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Widely regarded as the most memorable entrance in film history – and he remains completely still.

Clarice Starling, just starting out, proceeds down a corridor of cells until she reaches Hannibal Lecter's reinforced glass enclosure. The man is present, with features like an animated death's head radiating satanic malice, eerily immobile clad in a tight blue inmate uniform. He remains motionless until the moment he lunges at the barrier, producing that unforgettable spitting-growling noise. Countless true-crime documentaries have since revealed that real-life murderers tend to be quite dull, with nothing resembling the actor's commanding screen presence.

Hopkins was hardly unrecognized upon receiving that Oscar-winning role in the iconic film back in 1989: a star wasn't born, instead, a superstar was forged. The character of Hannibal drew influence, Hopkins notes with amusement in his latest book, on the classic Dracula, on Joseph Stalin according to his daughter's memories, as well as his icily exacting Rada tutor his mentor Fettes. The scenes also contained a parent-child dynamic to these scenes; a sore point for Anthony, who recounts how his King Lear was indirectly affected by deep-seated remorse concerning Abigail, the estranged daughter from his initial marriage in 1966 to Petronella Barker, who resented his absences and his alcohol use.

The title originates from an old wartime photo of a young Hopkins on the beach with his dad – the kid who maybe thought he couldn't make it. He felt confused, lonely, vulnerable little boy hailing from Port Talbot, the child of Richard Hopkins, the scene-stealing supporting player here: a bread-maker and a tough individual, a plain speaker who despised the religious hypocrites of the chapel and avoided expressing his feelings, but also exhibited dreamy, sentimental tenderness. Richard Hopkins who deeply disliked how they were forced humbly to affluent family members including Auntie Patty, whose husband knew the politician Nye Bevan and could get young Anthony into an elite school: “Since they are extremely wealthy!” he shouts while traveling there. “We're all hoping for some pickings! Bloody rubbish, that's what it is!”

The humility worked, for a time. Hopkins was a hopeless student in his new institution. Then, during in an English lesson he had to recite the poem by Masefield titled The West Wind – sight unseen – and his voice awakened; he shocked the educator and the other boys. He reasonably claims that poetry, on its own, started his career. This, and joining the YMCA theater group. Remarkably, he left school with low prospects, pursued acting, and to the astonishment of his parents, was acting with Laurence Olivier at the renowned Old Vic in just ten years. He more or less did it on his own, although in those days there were grants to go to Rada – an opportunity for actors from humble backgrounds. His dad remained in awe with Anthony's worldwide acclaim: when he asked Anthony to deliver the Yorick lines from Hamlet, his father paid close attention and then left the room and burst into tears.

As for the hot-tempered, bloody-minded son, he departed the theatrical troupe in a moment of anger – much to Olivier's disappointment and criticism – but fortunately found a great TV role as a suspected war criminal in the series QB VII, which eventually resulted to parts like that in the film The Elephant Man and a luminous film journey in cinema, which he liked more to the stage. He gave up alcohol in 1975 having been a hell-raising alcoholic, and managed to live into his later years to execute great performances, such as Lecter, the steward Stevens in the film The Remains of the Day with Emma Thompson and the senior with memory loss in the movie The Father – his second Oscar.

In the later sections of the book he appears more reserved, more calculated. Some of the anecdotage doesn't quite come off. He remembers being taken out to lunch by his co-star in the film Nixon, the esteemed thespian Paul Sorvino, who sought to advise him his portrayal of Nixon wasn't working. Was this the moment for Hopkins to learn something from the legendary star from Goodfellas? Hardly. Hopkins seems to go along with the director's criticism of Sorvino as being motivated due to resentment. Truly?

He often portrays the no-nonsense, practical performer who maintains you must to be on time, learn everyone's name on set and get on with it. Quite so. But he also recounts confronting an obnoxious director who'd made a young extra cry: “Say sorry to her! And learn some manners. Should you ever act that way in front of me, I'll change the shape of your face! Anthony comes across as a person who quit alcohol yet perhaps not the aggression that went with it. A Shakespearean like him surely knows the lines about Kent from Cornwall in King Lear: “He does not know how to flatter! A truthful and simple spirit – he must speak truth!”

Anthony ends his memoir with a lengthy appendix composed simply