Look who’s back . . . Sir Anthony Hopkins returns home to Wales

He’s back.

One of Wales’s finest actors is back where he belongs – in the land of his fathers – the land that he loves.

Port Talbot-born Sir Anthony Hopkins, famous for his roles including as the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, now lives in Malibu, a beach city in western Los Angeles County, California.

But Wales and the Welsh people are never far from his thoughts.

At Easter, Hopkins sent his 834,946 Twitter followers a Happy Easter message saying: “Happy Easter everyone, from the other side of the pond”.

A humorous video clip showed him holding a coconut to his ear and talking to a fictional Easter Bunny about “the mystery of life.”

In his latest post this afternoon, the world-famous Hollywood actor has shared a photograph of himself taken near a derelict former abbey which has prompted some of his followers to ask whether it is Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire, St David’s, Pembrokeshire or Strata Florida, Ystrad Meurig with words: “Trees, brooks and books . . . Back home in Wales” and added a Welsh Dragon flag and a red heart.

Trees, brooks, and books… Back home in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿♥️ pic.twitter.com/IE3BOBRixP

— Anthony Hopkins (@AnthonyHopkins) April 11, 2021

The photo has prompted one of Hopkins’ Twitter followers, Joao Anache, to ask why has he got blue paint on his hands, to which he replies: “I was painting prior to my walk.”

Another one asked if he had returned home to vote Plaid Cymru in the election.

Although his back his turned to the camera, the tweet has – within a couple of hours – attracted over 20,000 likes and many hundreds of retweets and replies.

In 2000, Hopkins narrated How the Grinch Stole Christmas and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003.

Anniversary

In 2019, he portrayed Pope Benedict XVI opposite fellow Welshman Jonathan Pryce as Pope Francis in The Two Popes.

Last year, Hopkins played a man struggling with his memory in The Father with many critics praising Hopkins’ performance and calling him a standout and Oscar frontrunner

In 1998 he donated £1million towards the £3million needed to aid the National Trust’s efforts in buying parts of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and authored Anthony Hopkins’ Snowdonia, which was published in 1995.

Hopkins also contributed toward the refurbishment of a £2.3 million wing at his alma mater, the Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff,  named the Anthony Hopkins Centre which opened in 1999.

Thrice-married Hopkins celebrated his 10th wedding anniversary on Christmas Eve 2012 by having a blessing at a private service at St David’s Cathedral, Pembrokeshire.

He is a recovering alcoholic and has stayed sober since he stopped drinking after Christmas 1975.