Almost from the start of his career, Gary Oldman displayed an edgy intensity that has brought verve to his portrayals of ambiguous and obsessive personalities. Equally at home as the hero or the villain (although there are far more of the latter on his resume), the lean, wiry, intense actor from South London dropped out of school at 16 and following a stint as a store clerk found his metier on stage after winning a scholarship to drama school. Within a year of graduating, Oldman was working regularly on stage in Glasgow and finding roles in television dramas. An early example of the latter is his electrifying but brief appearance as an explosive skinhead in Mike Leigh's BBC telefilm "Meantime" (1983). The performer consolidated his on screen persona with two very different doomed, iconoclastic figures from English culture: punk rock legend Sid Vicious, in the poignant, uncompromising "Sid and Nancy" (1986), and the irreverent gay playwright Joe Orton, in the fine biopic "Prick up Your Ears" (1987). Like Robert De Niro, Oldman has been celebrated as a brilliant chameleon. Often barely recognizable from role to role, his face may be hard to remember but his charisma and power remain consistent and unforgettable. Oldman traveled to North Carolina to play the long lost son of Theresa Russell in Nicolas Roeg's bizarre comedy "Track 29" (1987), written by Dennis Potter. In the USA, he began displaying his skills with America's many accents playing a coldhearted attorney in "Criminal Law" (1988), a Southern veteran improperly committed to a mental institution in "Chattahooche" and an Irish-American gangster in "State of Grace" (both 1990). But it was his eerie impersonation of Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone's "JFK" (1991) that helped raise his profile. As the titular bloodsucker, he proved equally compelling in various incarnations as wizened old man, dapper aristocrat and snarling monster, standing out amid the lavish makeup and visually sumptuous costumes and sets, in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992). Similarly, Oldman was impressive as Drexl Spivey, a white would-be Rastafarian pimp, in one remarkable scene in the Quentin Tarantinoscripted "True Romance" (1993). Oldman starred in two more conventional parts as crooked law enforcement officials in "Romeo Is Bleeding" (1993) and "The Professional" (1994) before donning period garb and furrowing his brow to embody Ludwig von Beethoven in "Immortal Beloved" (1994). After playing the most sadistic warden at Alcatraz in the prison drama "Murder in the First", Oldman co-starred with Demi Moorein "The Scarlet Letter" (both 1995), universally proclaimed as one of the worst films of the year. Like many actors, Oldman was battling demons, in his case, alcoholism. While he was enjoying the fruits of his success, he had had the occasional brush with the law (including a 1991 arrest for driving under the influence). After completing "The Scarlet Letter", Oldman checked into a rehab center and underwent treatment. Once sober, he reactivated his career, accepting nearly every role offered in an effort to raise money for his dream project that would mark his writing and directing debut. As such, he could be seen to varying degrees of success in villainous turns in "The Fifth Element" and "Air Force One" (both 1997) and "Lost in Space" (1998). With enough money and an assist from director Luc Besson, Oldman was able to make "Nil By Mouth" (also 1997), his blistering, semi-autobiographical examination of a working-class family torn apart by the patriarch's alcoholism. From its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival where it picked up the Best Actress trophy for Kathy Burke (as the abused wife) to its 1998 theatrical release in the USA, the film earned nearly unanimous critical praise for its unflinching script, assured direction and superlative performances. Oldman lent his vocal talents to the animated feature "The Quest for Camelot" (1998) and made a rare excursion into television to portray Pontius Pilate in the 2000 CBS miniseries "Jesus". Later that year, he was back on the big screen as a conservative US Senator attempting to block the appointment of a female colleague as the first woman Vice President in "The Contender" (2000), written and directed by Rod Lurie. The timely material—the film included a sex scandal and made pointed references to recent American history in the Clintonian Era—marked the actor's first foray as an executive producer. Rumors of tension on the set spilled over into the public arena during the film's release with journalists writing about the disputes between the actor and Lurie. Known for not suffering fools, Oldman was reportedly unhappy with the way his character came off—as the villain of the piece. While his arguments with Lurie and the film's distributor DreamWorks played out in the press, the film didn't exactly grab the attention of audiences. Oldman found himself in another situation with his prominent follow-up role as the exorbitantly wealthy but hideously disfigured Mason Verger in "Hannibal" (2001). Some reported that the actor originally wanted screen credit but when he would be relegated to third billing, he allegedly opted to take no billing. Other articles claimed that he did not want to be identified for the sake of surprise, since the character required prosthetics that would render whoever played the role unrecognizable. Producer Dino De Laurentiis blew whatever story their was by clearly stating at the press conference that Oldman was indeed playing the role, pointing out that an actor of that stature deserved to be recognized for his contribution to the film. He would appear in a handful of undistinguished films before taking on the high-profile role of escaped murderer Sirius Black, the titular convict of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004), followed by a well-essayed turn as cop Jim Gordon, Batman's lone ally in the corrupt Gotham City police force, in "Batman Begins" (2005). Oldman then returned to playing Sirius Black in the series’ fourth installment, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (2005).