Double Oscar-winner Sir Anthony Hopkins has urged anyone struggling with addiction to “choose life” and seek help as he celebrated 50 years of sobriety.
The Welsh actor, who turns 88 this week, has spoken about how he realised he needed help after he was “nearly killed” driving in a “drunken blackout” on 29 December 1975.
In a video message shared on his Instagram page, Sir Anthony said, “I got help, and 50 years ago today was the end.
“Without being a killjoy I just wish you all choose life instead of the opposite.”
Hopkins added: “I realised at that point that I was having too much fun. It was called alcoholism.
“So anyone out there who’s got a little problem with having too much, check it out, because life is much better.”
Congratulating others celebrating being in recovery from addiction “one day at a time”, he said: “I’m also going to be 88 in two days’ time, so maybe I did something right.
“Anyway Happy New Year and a happy, happy life.”
In 2018, Sir Anthony opened up about his alcoholism when speaking to a group of students at the University of California.
He admitted he was “very difficult to work with” early in his stage career because he “was usually hungover”.
Sir Anthony said he had been “disgusted, busted, and not to be trusted” while he was drinking.
He said he turned his life around after talking to a woman from Alcoholics Anonymous in 1975.
The Port Talbot-born actor is widely considered to be one of the world’s greatest living actors and known for portraying psychotic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 horror film The Silence Of The Lambs.
Sir Anthony’s portrayal of Hannibal Lecter won him Best Actor at the 1992 Academy Awards.
He went on to star in The Silence Of The Lambs sequel Hannibal (2001) and its prequel Red Dragon (2002).
The actor won a second Oscar for Best Actor in 2020 for his role in Florian Zeller’s The Father which also starred Olivia Colman.
The NHS website describes alcoholism as when someone loses control over their drinking and has an excessive desire to drink, also known as dependent drinking.
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