Daniel Day-Lewis's Real Name: Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis

Quick answer: Daniel Day-Lewis's full name is Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis. He was born on April 29, 1957, in London, the son of poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis and actress Jill Balcon. He is the only actor to win three best actor Oscars, for My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood, and Lincoln (Library of Congress; Britannica).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress name authority files him as "Day-Lewis, Daniel." It cites "birth name Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis" and "born 29 April 1957 in London." The same record says he holds both British and Irish citizenship. Its cross-reference "Lewis, Daniel Day-" shows that Day-Lewis is a double surname, not a middle name.

Britannica says he was the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, one of the leading British poets of the 1930s, and actress Jill Balcon. He was also the grandson of film producer Sir Michael Balcon. He began acting at Bedales, a progressive school in Petersfield, England. At 13 he had a small role in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). He then performed with the Bristol Old Vic and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Career highlights

After adult film roles in Gandhi (1982) and The Bounty (1984), he showed his range in 1985. That year he played a gay street tough in My Beautiful Laundrette and a stiff Edwardian Englishman in A Room with a View. As Christy Brown, an artist with cerebral palsy, in My Left Foot (1989), he won his first Oscar. Britannica notes he stayed in a wheelchair throughout the shoot and learned to paint with his left foot.

He went on to star in The Last of the Mohicans (1992), The Age of Innocence (1993), In the Name of the Father (1993), and The Crucible (1996). After The Boxer (1997) he took a break and worked as a cobbler's apprentice in Italy. He returned in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002). He won his second Oscar for There Will Be Blood (2007) and an unprecedented third for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012). Phantom Thread (2017) brought his sixth nomination. He was knighted in 2014.

He said in 2017 that he was quitting acting. AP reported in 2024 that he would return in Anemone, which he co-wrote with his son Ronan Day-Lewis, who also directed it. The film premiered in 2025. He married writer-director Rebecca Miller in 1996.

Name notes for searchers

Day-Lewis is a hyphenated family surname inherited from his father, so catalogs list him under "D." Michael and Blake are his middle names. He has never used a stage name.