The first biography of the Academy Award-winning actor explains how Hopkins has struggled throughout his long career to balance his brilliant craftsmanship with erratic career decisions, emotional instability, and alcoholism.
Michael Feeney Callan is an Irish born poet, novelist and filmmaker, also known for his biographical writing.
He wrote the template Irish TV police procedural series The Burke Enigma, then went on to write for ITV's The Professionals and adapt Frederick Forsyth stories for PBS. He was story editor at BBC TV Drama in London, where he edited the series, Shoestring, and at Ardmore Studios in Ireland.
A Hennessy Literary Award winner for his short fiction, Callan has published original and TV adaptation novels, as well as biographies of Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Richard Harris, Julie Christie and the New York Times bestseller Robert Redford: The Biography.
As a poet, Callan began publishing in his teens in David Marcus' New Irish Writing, and has published two volumes of poetry, Fifty Fingers (2003) and An Argument for Sin (2013).
As a filmmaker, Callan has written and directed documentaries on The Dubliners' Luke Kelly, animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman and The Beach Boys.