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Widely regarded as the most iconic introduction in cinematic history – while he stands utterly motionless.

Clarice Starling, a rookie, must walk a corridor of cells arriving at Hannibal Lecter's secure glass tank. He is positioned, with features like a skeletal visage exuding demonic evil, unnervingly still wearing a snug prisoner's blue outfit. He remains motionless until the moment he lunges at the barrier, emitting that unforgettable spitting-growling noise. Countless real-crime films have since demonstrated that real-life murderers are usually uninteresting, lacking anything like Hopkins' powerful on-screen charisma.

He wasn't exactly a newcomer upon receiving his Academy Award-winning part in the 1991 thriller during the late 80s: he was already established, but a legend was cemented. The character of Hannibal was based, Hopkins cheerfully recalls in this new autobiography, on Bela Lugosi's Dracula, on Joseph Stalin based on his daughter's accounts, as well as his strictly demanding Rada tutor his mentor Fettes. There was also a paternal-filial aspect in these moments; a painful subject for the actor, who also describes how his Lear was unknowingly shaped by painful regret about Abigail, the estranged daughter from his initial marriage in 1966 to Petronella Barker, who disliked his time away and his drinking habits.

The title originates from an historical picture of Anthony as a small child playing on the sand with his father – the kid who maybe thought he couldn't make it. He felt confused, shy and fragile youth hailing from Port Talbot, his father was Richard Arthur Hopkins, the standout secondary character in this story: a baker and a traditional male, a straightforward talker who detested the sanctimonious churchgoers in their community and didn't believe in showing his emotions, but also exhibited nostalgic, emotional sentimentality. It was Hopkins Sr who was angered by how they were forced cap-in-hand to their wealthy relations like Auntie Patty, whose spouse was acquainted with Nye Bevan and helped enroll Anthony as a boy into a posh school: “Due to their immense riches!” he raves while traveling there. “We're all hoping for some pickings! Total garbage, that's all it is!”

The pleading was effective, temporarily. He was a poor student at his new school. However, one day in an English lesson he was required to perform the poem by Masefield The West Wind – without seeing it first – and his voice awakened; he amazed the instructor and the other students. He convincingly states that poetry, on its own, propelled him forward. Combined with participating in the YMCA theater group. Surprisingly, he exited school without much hope, entered the acting world, and shocking his family, was on stage with the great Olivier at the renowned Old Vic in just ten years. He accomplished it mostly independently, even though back then financial aid was available to attend Rada – a way up for performers from modest means. Richard Hopkins was continually impressed of Anthony's global success: when he asked Anthony to perform the Yorick monologue from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hopkins Sr listened attentively and then went into another room and burst into tears.

Concerning the volatile, stubborn individual, he departed the theatrical troupe in a fit of pique – much to Olivier's disappointment and criticism – but fortunately found an excellent television part as a potential war criminal in the series QB VII, which paved the way to characters including in Lynch's The Elephant Man and a successful acting career in cinema, which he preferred to the stage. He stopped drinking back in 1975 having been a hell-raising alcoholic, and so survived through midlife to deliver outstanding roles, like Hannibal Lecter, the steward Stevens in The Remains of the Day alongside Emma Thompson and the old man with dementia in his film The Father – his next Oscar win.

In the latter half of the memoir he appears more reserved, more deliberate. Certain stories aren't entirely successful. He remembers going out for lunch with his fellow actor in Oliver Stone's Nixon, the esteemed thespian Paul, who wanted to tell him his acting as Nixon wasn't effective. Was this the opportunity for Hopkins to learn something from the legendary star of the Goodfellas fame? Not exactly. Anthony appears to agree with the director's criticism of Sorvino as being motivated by jealousy. Really?

He often portrays the tough, down-to-earth professional actor who maintains it's your duty to be on time, learn everyone's name on set and do the job. Indeed. Yet he also tells standing up to an unpleasant filmmaker who'd made a young extra cry: “Apologize to that girl! And learn some manners. If you ever repeat that in front of me, I'll change the shape of your face! He appears to be an individual who stopped drinking yet perhaps not the aggression that came with it. A Shakespearean like him is aware of Cornwall's speech regarding Kent from the play Lear: “He is incapable of flattery! A straightforward and sincere nature – he always tells the truth!”

Anthony ends his memoir with a lengthy appendix composed simply