins Centre, at his alma mater of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, built from his donation of 2.3 million pounds. Hopkins is also active in environmental causes and supports Greenpeace.
Meditation With Anthony Hopkins
Hopkins says he is agnostic, yet he also says that he has to believe there must be something bigger than him. He recognizes there are vast areas that we know so little about ourselves.
I met Anthony Hopkins when I went to train for a two-day intensive with Gurumayi Chidvilasananda. She was giving a teaching about the Siddha Yoga® Path at the Convention Center in Long Beach, California in a room that held a few thousand people. This was the first time I attended her teachings. Siddha yoga practitioners embrace the spiritual expression of yoga that includes mediation, chanting (mantra meditation), contemplation, study, and selfless service.
Newbies Get to Sit Upfront and Center
At the intensive event, they give you a label to wear with your first name written on it and the color indicates that you are a first-time attendee. This allows you to sit in the front center section and everyone treats you in a very welcoming manner. A guide led me to my seat, which was down in the center front, just a few feet from where Gurumayi would sit and give her teaching. I recognized this was truly a great honor and was delighted.
To my surprise, a few moments later, Anthony Hopkins came down the aisle led by an usher and he sat right next to me. He is one of my favorite actors. I remember thinking at that time no one will ever believe me when I tell this story. This happened in 1999 and now I am telling the story.
Never Ask for an Autograph
Having worked in the movie business, I am used to being around famous people. The most appropriate way to act if you meet them in a casual setting is to act as if you are meeting any other regular person.
Be nice, introduce yourself, and let them have the pleasure of introducing themselves, even though everyone already knows who they are. Start that way and you have a good chance to get to know them as a person. Movie stars appreciate fans; however, all that fawning over them makes them uncomfortable.
Sometimes it helps if you ask them if they are OK with you pretending that they are not famous. Many famous people attach strongly to their ego persona. If they are not recognized, they either think you are stupid or not a fan, which means you are not worthy of their time. However, I have found that the nice people, who also happen to be movie stars, enjoy conversing with regular people without the focus being solely on their fantastic stardom.
I am aware of this dynamic so I asked him if he would not mind hanging out like regular ordinary people and leave all the trappings of Hollywood temporarily outside. He said, “That would be delightful.”
I could not help myself and thought, “Is he considering how I might taste cooked with fava beans?” Then I remembered that is a character, not him, and snapped back to reality.
It was a long program for the two-day intensive, so I spent many hours next to Sir Hopkins. He is the only man I ever met that has the official title of “Sir” who was knighted by the English Queen. That is special.
Guided Meditation
The fun part of the experience is that we were both there for the teachings of Gurumayi. Our focus was actually on her. There was little time for idle chitchat. We spent long periods in silent mediation, while she beamed spiritual energy at us. In that effort, both Sir Hopkins and I were both newbies and it was very pleasant for both of us to meditate together with the guru guiding us.
I felt empowered from the meditation practice and continued to do this since that time. If you would like to try this, this is a guided meditation you might enjoy.
Conclusion
At the end of the teachings of Gurumayi, when it was time to leave, I gave Anthony Hopkins a short video for a project I was working on about the new millennium. The short video tells how the blossoming of the human spirit is rising up to usher in an era of peaceful sustainability to coexist with our beautiful planet earth.
Using meditation to achieve a respite of peacefulness is vastly more valuable than any net worth. Anthony Hopkins’ net worth is just material possessions. We both learned the technique to calm the mind, sit still, and turn off the attachment to the ego.
Everything is temporary. Even Anthony Hopkins’ net worth, as well as other wealthy actors’ net worth, is temporary. However, finding a way to enter a state of peaceful bliss that transcends this world is eternal. Anyone who has this skill has one of the true treasures available to every human being who chooses to learn how to access it. I have this treasure and Sir Hopkins has this too.