When the Academy Award nominations were announced on Tuesday morning many expected debates were sparked about who was left out and who shouldn’t have been nominated in the first place, but for one of the nominees in the Best Actor category, the announcement was a long time in the making.

Gary Oldman has been acting for more than three decades, and in that time he has aged gracefully from an intense and hungry young actor to a classy and dignified performer who can bring great amounts of gravitas to every character he plays. Oldman has played punk rock icons (Sid & Nancy), classical music icons (Immortal Beloved), literary villains (Bram Stoker’s Dracula), grotesque villains (Hannibal, Leon, True Romance), not-so-grotesque villains (Air Force One), and many others. In recent years he has enhanced his acting resume with prominent roles with in the blockbuster Batman and Harry Potter franchises. In 1997 Oldman made his directorial debut with the acclaimed indie Nil By Mouth.

Throughout his career Oldman has earned numerous awards but has never been afforded the opportunity to bask in Oscar glory, until now. He received a much-deserved Best Actor nomination for his performance as physically and emotionally weathered veteran spy George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, director Tomas Alfredson‘s (Let the Right One In) critically adored adaptation of John Le Carre‘s classic Cold War espionage thriller.

Oldman got word of his nomination while in Berlin promoting the film. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly the actor expressed his surprise at the news:

Typically I have no interest in the Oscars and what actors, filmmakers, technicians, and movies win the coveted awards because it doesn’t influence my opinion of any of them, but I do like to see the people I admire get the recognition they richly deserve. Gary Oldman has always been one of my favorite actors and I hope he gets to take home the bald golden dude this year.

You can watch a video of the actor’s reaction to his nomination here

Ask me sometime and I’ll tell you my Gary Oldman story.

[Source: Entertainment Weekly]