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Widely regarded as the greatest appearance in film history – while he stands completely still.

A young FBI agent, a rookie, proceeds down a corridor of cells finally encountering Hannibal Lecter's reinforced glass enclosure. He is positioned, his face resembling a skeletal visage filled with sinister intent, unnervingly still in his form-fitting blue prison jumpsuit. He stands frozen right up until he propels himself at the barrier, producing that distinctive snarling-hissing noise. Numerous real-crime films have since revealed that real-life murderers are often very boring, far from Hopkins' commanding screen presence.

He was not unrecognized upon receiving that Oscar-winning role in The Silence of the Lambs back in 1989: it wasn't his debut, but a legend was cemented. The character of Hannibal was based, Hopkins cheerfully recalls in this new autobiography, on Bela Lugosi's Dracula, on Stalin according to his daughter's memories, as well as his rigorously precise acting coach his instructor Fettes. The scenes also contained a father-daughter dimension to these scenes; a painful subject for the actor, who further explains how his portrayal of Lear was indirectly affected by an agonised guilt regarding his daughter Abigail, his distant daughter from his disastrous first marriage in 1966 to Petronella Barker, who resented his time away and his drinking habits.

The book's name comes from an old wartime photo of Hopkins as a toddler playing on the sand with his father – the kid who maybe thought he wouldn't succeed. He appeared lost, lonely, vulnerable little boy raised in Port Talbot, his father was Richard Arthur Hopkins, the standout secondary character here: a pastry chef and man's man, a straightforward talker who detested the sanctimonious churchgoers at the church and didn't believe in expressing his feelings, yet possessed a touch of dreamy, sentimental tenderness. Richard Hopkins who was angered by how they were forced humbly to their rich relatives such as Aunt Patty, whose spouse was acquainted with Nye Bevan and was able to secure the young Anthony into a prestigious academy: “Due to their immense riches!” he raves while traveling there. “Everyone is looking for scraps! Total garbage, that's all it is!”

The humility worked, temporarily. Hopkins was a hopeless student at the prestigious school. But one day in a literature class he was required to perform John Masefield's poem titled The West Wind – sight unseen – and his voice awakened; he amazed the instructor and his classmates. He reasonably claims that poetry, on its own, started his career. This, and joining the YMCA theater group. Remarkably, he left school without much hope, went into acting, and shocking his family, was on stage with Laurence Olivier at the renowned Old Vic in under a decade. He accomplished it mostly independently, although in those days there were grants for drama school – a way up for working-class actors. His father was always amazed by his son's international fame: upon requesting his son to deliver the Yorick lines from Hamlet, his father paid close attention and then went into another room and burst into tears.

As for the hot-tempered, strong-willed son, he left the National Theatre in a moment of anger – causing Olivier's regret and criticism – but fortunately found a great TV role playing an alleged war criminal in the show based on Uris's work, which paved the way to roles such as in David Lynch's The Elephant Man and a luminous film journey in movies, that he favored compared to stage acting. He stopped drinking in 1975 after being a heavy drinker, and so survived into his later years to achieve remarkable acting, including Lecter, the steward Stevens in the film The Remains of the Day featuring Emma Thompson and the old man with dementia in The Father – his next Oscar win.

In the latter half of his autobiography his character seems more elusive, more studied. Some of the anecdotage aren't entirely successful. He recalls being taken out to lunch with his fellow actor in the film Nixon, the highly regarded performer Paul, who sought to advise him his performance as Nixon wasn't effective. Was this the chance for him to absorb something from the legendary star from Goodfellas? Hardly. He tends to concur with the director's criticism that Sorvino was acting by jealousy. Really?

He consistently acts as the tough, down-to-earth professional actor who believes you must to arrive punctually, know all the crew's names and get on with it. Quite so. Yet he also tells confronting an obnoxious director who'd made a young extra cry: “Apologise to her! And acquire some decency. Should you ever act that way in front of me, I'll change the shape of your face! Anthony comes across as an individual who stopped drinking yet perhaps not the aggression that went with it. An actor of his caliber must know the lines about Kent from Cornwall from the play Lear: “He does not know how to flatter! A truthful and simple spirit – he is compelled to be honest!”

Hopkins concludes his book with an extensive addendum composed simply