Fans of the Harry Potter franchise have a special part of their hearts saved for Gary Oldman. The actor took on the beloved role of Sirius Black, the godfather of Harry Potter, who gave his life to save the Boy Wizard in one of the franchise's most heartbreaking moments. However, Harry Potter was only a tiny part of this amazing actor's career.
Gary Oldman is widely considered a chameleon actor, someone who has lost himself in so many roles that it seemed he could do anything asked of him on the big screen. With some of the best performances in cinema history, here is a look at the 10 best Gary Oldman movies outside of the Harry Potter franchise.
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014)
After the Harry Potter franchise ended, Gary Oldman joined up with another significant franchise as he nabbed a role in the revived and very entertaining Planet of the Apes movie, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. In the film, Oldman played Dreyfus, the leader of the human survivors.
Ten years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes, civilization has been decimated by disease, and only a few humans remain alive. He ends up as an antagonist to the apes and is the cause of the impending war that came in the third movie.
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (2011)
One of the best espionage movies of all-time is the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Based on the John le Carre novel, Oldman starred in the film as George Smiley, a former agent in the British Intelligence (The Circus). He is brought out of retirement to investigate a possible mole in The Circus.
Tomas Alfredson, who also directed the fantastic vampire film Let the Right One In, helms the movie, which picked up three Oscar nominations. Oldman was nominated for Best Actor as part of a fantastic cast that also included Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Ciaran Hinds.
THE BOOK OF ELI (2010)
A hidden gem that many people overlook is the Denzel Washington movie The Book of Eli. In the Hughes Brothers' film, Washington is a man traveling across the barren United States after a nuclear apocalypse destroyed society. It is on his trip that he comes across a town ruled by a man named Carnegie.
Gary Oldman portrays Carnegie, a violent and dominating warlord who wants to control people using a book that his henchmen have been unable to find. That book is The Bible, and Eli has one of the final copies known, although it is in brail.
THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)
While Harry Potter fans see Gary Oldman as part of their beloved franchise above all else, it was not the only franchise in which he took on a crucial role. At the same time that Harry Potter was captivating the world, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy was ruling the box office.
In the Batman movies, Gary Oldman took on one of the most important roles — that of Commissioner Jim Gordon, the man tasked with keeping the law in Gotham City while also working with Batman. Oldman was perfect as Gordon and all future actors have a lot to live up to.
THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997)
The same year that J.K. Rowling introduced the world to Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, director Luc Besson brought the world one of the most eclectic and crazy science fiction movies of the '90s. The film was The Fifth Element and starred Bruce Willis.
In the film, Willis was a cab driver in 2263 and ended up with a passenger that put him in the middle of a terrorist attack meant to start a war. Gary Oldman was Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg, the primary antagonist in the film.
LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL (1994)
The Fifth Element was not the first time that Gary Oldman worked with Luc Besson. The two also teamed up three years before in one of the best assassin movies of all-time. The film starred 13-year-old Natalie Portman in her first movie role as Mathilda, a young girl who befriended an assassin named Leon (Jean Reno).
When Leon decides not to kill the young girl, he instead teaches her what she needs to know to not only survive but also become a top assassin herself. Oldman stars as the bad guy, a corrupt DEA agent who killed Mathilda's family and became her primary target.
TRUE ROMANCE (1993)
The year before he starred as a corrupt DEA agent, Gary Oldman transformed himself into a fantastic character in the Tony Scott movie True Romance. The film was originally part of one large script by Quentin Tarantino, with Natural Born Killers as the other half. It told the story of a couple who found a suitcase of drugs and found mobsters trying to get it back.
Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette star as the couple, with Arquette starring as a former prostitute who stole the drugs from her pimp. Gary Oldman portrayed the pimp, Drexl Spivey, in one of his craziest movie roles.
BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (1992)
Possibly the most polarizing movie on this list, many people consider Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula as a beautiful masterpiece. At the same time, others found too much wrong with it, specifically the casting of actors like Keanu Reeves and Wynona Ryder.
With that said, the one area no one can deny the casting nailed it was with Gary Oldman, who portrayed Count Dracula himself. Oldman lost himself in the role, both as the ancient Dracula and as his younger self once he feeds and regains his youthful appearance.
JFK (1991)
Oliver Stone's masterpiece is arguably JFK, his retelling of the investigation and fallout from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The main star of the movie was Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison, the district attorney trying to uncover the truth about the assassination.
Gary Oldman played one of the essential characters in the assassination — Lee Harvey Oswald. In the movie, Garrison brings up the idea of multiple killers with Oswald framed for the killing. The film picked up eight Oscar nominations, winning two of them.
SID AND NANCY (1986)
Sid and Nancy is the movie that made Gary Oldman a star. This was his second movie role, and Alex Cox cast Oldman to portray real-life rock legend Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols. Sid and Nancy told the story of Sid's volatile relationship with Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb), a relationship that led to their deaths.
For anyone who doesn't know the story, Nancy died from a stab wound, and while Vicious was the main suspect, he died from a heroin overdose before he could go to trial. Oldman's performance received universal praise, and the rest is history.