Abigail Hopkins is an English singer-songwriter, actress and theatre director whose full name is Abigail Rhiannedd Hopkins. She was born on August 20, 1969, in Putney, London to parents Sir Anthony Hopkins and his former wife, Petronella Barker. Hopkins always had a strained relationship with her father who was Welsh-born and abandoned her when she was just 14-months-old. At the time of her birth, her father was a struggling alcoholic who decided to leave his family behind him. This left Hopkins with a lot of bitterness toward her father and even though she was his only child they rarely spoke.
When Hopkins was 16, her father made a comment about her mother that led to a no-contact order. Things spiraled out of control for her and she became addicted to drugs. By the time she was 18 she had already dropped out of university and had threatened to kill herself. She revealed in an interview many years later, "I came very close to killing myself. It was the worst time I can remember. I totally abused my mind and body. The root cause was the fact that my father and I had an intermittent relationship when I was young. I was angry and there was a lot of grieving going on."
The depression lasted six months but soon Hopkins would find solace in her blossoming acting career. Hopkins admits that she does not remember life at the time when they were still a family, she would have been only 14-months-old at the time. Hopkins and her father reconciled for some time during the 1990's. Between 1993 and 2015, Hopkins would play a total of 10 roles in feature films, shorts, and television documentaries. Three of those films in 1993 would be appearances with her father during the brief period where they were speaking.
Career:
Abigail Hopkins has appeared in many films including "Exits", "The Remains of the Day", and "Shadowlands" just to name a few. She was also in David Starkey's series called Elizabeth where she played a Catherine Parr. She also pursued a career in singing and debuted her first album titled "Smile Road" in 2003. She went on to release several more albums including "Blue Satin Alley" in 2005, "The Lighthouse Keeper" in 2007 and "The Memoirs of an Outlaw" in 2008. Hopkins also contributed vocals to the Chamber Music for A James Joyce Tribute Album as well as many radio shows. She also appeared as a singer-songwriter for the Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 from 2004 to 2006.
Hopkins was only 7-years-old when she learned how to play the classical guitar which would become a staple of her music career. Currently 49, Hopkins. During the period where her parents were split and she was considering suicide, Hopkin's father decided to buy her a flat and arranged for her to work on three films with him. These three films would become the beginning of her career in acting including "Remains of the Day" and "The Shadowlands". The relationship was still strained despite Hopkin's father's attempt to make things up to her and she once again became estranged from her father. During much of her career, Hopkins went by the pseudonym, Abigail Harrison.
