He’s the greatest actor in the world after winning a record third Best Actor Oscar but to the people in a small village in County Wicklow he’s just a local lad made good.
Daniel Day-Lewis resides on a farm near the tiny Wicklow hamlet of Annamoe and returns there after conquering the world.He has been living there for over seventeen years.
Before winning the Oscar he said he would spend five years without working on a movie, living in his Wicklow home.
"This is the place that sustains me, the place where I planted myself."
"When the work is done, it's to this place that I return to as a refuge," he said when he was made a Freeman of Wicklow in 2010.
"It's a place where I feel the freedom to lie fallow if I need to for a period of time.
"Living in this place that I have now for 15 years I've always felt, more than any other place that I've been, that Wicklow is in harmony, complete harmony, with the demands that life has made," he said.
Read more: ‘‘Lincoln’’ star Daniel Day-Lewis becomes first actor to win three Oscars
"The truth is I don't notice [the pressure of celebrity] around here because I'm allowed to live. I notice it elsewhere.”
His home, a 100 acre farm where he has a beautiful Georgian mansion is so isolated that locals do not see him for weeks or even months. They will occasionally glimpse him riding through the bleak mountains on his push bike.
Even more occasionally, when riding one of his motor bikes, he will stop into the local Roundwood Inn pub and sip a pint of Guinness while keeping to himself.
One fellow drinker told The Daily Mail, "He'll come in a couple of times a week and just sit alone at the bar with a pint of Guinness.
"He's always very pleasant and will pass the time of day, but he likes to be pretty much left alone.
"To be honest, I don't think too many of the locals actually realise who he is because he keeps such a low profile.
"He seems embarrassed when he is recognised and obviously has a bit of a problem with fame. Most people understand that and leave him in peace."
"Daniel is already fretting about having to go to the Oscars. He hates all the razzmatazz and standing around on the red carpet.
Read More: Daniel Day-Lewis, Steven Spielberg hit Dublin for ‘Lincoln’ premiere
"He can't stand the attention."
Parents whose kids attend the same school as his sons say he is a deeply involved parent who keeps to himself but never pulls the star routine at parent teacher meetings.
He is said to obsessively practice his twin hobbies of shoe-making and woodwork, as well as riding for hours on his push bike. He is said to be contemplating taking up stonemasonry now that ‘Lincoln’ is over.
His insistence on staying in character even when not on set has infuriated some fellow co stars including Liam Neeson, who was furious that Day-Lewis insisted on addressing him by his character's name even when they met in the gym at their hotel when filming “Gangs of New York.”
He lives with his wife Rebecca Miller, daughter of the famous playwright and sons Gabriel, by an earlier relationship, and Ronan and Cashel.
When accepting the honor he said, "On the principle that you should push yourself before you are thrown over, I really don't know what I have done to deserve this," he laughed.
Read more: Daniel Day-Lewis to retire for five years to his Irish farm
"But I'm delighted, absolutely delighted with it."
He is famous or infamous for staying in character. When he played Christy Brown, the paraplegic in his first Oscar role, Day Lewis was moved around the set in his wheelchair. He allegedly broke two ribs from being so hunched over.
When he played wrongly convicted alleged IRA bomber Gerry Conlon in the Guildford Four movie “In The Name Of The Father,” he spent three nights in a freezing cold cell instructing people to throw water on him as they passed.
A worker on the film said, "I have never known anything like it.
"We all had to call him by his character's name, even if we bumped into him in the toilets.
"If he was doing a scene where he was being aggressive or having a fight, he would start getting really angry a few days beforehand, and would be glaring and snarling at people on the set.
"You had to know when to steer well clear of him because he could be pretty terrifying when he was in character.
"I must say, I personally gave him a wide berth because I thought he was nuts.
"But I met him socially shortly after doing the first picture with him and he was utterly charming and as nice as pie to me.
"It was as if, during filming, he actually became the person he was playing."
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Lausane | Feb 27, 2013, 06:06 PM EST
Stevenstar- Daniel has dual citizenship due to the fact that his father was Irish born- so yes he is English but he is also Irish, like me-born in the UK but of Irish parents, so I hold both, but consider myself Irish as I was brought up here in Ireland. So I guess Daniel has he right to call himself Irish too due to his Irish born Dad and the fact that he spent a lot of time here as a kid and has lived here for many years now! Regardgon your comment on Americans calling themselves Irish- you have to understand that it's a turn of phrase used by Americans to explain their origins! They will say they are Irish or German or Swedish or whatever- by this they are actually referring to their ancestry.
RobinForester | Feb 27, 2013, 05:13 PM EST
Steven-Star, Americans are totally unaware that Britain has 33% of the gross Economy of America, we are a small island but in shrewdness, good judgment and quality of our decision making we beat them hands down. Here's a true story: In 1979 the US and British Militiary held a war game, US troops were told that an enemy was going to attack them within the next 7 days and they had to respond and win the mock battle. Most US troops guessed 'who the enemy would be - the Brits'. This was a total war with pretend-nukes. Here's the best part all our aircraft had to take a timed photo of the target zone, anyway three of our aircraft radioed in to Edwards Air Force Base California asking for permission to land, they were asked by the control tower "Where are you" the reply was "directly above you and we've just wiped you out'. This happened with all our targets including the giant Andrews Air Force Base, MD. The result was so devastating to the US military that they went out and spent $6 billion dollars on a new radr system upgrade. I do not know how this surprise attack was so successful, but it sure did scare a lot of US Generals.
STEVENSTAR | Feb 26, 2013, 10:07 PM EST
DANIEL DAY LEWIS IS ACTUALLY BORN IN ENGLAND SO HIS ENGLISH ALTHOUGH HE HOLDS A UK AND IRISH PASSPORT BUT HIS STILL ENGLISH UNFORTUNATELY THATS HOW IT WORKS FOR US OVER HERE IN EUROPE.. ENGLISH IRISH SCOTTISH WELSH WE'RE ON BIG HAPPY FAMILY REALLY...I JUST WISH AMERICANS WHO WERE BORN IN AMERICA WOULD ACCEPT THEIR AMERICAN AND NOT IRISH JUST BECAUSE SOME GREAT AUNTY MARY LEFT IRELAND A 1100 YEARS AGO... OK THAT MAY BE OK FOR YOU.. BUT YOU'LL ALWAYS BE AMERICAN IN OUR EYES !! ;)
PatriciaMarya | Feb 26, 2013, 08:51 PM EST
I do consider this man in the category of the greatest. I also love the fact that his wife, the daughter of Arthur Miller, reminded me of Norma Shearer when I saw her at the Awards Ceremony! So elegant and confidant enough to wear her glasses! Meryl Streep also wears her glasses in public; my kind of women. It does seem to follow the rule: the shyer the person, the better the actor! I know: I'm shy!
Opoets99 | Feb 26, 2013, 11:40 AM EST
Gangs of New York was a great movie, but the rest of the story is if the Irish gangs could have continued the riots a little longer forcing the New York militia to have to leave Gettysburg to end the riots, The White House might be in Alabama today and not Washington DC
bunkerisland | Feb 26, 2013, 11:19 AM EST
"Greatest actor in the world"? Please! Adulation is fine but best male actor in 2013 at the Academy Awards is surely enough praise. It's an American event that does little to recognize foreign films and actors.
johnshiel | Feb 26, 2013, 10:54 AM EST
odd guy, like most genius types... the phrase "push bike" in this article confused me, so I googled it. just another name for bicycle, rather oldfashined, british/irish form...
donal1951 | Feb 26, 2013, 09:50 AM EST
I planned to simply praise Daniel Day-Lewis for being the first male actor to win three Oscars. Now I feel compelled to defend "Gangs of New York." As someone who is far from a scholar, but who has a special interest in the American Civil War, I found the film entertaining and as historically accurate as a fictional work ever is. As one sensitive to anti-Irish bias, I did not see that in this film, which I have watched three times.
pjpurcell | Feb 26, 2013, 09:27 AM EST
"Gangs of New York" is a great film. And it's historically accurate. Of course, DDL is just a flop or two a way from being demoted from Honored Citizen to "blow-in."
slainte9 | Feb 26, 2013, 09:21 AM EST
It's a disgrace that Lewis lent his name to "Gangs of New York" an egregious film that insulted New York's Irish.