Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first person shooter developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It was released in November 9, 2010.

Protagonists[link]

• Agent Alex Mason is the first and primary playable character. He first appears at the very beginning of the game, being interrogated by members of an unknown organization who are trying to get information out of him. In the first level of the game, Mason and his teammates Joseph Bowman and Frank Woods infiltrated Cuba in order to assassinate Fidel Castro during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Though Mason appears to succeed in killing Castro, he strands himself on Cuba while ensuring that Woods and Bowman escaped by plane; it was revealed shortly thereafter that he had actually killed Castro's body double, and the real one was still alive. Castro then gave Mason to the Soviet General Nikita Dragovich, who imprisoned him at the Vorkuta Gulag. During his two year imprisonment, he befriended Viktor Reznov, a former Russian soldier. He and Reznov sparked a major prison uprising to escape from Vorkuta, but only Mason managed to escape. Afterwards, Mason was brought to The Pentagon with Jason Hudson and Robert McNamara, where he meets President John F. Kennedy, who authorizes the assassination of Dragovich. Mason and his team were dispatched to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in order to disrupt the Soviet space program and kill Dragovich, though the mission went wrong when one of their teammates, Weaver, was captured. Though they managed to save him and destroyed a Russian rocket as it tried to take off, Dragovich escaped. Five years later, Mason was dispatched to Vietnam, where he was reunited with his old teammates and repelled an attack by the North Vietnamese Army at the Battle of Khe Sanh. In Hue City, they were sent to look for a man who was trying to defect to the West; the defector appears to be Viktor Reznov, who has since escaped from Vorkuta. They are, however, captured once again, and, ultimately, only Mason is left alive. He and Reznov then infiltrated Rebirth Island, a Soviet research station where the deadly chemical Nova 6 was manufactured and weaponized, in order to kill Friedrich Steiner, a German scientist who defected to the Soviet Union near the end of World War II. During the interrogation, Mason recalls that Reznov was the one who killed Steiner, but it was actually Mason himself who did so; it is revealed that Mason was brainwashed at Vorkuta to eventually assassinate President Kennedy, though it is unclear what his actual involvement in the assassination is. Viktor Reznov managed to tamper with the brainwashing process and turned Mason against his former brainwashers, Mason suffered from a personality disorder as a result, and he thought that Reznov was real but he himself was Viktor Reznov, thus altering his memory of past events where he thought Reznov was involved. Mason is voiced by Sam Worthington.

• Special Agent Jason Hudson is a secondary player character, who was Mason's handler and turns out to be the man interrogating him throughout the game. His first formal appearance is when he is escorting Mason into The Pentagon, and he worked together with Mason and Woods in Vietnam. Hudson becomes playable for the first time in the fourth level of the game, set in Hong Kong as he is interrogating Daniel Clarke, a British defector who weaponized Nova 6. Later in the game, Hudson and a team of other agents were sent to apprehend Steiner on Rebirth Island, at the same time that Mason and Reznov were there to kill him, acting against orders. In order to stop Nova 6 from being used on civilians, Hudson interrogates Mason to try to find out what the numbers that Clarke had mentioned meant. Hudson is voiced by Ed Harris.^[1]

• Captain Viktor Reznov (Russian: Виктор Резнов) is another playable character, returning from Call of Duty: World at War, though is only playable in one level. He first appeared in the second level as a prisoner in Vorkuta, where he and Mason became friends. Reznov instigated a large-scale uprising by the prisoners, but was recaptured while Mason escaped. He and Mason appeared to reunite in Vietnam, where he claimed to be defecting to the West, and saved Mason after the helicopter he was on crashed. Following Kravchenko's death, he and Mason tracked down Steiner on Rebirth Island. Mason actually suffers from dissociative identity disorder; he himself became Viktor Reznov. At the end of the game, it is revealed that after Mason escaped from Vorkuta, Reznov was actually an illusion in Mason's mind, and Jason Hudson tells Mason that Reznov reversed his brain-washing so that Mason could kill Dragovich, Kravchenko, and Steiner out of revenge for Reznov's comrades (who were killed in 1945 by Dragovich and Kravchenko by exposure to Nova 6) and that the real Reznov was killed after the prison break by Russian soldiers. Reznov is voiced by Gary Oldman.

• Special Agent Grigori Weaver (Russian: Григорий Уивер) is a soldier who defected to the United States after the government-sponsored murder of his father. He is also an engineer who was sent to sabotage a rocket, but was captured and has his left eye cut out by Kravchenko. He also assists Jason Hudson during the interrogation of Daniel Clarke and during the missions on Mt. Yamantau and Rebirth. Towards the end of the game, Weaver becomes more and more distrustful of Mason because of his erratic behavior. It is revealed that he along with Hudson has been interrogating Mason throughout the game. Weaver learns from an anonymous note that his niece is alive in Russia. However, he is never informed that she is a high-ranking government agent. Weaver is voiced by Gene Farber.

• Sergeant Frank Woods is a non-playable character, but is an ally of Mason in most of the game's levels. He first appeared in the first level, along with Mason and Bowman, during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Woods and Mason are captured by the Vietcong and almost killed during a forced game of Russian roulette. After escaping the rat tunnels, Woods and Mason eventually commandeered a helicopter and fought their way to where Kravchenko was hiding. Woods sacrificed his own life by tackling Kravchenko and knocking both of them out a window as the latter pulled a grenade. He later appeared alive seconds later, only to be revealed an illusion in the eyes of Mason. He is presumed dead, but an anonymous note sent to Mason (viewable in the interrogation room computer) states that Woods is still alive and imprisoned in Hanoi, North Vietnam; the Reveal Trailer for Black Ops II shows he survived until at least 95. He is voiced by James C. Burns.^[2]

• Chief Petty Officer Joseph Bowman is a non-playable character who appears in several missions as an ally of Mason. He first appeared in the first level, along with Mason and Woods, during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Bowman was brutally killed by a Spetsnaz operative when he insulted him, and refused to play a game of Russian roulette. He is voiced by Ice Cube.

• President of the United States John F. Kennedy is one of the characters in Zombie mode, on the level Five. He made only one formal appearance in the campaign, during his meeting with Alex Mason to authorize Nikita Dragovich's assassination, though his voice plays over some parts of the game. He was assassinated in 1963, allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald, though Mason appears to have had some form of involvement in the assassination. Kennedy is voiced by Jim Merkimen and Chriss Anglin.

• Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara is the second player character in one version of the Zombie mode. Like Kennedy, he only formally appears once in the campaign with his voice dubbed in other sections as well. He brings Alex Mason to Kennedy and helps to conspire to assassinate Nikita Dragovich. He is voiced by Robert Picardo.

Antagonists[link]

• Major General Nikita Dragovich (Russian: Никита Драгович) is the main antagonist of the story, the instigator of the Nova 6 plot and the attempted invasion of the United States. He first appears at the end of the first level, receiving Mason as a prisoner from Fidel Castro. Dragovich was largely responsible for Mason's brainwashing. His earlier involvement in the Nova 6 plot was in 1945 in the Arctic Circle, when he helped Friedrich Steiner move his chemical weapons out of a ship which had been frozen in place by the weather. Dragovich was killed by Mason at the end of the game. His final words suggest that Mason followed his original programming to assassinate President Kennedy despite Reznov's interference, but even this remains unclear. Dragovich was voiced by Eamon Hunt.

• Colonel Lev Kravchenko (Ukrainian: Лев Кравченко) is a secondary antagonist, first appearing when Mason was captured in Cuba. He was also personally responsible for the loss of Weaver's left eye, and though Mason and his team searched feverishly for him, he managed to escape. He was eventually killed by Woods, who knocked them both through a window and simultaneously pulling the pins from the grenades that Kravchenko had strapped to him, ensuring both their deaths. As evidenced by intel found in-game, he was quite sadistic, going so far as to torture his own sister to death to prove his loyalty to Dragovich. He was voiced by Andrew Divoff.

• Doctor Friedrich Steiner is a German scientist responsible for the creation of Nova 6, a nerve toxin which can kill a human being in a matter of seconds. He formally worked for the Third Reich designing other chemical weapons, but withheld the use of Nova 6 by the Germans and instead handed it over to Dragovich in 1945. He defected to the Soviet Union and continued to develop the toxin. Near the end of the game, Steiner began to have second thoughts and begged Hudson and Weaver to extract him from Rebirth Island before he would be killed by Dragovich's men (who were killing those who were not important anymore), but was shot and killed by Mason despite his attempt to jog Mason's memory. Steiner is voiced by Mark Bramhall.

• Prime Minister of Cuba Fidel Castro is a minor antagonist in the campaign, though serves as a protagonist in one version of the Zombie mode. He was Mason's target during the Bay of Pigs Invasion, though Mason only killed Castro's body double. His soldiers then captured Mason and handed him over to Dragovich. He later appears in the Pentagon fighting zombies alongside John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara and Richard Nixon. He is voiced by Marlon Correa and Gustavo Rex.

• Doctor Daniel Clarke is a cynical British communist and defector who left for the Soviet Union in 1964. His experience in Biology and chemistry, gained at Oxford University, made him a useful tool to Dragovich in stabilizing the volatile compounds which made up Nova 6. Knowing that Dragovich would kill him as soon as Nova 6 was weaponized, he escaped to Kowloon City in Hong Kong, though was captured by Hudson and Weaver, who tortured him to try to weed out information. During their attempted escape, just before he could tell Hudson what the numbers from Dragovich's broadcast station meant, he was shot in the head and fell from the rooftops. Clarke is voiced by Gary Oldman.

• "Numbers" is an unnamed female character who broadcasts the number sequences to the Soviet sleeper agents in America from an unknown location. She is first seen when the game starts for the first time and in the ending of the game, and she can also be heard in Mason's head throughout the campaign. She is voiced (and played by in live action shots) by Emmanuelle Chriqui.

Zombies[link]

• Tank Dempsey is a fearless, stereotypical American war hero, a US Marine who is obsessed with war and bloodshed. He hates Richtofen, and likes Takeo and Nikolai . His favorite weapon is the M16. Tank Dempsey was also awarded for his bravery on the island of Peliliu during World War Two. Not one of the original super soldier test subjects, Dempsey was captured and tortured by Richtofen while trying to extract a spy from Group 935. He replaced a Mexican killed by Richtofen, and like the others, had his memory wiped, which he slowly starts to regain. Dempsey can be heard yelling insults and jokes at the zombies if the player accumulates a large amount of kills. Dempsey bears resemblance to Pvt. Polonsky, a non-playable U.S. Marine in Call of Duty: World at War. He is voiced by Steven Blum

• Nikolai Belinski (Russian: Николай Белинский) is a stereotypical Russian. A drunken, ignorant ex-soldier from the Red Army. He has had 6 wives, all of them killed by him, and he is obsessed with vodka. He respects Dempsey, but hates Takeo and he likes Richtofen until the map "Moon". His favorite weapons seem to be the M14, and the FN-FAL. He was one of the original super soldiers captured and tortured by Richtofen, the result of which was him being reduced to being nearly functionless without vodka. Nikolai can also be heard yelling non-sense about various things, mostly about his vodka he thinks the zombies are trying to steal. Belinski seems to look like Pvt. Chernov, a non-playable Red Army Soldier in Call of Duty: World at War.

• Takeo Masaki is former soldier in the Imperial Army from a long line of distinguished warriors. As such, he is concerned with his and his allies honor in battle. He likes Richtofen, but hates Nikolai. His favourite weapon is AKS-74u. He is the first to begin regaining his memories after Richtofen erased them following the latter's experimentation on the former. Out of the three super soldiers, he is the only one who does not hate Richtofen. Masaki looks like the Japanese Officer in the starting sequence of Call of Duty: World at War.

• Edward Richtofen A German ex-scientist who worked for Dr. Ludvig Maxis and his daughter Samantha, and is revealed to be the true main antagonist of the Zombies campaign. He was driven insane, possibly schizophrenic, by his encounter with an alien device called the "M.P.D." Maxis created the Hellhounds, Richtofen used them to kill Maxis and group 935, although the daughter, Samantha, survived, and was sent to the Group 935 facility on the Moon. He has created the Wunderwaffe DG-2 and the Quantum Entanglement Device, or the QED. He hates Dempsey yet he seems to like Nikolai. His favorite weapons are the Wunderwaffe DG-2,Raygun and the MP40. In Call of the Dead, he retrieves the Golden Rod from the celebrities, and in Shangri-La he obtains the Focusing Stone, which both play a part in his plan on the Moon. He uses both items to switch places with Samantha - who had been held prisoner inside the M.P.D. - and has been using Takeo, Nikolai, and Dempsey to achieve this, to become the master of all zombies to conquer the world. However, his plan is thwarted when the others follow Maxis' contingency plan to destroy the Earth and all zombies on it, leaving Richtofen in control of only the surviving zombies on the Moon, which are already being killed by the other three.

• Samantha Maxis is the 8 year old daughter of Dr. Ludvig Maxis. With her father, she was trapped in a teleporter room with a hellhound. Instead of dying, she was sent to Griffin Station on the Moon. From there, she entered the "M.P.D.", gaining control of the zombies. Her efforts to destroy Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, and Richtofen are her completing her father's dying wish: to destroy everyone who betrayed them, including anyone helping said people. She has attacked the four with hellhounds, zombies, and space monkeys. She lured Yuri Kravcheski, a scientist, into trapping Dr. Gersch in the Kassimir Mechanism, leading to the map Ascension's greatest easter egg. When you shoot the generator with various Pack a Punched (Upgraded) weapons, you will free Dr. Gersch from Samantha and they will reward you and your team with Death Machine mini-guns which last for 90 seconds. In Moon, it is revealed that all the previous easter eggs in the other maps were part of Richtofen's plan to switch souls with her, so he could control the zombies. After accomplishing the plan, she ends up in Richtofen's physical body, while he ends up in her place, a spirit who controls the zombies.

• Dr. Ludvig Maxis Samantha's father. He was the head of Group 935, and Richtofen's superior before Richtofen betrayed him by locking him and Sam in a room with the teleporter and a newly created Hellhound, which was Samantha's pregnant dog Fluffy. He survived, and as taken to the Moon by Richtofen's allies. His final request to Samantha was to destroy those who betrayed them, before being shot in the head. He later appeared as some sort of computer file denying access to Richtofen at Moon. However, Maxis is deleted by Richtofen just before he can stop him from receiving the Vril Generator from the computer. Later, just as the original characters and Samantha, now in Richtofen's body, he appears in a radio message and tells them to launch 3 rockets in order to kill all the zombies, stopping Richtofen's plan for an army of zombies to conquer Earth.

• President of the United States John F. Kennedy is the first player character in one version of the Zombie mode. He made only one formal appearance in the campaign, during his meeting with Alex Mason to authorize Nikita Dragovich's assassination, though his voice plays over some parts of the game. He was assassinated in 1963, allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald, though Mason appears to have had some form of involvement in the assassination, but it turned out that it was actually the zombies who killed Kennedy (at the end of the game) while the other three characters somehow escaped.

• Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara is the second player character in one version of the Zombie mode. Like Kennedy, he only formally appears once in the campaign with his voice dubbed in other sections as well. He brings Alex Mason to Kennedy and helps to conspire to assassinate Nikita Dragovich. He is voiced by Robert Picardo.

• Richard Nixon is the third character in the same version of Zombies as Kennedy and MacNamara. While he makes no formal appearance in the campaign, he is revealed to be in this mode because Kennedy believes that he could bring helpful ideas to ease the tensions between the U.S. and Cuba. He also appears to be a source of comic relief similar to that of Takeo Masaki in the majority of other zombies maps.

• Prime Minister of Cuba Fidel Castro is the fourth character in the Zombies mode featuring the three characters mentioned prior. He appears in the campaign during the Bay of Pigs Invasion and appears in Zombies while trying to negotiate peace talks with the U.S. after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

• Sarah Michelle Gellar is the first playable character in the "Call of the Dead" mode of Zombies. She is the one of the only women in the entire Call of Duty Series (and one of the even fewer playable ones.) She is one of the four survivors on the set of a movie that was attacked by zombies and had helped Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Edward Richtofen, and Takeo Masaki transfer themselves from a closet on the set into Shangri-La. Like the other characters in "Call of the Dead", she has no relevance to the actual campaign.

• Robert Englund is the second playable character in "Call of the Dead." During the opening, he is made out to be the butt of a joke involving how to hit a zombie with a shotgun. He, like Gellar, is one of the four survivors of the zombie invasion on the movie set. During the opening is shown killing zombies with a pitchfork however, it somehow vanishes when the game begins (Englund brings this up if you buy the "Sickle" to replace your knife)

• Danny Trejo is the third playable character in "Call of the Dead" and one of the four survivors on the film set. Like Englund, he has weapons in the opening that disappear when the game begins. In his case, they are dual wielded machete's though he never brings it up.

• Michael Rooker is the fourth playable character in "Call of the Dead" and the fourth survivor on the film set. He, like Trejo and Englund, wields an unusable weapon in the opening (in his case they are dual double-barreled shotguns that fire three rounds before needing to be reloaded)

• George A. Romero is the main antagonist of "Call of the Dead." While directing a movie, he is abducted by zombies and injected with Element 115. He chases the playable characters around with a spotlight and becomes increasingly difficult the closer you get to defeating him. If you hit him he goes into a berserk sprint and will not stop until he reaches water. It is assumed that he is either cured or the Element eventually wore off as he gives a speech at the end of the level.

Other Characters[link]

• Terrance Brooks first makes his appearance in the level 'Executive Order' as part of the team that infiltrated the Baikonour launch facility to destroy a Soyuz rocket. He makes a later reappearance in the level 'WMD' as part of the team infiltrating a Soviet outpost in the Ural Mountains. He is voiced by Troy Baker.

• Bruce Harris is a soldier who appears only in the level 'WMD'. He is killed by a Russian RPG. Despite Hudson's attempt to save him, Harris falls from the catwalk and plunges to his death off the side of the cliff.

• Dimitri Petrenko (Russian: Дмитрий Петренко) was a soldier, who, like Reznov, returns from World at War, but this time as an NPC. He only appeared in the mission 'Project Nova'. Petrenko, along with Vikharev and Belov, were thrown into a gas chamber were they were killed with Nova 6 when Dragovich discovered it and wished to see the effects of the poison firsthand. He is voiced by Boris Kievsky.

• Nevski (Russian: Невский) is a member of Reznov's squad. He is the only person, besides Reznov, that escapes the ship containing the Nova 6 shipment before it explodes. His fate is left anonymous after the end of the level were he and Reznov are fleeing. He is voiced by Daniel Gamburg.

• Vikharev (Russian: Вихарев) was a member of Reznov's squad. He was gassed to death by Nova 6 after Dragovich betrayed them.

• Belov (Russian: Белов) was a member of Reznov's squad. He was gassed to death by Nova 6 after Dragovich betrayed them.

• Tvelin (Russian: Твелин) was a soldier who was thrown into the same gas chamber as Reznov and Nevski. He managed to escape being killed by the Nova 6 gas but was killed sometime during the rush to escape the ship they were on. Even if he manages to make it to the escape point, he does not appear with Nevski and Reznov, thus assuming he was killed before he could follow them.

• Cpt. Mosely an astronaut who you are put briefly in control of (although you can only look around) in the level "WMD". He pilots a SR-71 Blackbird to provide overwatch for Huson's team during the first half of the level. His codename is BigEye 6.

• Maj. Neitsch an astronaut who is controllable only when the player guides Hudson's team to the Soviet base in "WMD".

• Kaylor is the driver of an unmarked van who arrives to save Hudson and Weaver in Kowloon just as they are being attacked by Spetsnaz soldiers. He is part of Team 3 who was stationed to extract Hudson, Weaver and Clarke.

• Shabs is a member of Team 3. He assisted Hudson and Weaver in eliminating the Spetsnaz soldiers who were attacking them.

• Maestas is a member of Team 3. He, like Kaylor and Shabs, have no role in the level 'Numbers' until the end of the level. The only lines he speaks are to question Hudson what their next destination is.

• Sgt. Crosby is a panicked U.S. Marine who appears in the level 'The Defector' while trying to radio in an airstrike. His fate in battle is being killed by the large number of enemy soldiers swarming streets of Hue City at one time or another. Even if he survives the soldiers he will most likely be brought down by a Russian T-55 tank roaming the streets.

• Pvt. Fulsang a soldier who appeared in the level 'Rebirth'. After suffering from shellshock, he was unable to put on his gas mask before an Mi-8 dropped canisters of Nova 6 chemicals near him and Hudson, and he inhaled the toxins and died.

• Pvt. Johnson a soldier who appears in the level 'Victor Charlie'. After he moves forwards to destroy a VC anti-air emplacement with a Grim Reaper rocket launcher, he is shot and killed.

• Swift is a soldier who appears in the level 'Victor Charlie' when he and Mason enter an underground tunnel network. He is confused when Mason thinks Reznov appears, as Swift sees only Mason talking to himself. Seconds later a hidden enemy appears and stabs him in the throat.

• Base Loudspeaker an unnamed Vietnamese, or possibly an NVA Soldier, who speaks during the level 'The Defector' through unseen speakers into the streets of Hue City. Such messages are him telling Hue's civilian members that the NVA have orders to execute them, to have the U.S. Marines discontinue their war efforts, or that, in hopes of destabilising their morale, that the U.S. Forces will not leave alive (in that order). He also says all three of these sentences in Vietnamese.

• VC Bookie an unnamed Viet Cong who appears in the level 'Payback' with a snub-nosed Python loaded with a single bullet that is used to play Russian Roulette. After Bowman was killed Mason and Woods staged a surprise attack on their captors, where Mason's first move was to lunge up from his chair and shoot the Bookie in the chest with the single round that was in the Colt Python

• Carlos is one of the first appearing characters in the campaign. He is Mason, Woods and Bowman's contact in Santa Maria for information on infiltrating Fidel Castro's compound while he and the rebels stage a diversionary attack. He also helped them escape from the city after the police surrounded his bar and he also managed to escape on the plane with Woods and Bowman. He is voiced by Gustavo Rex.

• Militia Captain the commander of a small unit of Tropas who enter Carlos's bar early in the level "Operation 40". After he commands Mason to take out his identification papers, and he does not, he walks towards him and grabs Mason by the arm. Before he can do anything else, Woods uses his knife to pin the Captain's hand to the bar, then he smashes an empty bottle into his face.

• Spetsnaz Operative (Russian: Оперативник Спецназа) a bearded, beefy man who appears in the level 'Payback' working alongside the local Viet Cong forces in charge of holding Mason, Woods and Bowman hostage as P.O.W.s. After Bowman insults him and refuses to play Russian Roulette, the Operative brutally murders him with a section of lead pipe. After this, Mason and Woods staged a surprise attack on their captors, and the Operative ran through the underground tunnels of the VC Base in fear of his life, pursued by the two infuriated men, until they finally caught up with him as he was attempting to open a door to escape the compound and warn Kravchenko, but Mason shoots him before he can do so.

• Sergei Kozin (Russian: Сергей Козин) is a huge prisoner, who appears in the Vorkuta escape mission of the game. It is assumed he was a former circus attraction and was referred to as the 'Monster of Magadan'. He helps Reznov and Mason with the escape until he is killed later in the level as he tries to keep a steel shutter open to allow others through a remarkable act of bravery, but is shot by Soviet prison guards and is crushed by the shutter.

See Also[link]

• Call of Duty 5: World at War
• Call of Duty 9: Black Ops II

• Lists of characters in:
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
  • Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare 2
  • Call of Duty 8: Modern Warfare 3

References[link]

Gary Oldman
Oldman at the London premiere of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, September 2011.
Born	Leonard Gary Oldman[1] (1958-03-21) 21 March 1958 (age 54) New Cross, London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor, filmmaker, musician
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Lesley Manville (1987–1989) Uma Thurman (1990–1992) Donya Fiorentino (1997–2001) Alexandra Edenborough (2008–present)
Parents	Leonard Bertram Oldman Kathleen Cheriton
Family	Laila Morse (sister)

Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English screen and stage actor, filmmaker and musician, who is the highest-grossing actor in the history of film.^[2] A successful theatre actor and former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Oldman gained mainstream recognition from the early 1980s to early 1990s for his portrayals of morally ambiguous characters in films including Meantime, Sid and Nancy, Prick Up Your Ears, The Firm, State of Grace, JFK and Dracula. He became a popular portrayer of villains by the mid 1990s,^[3] playing the antagonist of True Romance, Léon, The Fifth Element, Air Force One and The Contender. Since the millenium Oldman has starred in such films as the Harry Potter series, Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Aside from film acting, he has starred in television shows like Knots Landing and Friends, voiced various characters in the Call of Duty video game series, and wrote and directed Nil By Mouth, a film partially based on his own childhood.^[4]

Oldman has garnered widespread critical and peer respect;^[5] Tom Hardy once remarked, "Gary Oldman is, hands down, the greatest actor that's ever lived."^[6] Among other honours, Oldman has won two BAFTA Awards and a Saturn Award, and has been nominated for Academy-, Emmy-, Screen Actors Guild- and Independent Spirit Awards, as well as the Palme d'Or. Norman Stansfield, his overstated antagonist in Léon, has been named as one of cinema's greatest villains.^[7] In 2011, Oldman was voted an "Icon of Film" by Empire readers.^[8]

Early life[link]

Oldman was born in London, the son of Kathleen (née Cheriton; b. 28 November 1919), a housewife, and Leonard Bertram Oldman (21 May 1921 – October 1985), a former sailor who worked as a welder.^[9][10] He has said that his father was an alcoholic who left his family when Oldman was seven.^[11] Oldman attended the South East London Boys' School on Creek Road in Deptford, leaving school at 16 to work in a sports shop.^[12] He was an accomplished singer and pianist as a child, but gave up his musical aspirations to pursue an acting career.^[13] His inspiration was Malcolm McDowell's performance in 1970 film The Raging Moon.^[14][15] In a 1995 interview with Charlie Rose, Oldman said, "Something about Malcolm [McDowell] just arrested me, and I connected, and I said, 'I wanna do that'."^[16]

Acting career[link]

Theatre, early films and foray into American cinema (1979–1990)[link]

Oldman studied with the Young People's Theatre in Greenwich during the mid 1970s,^[17][18] while working jobs on assembly lines, as a porter in an operating theatre, selling shoes and beheading pigs in an abbatoir.^[17] He later won a scholarship to attend the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Sidcup, Kent, from which he graduated with a BA in Acting in 1979.^[18][19] Before enrolling at Rose Bruford, Oldman had unsuccessfully applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), who welcomed him to try again the following year, but advised him to find something else to do for a living^[16][19] (when asked by Charlie Rose if he had reminded RADA of this, Oldman joked, "the work speaks for itself"^[16]). He made his professional stage debut in 1979 as Puss, alongside Michael Simkins, in Dick Whittington and His Cat, at York's Theatre Royal. The play then ran in Colchester, then with Glasgow's Citizens Theatre;^[19] Oldman's work ethic and trademark intensity would make him a favourite with audiences in Glasgow during the 1980s.^[18] From 1980–1981, he appeared in The Massacre at Paris (Christopher Marlowe), Desperado Corner (Shaun Lawton), and Robert David MacDonald's plays Chinchilla and A Waste Of Time. He performed in a 6-month West End run of MacDonald's Summit Conference, opposite Glenda Jackson, in 1982.^[19] Also that year, Oldman made his film debut in Colin Gregg's Remembrance, and would have starred in Don Boyd's Gossip if that film had not collapsed. The following year, he landed a starring role as a skinhead in Mike Leigh's film Meantime, and moved on to Chesterfield to assume the lead role in Entertaining Mr Sloane (Joe Orton). Afterwards, he went to Westcliffe to star in Saved (Edward Bond).^[19]

Saved proved to be a major breakthrough for Oldman. He had written to Max Stafford-Clark, artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre, requesting that he watch the play. Impressed, Stafford-Clark cast Oldman as Scopey, the lead role of Bond's The Pope's Wedding, in 1984.^[19] For his acclaimed performance, he won two of British theatre's top honours: the Time Out Fringe Award for Best Newcomer, and the British Theatre Association's Drama magazine award for Best Actor—the latter of which was shared with future film co-star Anthony Hopkins.^[3][18][20] His turn in The Pope's Wedding led to a run of work with the Royal Court, and from 1984 to 1986 he appeared in Rat In the Skull (Ron Hutchinson), The Desert Air (Nicholas Wright), Cain and Abel, The Danton Affair (Pam Gems), Women Beware Women (Thomas Middleton), Real Dreams (Trevor Griffiths) and all three of Bond's The War Plays: Red Black and Ignorant, The Tin Can People and Great Peace.^[19] Oldman was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1985–1986.^[21] The 1984 production of The Pope's Wedding had been seen by director Alex Cox, who cast Oldman as ill-fated rocker Sid Vicious in the 1986 film Sid And Nancy. In 1987, Oldman gained his third starring film role as Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. That same year, Oldman appeared in the plays The Country Wife (William Wycherley) and Serious Money (Caryl Churchill).^[20]

Oldman's performances in Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears were widely acclaimed, and paved the way for work in Hollywood. Prominent United States film critic Roger Ebert, on the basis of Oldman's work in those films, described him as "the best young British actor around".^[22] His portrayal of Vicious was applauded by many, perhaps most notably ex-Sex Pistols vocalist John Lydon, who despite questioning the authenticity of the film, described Oldman as a "bloody good actor".^[23] Oldman reportedly lost considerable weight for the role and was briefly hospitalised.^[24] His performance would go on to be ranked No. 62 in Premiere magazine's "100 Greatest Performances of All Time"^[25] and No. 8 in Uncut magazine's "10 Best actors in rockin' roles", the latter describing his portrayal as a "hugely sympathetic reading of the punk figurehead as a lost and bewildered manchild."^[26] After coming to prominence for his portrayals of Vicious and Orton, Oldman increased his profile during the late 1980s and early 1990s via starring roles in films such as Criminal Law (which marked Oldman's first use of an American accent), The Firm, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and State of Grace. Janet Maslin, another noted US film critic, referred to his work as "phenomenal".^[27] In late 1988, he starred opposite long-time hero^[16] Alan Bates in We Think the World of You, and alongside Dennis Hopper and Frances McDormand in the 1989 film Chattahoochee. In 1989, Oldman also starred as football hooligan Clive Bissel in British drama The Firm; in 2011, Total Film named Oldman's performance as the best of his career.^[28] Oldman moved to the United States in the early 1990s, where he has since lived.^[29] Oldman and other young British actors of the 1980s who were becoming established Hollywood film actors, such as Tim Roth, Bruce Payne, Colin Firth, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Paul McGann, were dubbed the 'Brit Pack', of which Oldman was de facto leader.^[6][30]

Villain roles and mainstream success (1991–2001)[link]

Oldman in 2000

In 1991, Oldman starred in what was at that point the most significant role of his career as Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone's JFK. The following year, he starred as Count Dracula in Francis Ford Coppola's romance-horror Dracula. A commercially successful film adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel,^[31] it was a box office success worldwide. Oldman's performance is regarded by many as a staple of the horror genre, and was recognised by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films as the best male performance of 1992, who awarded Oldman the Best Actor award.^[32] Oldman would later become a popular portrayer of villains:^[3] he played violent pimp Drexl Spivey in True Romance (1993), a sadistic prison warden in Murder in the First (1995), a futuristic corporate tyrant in The Fifth Element (1997), and Dr. Zachary Smith/Spider Smith in the commercially successful but critically panned Lost in Space (1998). In 1994's Léon, he played corrupt DEA officer Norman Stansfield, which has since been named by multiple publications as one of the best villains of modern cinema.^[7] Oldman also displayed a skill for world accents; along with the Transylvanian Count Dracula, he played German-born Viennese composer Ludwig van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, and Russian terrorist Ivan Korshunov in the 1997 blockbuster Air Force One. He portrayed another historical figure, Pontius Pilate, in Jesus (1999). He also appeared as the Devil in the 1993 promo video to the Guns N' Roses single "Since I Don't Have You",^[33] and served as a member of Jury at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Oldman's visibility as one of the foremost portrayers of villains in Hollywood became apparent when MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch aired a match between Oldman and Christopher Walken to determine the greatest cinematic villain.^[34]

Oldman appeared opposite Jeff Bridges as zealous Republican congressman Sheldon Runyon in The Contender (2000), in which he was also credited as a producer. He received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for his performance. In 2001, he starred opposite Anthony Hopkins in Hannibal, as Mason Verger, the only surviving victim of Hannibal Lecter. Oldman reportedly spent six hours per day in the make-up room to achieve the character's hideously disfigured appearance.^[35] It marked the second time Oldman had appeared opposite Hopkins, a personal friend who was part of the supporting cast of Dracula. Oldman is uncredited in the film, reportedly over a dispute regarding top billing, which was going to co-star Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore. He received an Emmy Award nomination for two guest appearances in Friends in May 2001, appearing in the two-part episode "The One With Chandler and Monica's Wedding" as Richard Crosby, a pedantic actor who insists that "real" actors spit on one another when they enunciate, leading to tension, then later friendship, between Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) and himself. Oldman had met LeBlanc on the set of Lost in Space in 1998.

Career slump and mainstream resurgence (2001–present)[link]

Oldman at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International

Following his Friends appearance, Oldman did not appear in any significant roles until 2004. He starred in the generally well-received Interstate 60 (2002), as well as Tiptoes (2003) and Sin (2003), both of which were received poorly by critics. Although the film failed to impress critics, Oldman did garner critical acclaim for his portrayal of a man afflicted with dwarfism in Tiptoes: Variety described his work in the film as an "astonishingly fine" performance.^[36] Oldman starred as the Devil in the BMW short film, Beat The Devil (2002), and contributed voice acting to several video games. The Guardian described this time period as the "low point" of Oldman's career, consisting of "barrel-scraping roles".^[37]

In 2004, Oldman returned to prominence when he landed a significant role in the Harry Potter film series, playing Harry Potter's godfather Sirius Black. Oldman and star Daniel Radcliffe reportedly became very close during the filming of the series.^[38] The following year, Oldman starred as James Gordon in Christopher Nolan's commercially and critically acclaimed Batman Begins, a role he reprised in the even more successful sequel The Dark Knight (2008) and will reprise again in the upcoming instalment The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in the 2009 version of A Christmas Carol in which Oldman played three roles.^[39][40][41] He had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller The Unborn, released in 2009.^[42][43] In 2010, Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli.^[44] He also played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood.^[45] Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance in Kung Fu Panda 2.

Oldman earned Academy-, BAFTA Award nominations as well as numerous nominations from critics for his portrayal as British spy George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), a re-adaptation of the John le Carré novel, directed by Tomas Alfredson, also starring Colin Firth, Mark Strong and Tom Hardy.^[46]

He has also participated in the creation of The Legend of Spyro games produced by Sierra Entertainment, providing the voice to the Fire Guardian, Ignitus. He also voices Sergeant Reznov in the award-winning Call of Duty video game series.

Future Projects[link]

Oldman will star in John Hilcoat's Lawless as Floyd Banner, a big-hitting mobster. Lawless will be released in Aug 29.

Relativity Media has acquired US rights to IM Global's thriller Paranoia which stars Oldman in a supporting role along with Harrison Ford and Liam Hemsworth. Production begins in the summer of 2012. Oldman will also star in the revenge thriller Motor City along with Gerard Butler.

It was announced on March 23, 2012 that Oldman would appear upcoming remake of RoboCop as Norton, the scientist who created RoboCop. The film is set for released in August 2013.^[47]

Other ventures[link]

Filmmaking[link]

In 1997, Oldman directed, produced, and wrote the award-winning Nil by Mouth, a movie partially based on his own childhood.^[4] Nil By Mouth went on to win the BAFTA Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film (shared with Douglas Urbanski) and also the BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay, the Channel 4 Director's Award, and an Empire Award. In 1999, it was adjudged by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts as one of the one hundred best British films of the 20th century.^[48] Nil By Mouth was listed by Time Out as number twenty-one of the top 100 best British films ever.

Oldman and producing partner Douglas Urbanski formed the SE8 GROUP to produce Nil By Mouth. The company also produced The Contender, which also starred Oldman. He was also credited as a producer. Some media outlets reported that Oldman was unhappy with the finished product and felt that DreamWorks had heavily edited the film to reflect their pro-Democratic leanings. These claims were later debunked; Oldman, who is not a U.S. citizen, was described as "so uninvolved in politics, he has never even declared a party affiliation".^[49] Oldman has finished his latest screenplay, Chang & Eng, co-written with Darin Strauss, based on the author's book of the same name; SE8 Group will produce. In September 2006, Nokia Nseries Studio^[50] released the Oldman-directed short film Donut, with music by Tor Hyams. The film was shot with an N93 in order to promote the phone. Juliet Landau made a 25-minute documentary about the making of the video. In 2011, he directed a music video for Alex Eden's first single, "Kiss Me Like the Woman You Loved", for Side Tracked Records.

Music[link]

Oldman has had a keen interest in music from an early age. He is a proficient pianist and stated in a 1995 interview with Charlie Rose that he would rather be a musician than an actor.^[16] Oldman sang several tracks on the Sid and Nancy soundtrack, and sang and played live piano in the 1988 movie Track 29. He traced over Beethoven compositions in 1994's Immortal Beloved. He also tutored Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe on bass guitar.^[51] Oldman appeared on Reeves Gabrels' album The Sacred Squall of Now, performing a vocal duet with David Bowie on the track "You've Been Around".^[52] Recently, he produced a live performance by former White Stripes member, Jack White, in conjunction with the Vevo and Youtube.

Popularity and influence[link]

Oldman signing autographs at the Harry Potter premiere, 2007

Oldman has long established a cult following among film fans.^[29][53] He is known for playing the primary antagonist in a number of popular motion pictures,^[3][54] which has seen him referenced in popular culture. At the peak of his popularity in the 1990s, Oldman was dubbed by Empire magazine as Hollywood's "psycho deluxe",^[55] and was spoofed on popular television shows such as Fox comedy series In Living Color^[56] and MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch,^[34] as well as drafted in to appear on the first ever cover of Loaded magazine.^[57] In 1993, he had a cameo role as the Devil in the promo video to the Guns N' Roses single "Since I Don't Have You"^[33]—he also played the Devil in the 2002 BMW short Beat The Devil, alongside Clive Owen, James Brown and Marilyn Manson.^[58] On YouTube, Oldman is the subject of a number of tribute videos. In contrast to his often dark on-screen roles, Oldman's affable real-life demeanour has been noted,^[29] and he was named as one of Empire magazine's "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History" in 2007.^[59] Oldman contributed in a YouTube video posted by Jimmy Kimmel titled Movie: The Movie. He portrayed shortly a centaur at a medical clinic. Very many other famous actors were present at the trailer.^[60]

Allmovie has described Oldman as "capable of portraying almost any type of character", and as having "consistently amazed viewers with his ability to completely disappear into his roles."^[3] His performances during his career have provided inspiration for younger actors who would go on to enjoy successful Hollywood careers. Brad Pitt has described Oldman as his foremost acting "god",^[61] while Daniel Radcliffe has cited Oldman as the actor whose career he would most like to emulate.^[62] Tom Hardy has named Oldman as his "hero"^[63] and "hands down, the greatest actor that's ever lived";^[6] Ryan Gosling has also named Oldman as his favourite actor.^[64] Other actors who have been influenced by Oldman include: Shia LaBeouf,^[65] Joseph Gordon-Levitt,^[66] Johnny Depp,^[67] Chris Pine,^[68] Jason Isaacs^[69] and Michael Fassbender.^[6] Dracula and Hannibal co-star, Anthony Hopkins, has described Oldman as "multi-talented", and as possessing "a great genius and flair for creativity",^[70] while Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy co-star Colin Firth once said of Oldman, "He is as far as I'm concerned a very strong candidate for the world's best living actor."^[71] Harry Potter co-star Ralph Fiennes said of Oldman, "I love Gary Oldman's work. I just think he's a genius actor."^[72] In relation to Oldman's British peers, John Hurt called him "the best of the bunch."^[37]

Oldman has garnered critical acclaim for his diverse performances and portrayals of real-life historical figures^[73][74] and is noted for his avoidance of the Hollywood celebrity scene,^[73][75] often being referred to as an "actor's actor".^[9] Oldman's performances have gained the admiration of prominent film critics: Roger Ebert has hailed him as a "marvelous actor",^[76] and "one of the great actors, able to play high, low, crass, noble".^[77] In 1987, he had called Oldman "the best young British actor around", and said, "like a few gifted actors, he is able to re-invent himself for every role".^[22] Ebert's co-presenter on the film review television show, At the Movies, Gene Siskel, described Oldman as "wonderful"^[78] and one of "[his] favorite actors";^[79] following Siskel's death in 1999, Oldman said, "it's pretty overwhelming for a kid from South London to hear the two most important film critics in the world call you one of the greatest actors in the world."^[80] Janet Maslin of The New York Times has described him as a "phenomenal" actor who "since Sid and Nancy has taken on a string of new accents and dramatic identities with stunning ease."^[27] Sid Vicious' Sex Pistols bandmate Johnny Rotten called Oldman a "bloody good actor".^[12] Oldman's portrayals of eccentric characters – many of which Oldman has himself described as "wacky or strange"^[81] — have occasionally polarised critics.^[82] He has stated, however, that he seeks to play more reserved roles at this stage in his career.^[29][81][83] In reviewing The Dark Knight, where Oldman plays an honest, upright cop James Gordon, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that he "is so skilled he makes virtue look exciting". In response, Oldman said, "That's the best review I ever had... I'll put it on my tombstone."^[84] In his review of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Travers described Oldman as "one of the best actors on the planet."^[85] Prior to his first Academy Award nomination for that film, Oldman was widely regarded as one of the greatest actors never nominated for such an award; Leigh Singer of The Guardian called him "arguably the best actor never Oscar-nominated."^{[86][87][88][89]} When he lost out on the award, The Globe and Mail ran an article entitled, "Overlooked: possibly the greatest actor of them all".^[90]

As of 15 September 2011, motion pictures starring Oldman as leading actor or supporting co-star have grossed over $3.2 billion at the United States box office, and over $8.4 billion worldwide.^[91] In December 2011, the Palm Springs International Film Festival announced that Oldman would be receiving its International Star Award, which honours "an actor or actress who has achieved both critical and commercial international recognition throughout their body of work." The PSIFF chairman called Oldman "a performer whose ability to portray the most extreme of characters is a testament to the enormity of his talent."^[92]

Personal life[link]

Oldman was born and brought up in London, England, and moved to the United States in the early 1990s.^[29] Despite numerous lead and supporting roles in major Hollywood productions, Oldman is intensely private with his personal life and is known for his stance on celebrity and the ideals of Hollywood, once stating that "being famous, that's a whole other career. And I haven't got any energy for it."^[29] His disenchantment with celebrity culture was reinforced when news reports of a physical altercation with Robert De Niro circulated in the 1990s; Oldman claims that he had never met De Niro at the time.^[93]

Marriages and family[link]

Oldman married his first wife Lesley Manville in 1987 but left her in 1989 three months after their son, Alfie, was born.^[94] He met American actress Uma Thurman on the set of State of Grace, and they were married in 1990, but it ended two years later.^[95] Oldman then settled into a relationship with actress and model Isabella Rossellini. The couple were rumoured to be engaged as of July, 1994 but separated two years later.^[96] Oldman was married to Donya Fiorentino from 1997 to 2001 and has sons Gulliver Flynn (b. 20 August 1997) and Charlie John (b. 11 February 1999) with her.^[94]

On 31 December 2008, Oldman married English jazz singer Alexandra Edenborough in Santa Barbara, California in a private, formal ceremony.^[97] Oldman currently lives in Los Angeles with his family.^[98] Oldman's sister, Laila Morse, is also an actress, best known as Mo Harris in the BBC's long-running series EastEnders; she also had a role in Oldman's directorial debut, Nil by Mouth. Oldman supports South East London football team Millwall.^[99]

Alcohol and legal problems[link]

His problems with alcohol were well known during the early 1990s. After a string of alcohol-fuelled debacles he checked himself into Marworth treatment facility in Waverly Township, Pennsylvania, for alcoholism treatment in 1993.^[100] In subsequent interviews Oldman acknowledged his problems with alcohol, and called himself a recovering alcoholic on a 2001 interview with Charlie Rose.^[101] In 2001, former wife Donya Fiorentino claimed that Oldman had a drug habit and abused her,^[102] a claim which was investigated by the family courts, child custody evaluator, the police, and Los Angeles city attorney. Oldman was awarded legal custody of their children; Fiorentino was granted short court-monitored visits. Today, Oldman lives a teetotal lifestyle and attributes his success in beating his addiction to Alcoholics Anonymous, and has since publicly praised the organisation.^[103]

Filmography[link]

Film and television[link]

Video games[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]