Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English (England) actor and filmmaker (Film director) who has resided in the United States since the early 1990s, well known for his portrayals of dark and morally corrupt characters. He found fame in roles such as Sid Vicious in Sid & Nancy and Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (JFK (film)), which led to his most successful, and arguably best known, leading role as Count Dracula in 1992 (1992 in film) blockbuster Dracula (Dracula (1992 film)). In addition to Dracula, Oldman is well-known to audiences as the villain of such films as State of Grace (State of Grace (film)), True Romance, L�on (L�on (film)), Air Force One (Air Force One (film)), The Fifth Element and The Contender (The Contender (film)). He is also known for his portrayals of real-life figures: as well as Vicious and Oswald, he portrayed Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears and Ludwig Van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved (Immortal Beloved (film)). In recent years he is recognisable as heroic characters such as Sirius Black in the Harry Potter (Harry Potter (film series)) film series and James Gordon (James Gordon (comics)) in Christopher Nolans reboot (Reboot (fiction)) of the Batman (Batman (film series)#Nolan series) film series.

Acclaimed for his on-screen diversity, Oldman has been referred to as an "actors actor" and has been cited as an influence by a number of younger actors. Referred to by The Guardian as "arguably the best actor never Oscar (Academy Award)-nominated," Oldman has been nominated for, among other awards: a Primetime Emmy Award (Primetime Emmy Awards), a Screen Actors Guild Award (Screen Actors Guild Awards), three BAFTA Awards (British Academy Film Awards) (winning two), three Saturn Awards (Saturn Award) (winning one) and the 1997 Palme dOr. In addition to leading and central supporting roles in big-budget Hollywood films, Oldman has frequently acted in independent films. He also directed, produced, and wrote the award-winning Nil by Mouth (Nil by Mouth (film)), a film partially based on his own childhood.