Anthony Hopkins becomes oldest ever Oscar winner of best actor

Anthony Hopkins has become the oldest ever Oscar winner of best actor at the age of 83.

The Welsh actor from Port Talbot received the prestigious award for his masterful performance as a man suffering with dementia in The Father.

His victory, which came 29 years after he won his first Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs, was the biggest surprise of the night.

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

In a video message following his win, Anthony Hopkins said: “Well good morning. Here I am in my homeland in Wales, and at 83 years of age I did not expect to get this award, I really didn’t.

“I’m very grateful to the Academy and thank you, and I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman who was taken from us far too early, and again thank you all very much.

“I really did not expect this, so I feel very privileged and honoured, thank you.”

The Father, which is due to be released in the UK on 11 June, also won best adapted screenplay for Christopher Hampton and director Florian Zeller, hailed Anthony Hopkins as “the greatest living actor”.

In The Father, he plays Anthony, a retired engineer who is struggling with the loss of his independence due to the onset of dementia.

The film uses trickery involving its set and editing to thrust the audience into the character’s disorientation and his increasing lack of trust in what his own mind is telling him.