Daniel Day-Lewis announces he's retiring from acting

Daniel Day-Lewis, one of Hollywood’s greatest ever actors, has announced he is retiring from the profession.

Day-Lewis, who holds both British and Irish citizenship, is the only man in history to win three Academy Awards for ‘Best Actor’, for My Left Foot (1989), There Will Be Blood (2007) and Lincoln (2012).

“Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as an actor,” Leslee Dart, a spokeswoman for Mr. Lewis said in a statement released on Tuesday. “He is immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years. This is a private decision and neither he nor his representatives will make any further comment on this subject.”

The 60-year-old’s last film – at least if he sticks with his retirement – will be Phantom Thread, which he has now finished filming and is due out later this year. It has been written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and centres around a dressmaker in 1950s London who is commissioned to design for members of the royal family and high society.

Day-Lewis has not provided any reasoning as to his retirement, but he has taken fairly lengthy breaks from acting before, and stated desires in the past to spend more time back at his family farm in Ireland.

Back in 2002, following a five-year break between 1997’s The Boxer and Gangs of New York, he told The Guardian: “I didn’t really want to be involved with films. I just wanted some time away from it all. I need that quite often.”

He has never been one for snapping up riles left, right and centre. Phantom Thread will be his first appearance since 2012’s Lincoln, while he has only been in a total of six movies since 2000.

The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2007), The Crucible (1996) and The Last of the Mohicans (1992) are among others of his best-loved work.

He first rose to prominence for his starring role in My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985 – a film which focused on the relationship between English and Pakistani communities in London – having previously been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, during which time he played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In 2014, he received a knighthood for services to drama, and two years before that in 2012 he was named the greatest actor in the world by TIME magazine.

He is married to Rebecca Miller, with whom he has two sons,  Ronan Cal Day-Lewis (born 1998) and Cashel Blake Day-Lewis (born 2002). He also has another son, Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis (born 1995) – a model and actor – from a previous relationship with actress Isabelle Adjani.