Dec. 31 marks the end of 2012, but it’s the beginning of Anthony Hopkins’ 75^th year on Planet Earth.

One of the most acclaimed and sought-after actors in the world, Hopkins has been entertaining audiences for more than 40 years, remarkably getting the break that made him a true movie star – Silence of the Lambs’ Hannibal Lecter — at the age of 54.

To commemorate Hopkins’ birthday, Celebuzz has assembled a gallery of some of his most memorable movie roles, celebrating the actor’s versatility and consistency as one of the best in Hollywood.

Although he’d been acting on stage and television since 1960, Hopkins made a significant U.S. breakthrough in 1980, when he starred as a doctor trying to help a deformed man in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man.

After working in films including 1984’s The Bounty helped establish him as part of a new generation of English actors who could contribute substantive performances to films from virtually any country, Hopkins exploded in the public consciousness with his turn in Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs. Played cold-blooded serial killer Lecter, the actor not only scored an Academy Award, but earned a place in the pop culture pantheon as one of the scariest and most memorable villains in film history.

Sincee then, Hopkins has played everything from butlers to kings to gods, most recently stepping into Alfred Hitchcock’s corpulent frame to plat the iconic filmmaker as he embarked on the production of Psycho in the 2012 film Hitchcock.

Click through our gallery for a good look at some of the actor’s most famous roles. And let us know which of them are your favorites – or which ones we forgot – in the comments section below!

“It’s really all because of Madonna,” says James D’Arcy. “She cast me when nobody else really wanted to.” The movie the shaggy haired British actor is talking about is W.E., in which he played Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor. And he seems to be right. Since then he’s appeared in Cloud Atlas and, most recently, playing Anthony Perkins in Hitchcock, which opens in select cities this Friday.

And as for Madge, the two are good friends which seems to shock a lot of people.

“I’m good friends with most of the directors I work with,” he explained to Celebuzz. “People are only amazed because it’s Madonna, like because she’s Madonna she doesn’t have friends which is ridiculous if you start to think about it.”

D’Arcy caught Madonna’s latest show in London and is actually featured quite prominently in the concert.

“On the screens she plays four minutes of outtakes from the movie of me and Andrea rolling around on the beach while she sings ‘Masterpiece,’ her song from the film,” he says. “After the show I went to a party at her house.”

The 37-year-old actor gives a brilliant performance as Perkins in ‘Hitchcock,’ which explores the relationship between Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) and his influential wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) during the making of his 1960 horror masterpiece Psycho.

He prepared by watching interviews of Perkins done around that time.

“Perkins did share several characteristics with Norman Bates (his Psycho character). They were both shy and had a boyish quality. I don’t want to sound disrespectful but looking at a few of his other films from that time, he wasn’t the most wildly versatile actor around. He had the same mannerisms. The studios were trying to mold him into the next James Dean or Marlon Brando, which seems absurd now when you think about it.

“It’s interesting that he’s so confused with Norman Bates. He became so synonymous with the role that he was condemned by it. He had so little freedom in that people didn’t know Perkins very well. People know Norman Bates very well maybe, not Anthony Perkins.”  Although he adds, “Who’s to say what his career would have been like without Psycho?” (Indeed, Perkins went onto to play Bates another three times in three sequels to Hitchcock’s film).

D’Arcy clearly had a wonderful time working with icons like Hopkins and Mirren.

“It was a wonderful set and it all starts from the top,” he explains. “If the leading man doesn’t f..k around then no one else will. [Hopkins] is the nicest, kindest most professional man. It was just a lovely set. I mean look at the cast involved. It wasn’t an expensive movie to make. Everyone really wanted to do it.”

And which is his favorite Hitchcock movie?

“I feel like the answer is always the last one I watched,” he said. “For instance, I just saw Foreign Correspondent, a 1940 propaganda film and it was utterly mesmerizing.”

Hitchcock is open nationwide now. Watch the film’s theatrical trailer below.

For her role in Hitchcock, Jessica Biel wanted to meet Vera Miles. She plays the co-star of Psycho, a fascinating new movie about Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville during the filming of his horror masterpiece. But the 83-year-old actress had no interest in meeting the young actress who would be portraying her.

“She’s retired and doesn’t have a public life at all,” Biel explained. So instead, she met with one of her grandsons — who was quite happy to meet and talk about his grandmother.

When Biel retold this story at the ‘Hitchcock’ press conference in New York, it was instantly met with chortles from the other cast members sitting on the dais. “Of course he wanted to meet you!” chuckled Toni Collette.

“No, no it wasn’t like that!” Biel protested. “He was very nice and respectful and he’s married! He’s highly protective of his grandmother and loves her.”

The newlywed admitted that she was nervous about playing a real person, but those fears were allayed by director Sacha Gervasi.

“I was very fearful about doing an impersonation, and I spoke to Sacha a lot about that. Going along I realized that it was impossible to create someone fully, but you have to grasp a facet for who she was as a mother and a woman. We also talked a lot about what it was like for her being on the Psycho set.”

“She had a sense of humor and grace and that’s what I was trying to go for. I hope it worked.” Biel definitely pulls it off: Her Vera Miles comes across as a smart, sassy woman who offers advice for her screen sister, Janet Leigh, when it comes to dealing with their brilliant but disturbed director Alfred Hitchcock.

The 30-year old, who first became famous on 7th Heaven, left the distinct impression that she could relate to Miles’ struggle to be a serious actress who struggled with maintaining a personal life.

“Vera wasn’t interested in being a star,” explained Biel. “She did lots of theater, which was very fulfilling for her. She didn’t want to be a star, but a respected actor. I think it’s terribly hard now to have a successful career and a private life. It’s very challenging.”

“I find it very hard to have any kind of privacy in my life,” said the just married Mrs. Timberlake. “I guess it’s a balance. I would love the days of no internet and TMZ. Google is great, but it is a challenge!”

Hitchcock opens in theaters November 21. Watch Celebuzz’ profile of Alfred Hitchcock and 2012′s glut of Hitchcock-related projects below.

Aside from eating foods people only really eat once a year, Thanksgiving is also the time to spend a day or two at the movies.

The holiday traditionally gives Hollywood one of its biggest weekends of the year, and this year’s holiday season is no exception. Several movies are jockeying for your attention at the box office, and Celebuzz has your guide to which films are playing at a theatre near you.

Chris Hemsworth‘s Red Dawn remake and Dreamworks’ animated movie Rise of the Guardians lead the charge of new releases this week, alongside new movies from Brad Pitt and director Ang Lee. 

With movies like Skyfall and Twilight: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 still doing strong business at the multiplex, it’s going to be Box Office Thunderdome as the new films compete with the holdovers. Thankfully there’s plenty of time over the break to catch a movie or three.

Check out our guide to ten noteworthy films Hollywood wants you to see this Thanksgiving. First, we roll out the new releases, along with their release dates, followed by recently-released films.

From James Bond to Team Edward, there’s something for everyone in theaters this week… Which movie will you see for the first or sixth time? Sound off in the comments below! And while you figure out which movie is worth your hard-earned allowance money, check out the trailer for the new release Red Dawn. 

Thanks to two new movies and a deluxe Blu-ray box set, Alfred Hitchcock is as hot as ever, not just 30-plus years after his death, but more than 70 of Hollywood moviemaking.

Rightfully dubbed “The Master of Suspense,” Hitchcock was a top-shelf purveyor of thrills whose works were as influential as they were entertaining.

With the theatrical release of Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock, Celebuzz examines the filmmaker’s legacy, and takes a look at the entertainment industry’s tributes to his iconic body of work.

Hitchcock comes on the heels of Universal’s Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection, as well as HBO’s The Girl. The former is a 15-film boxed set that collects virtually all of the filmmaker’s major work in the United States, and the latter is a chronicle of the troubled relationship Tippi Hedren (played by Sienna Miller) had with Hitchcock (Toby Jones) during the filming of The Birds.

Although both of the films profiled in these biopics are decidedly horror-oriented – Hitchcock looks at the making of Psycho – the box set provides a broader view of his career as longtime fans and newcomers have the opportunity to watch murder mysteries (Rope), political actioners (North By Northwest) and psychological thrillers (Vertigo) among others.

Watch Celebuzz’ overview of the new Hitchcock-themed projects coming out of Hollywood above. Below, check out the theatrical trailer for Hitchcock, which opens in theaters November 21.

Of the few directors to achieve celebrity status, the biggest among them, both literally and figuratively, is Alfred Hitchcock, whose career spanned fifty years and 66 movies including Rear Window, Vertigo and finally North by Northwest as the fifties were winding down.

It is here where Sacha Gervasi begins his new movie, Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins as the maestro, and the equally captivating Helen Mirren as his longtime wife and collaborator, Alma Reville.

Hitchcock is an occasionally enjoyable, though uneven look, at the making of Psycho, an unlikely triumph that changed the face of horror.

As the new movie begins, Hitchcock is coming off North by Northwest, a critical and commercial triumph which leaves him inundated with offers — including Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, which he passes on because Cary Grant won’t play James Bond.

Instead, against the advice of his agent, Lew Wasserman (Michael Stuhlbarg), and mostly every studio in Hollywood, Hitch decides to adapt a new book, Psycho, Paul Bloch’s thriller about Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein.

With no one to back the movie, Hitchcock mortgages his Bel Air mansion for the $800 thousand budget, choosing to work lean and mean as with his popular TV series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Hitchcock is most engaging when Hopkins and Mirren share the screen as a durable old couple straining under 33 years of marriage.

While Hitchcock was a cinematic genius, he didn’t make a move without first consulting Alma, and no screenplay went in front of cameras before being subject to her pen.

Hitchcock is known to have obsessed over his blonde leading ladies, Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Vera Miles and Tippi Hedren, but such blustery fantasies are believed to have been nothing more than that.

When he hires Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson) as the latest to join the pantheon of ‘Hitchcock Blondes,’ Alma can only roll her eyes.

In the meantime, she’s begun a collaboration away from Psycho, which she derides as “cheap horror claptrap.”

Her partner is a dashing younger writer named Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston), whom she regularly meets at a secluded beach house.

Not quite a romance, Hitchcock might have been a mildly engaging movie but is immeasurably elevated by the presence of Hopkins and Mirren, who provide the story’s emotional core.

Donning a fat suit and prosthetics, Hopkins, who bears little resemblance to Hitchcock, fully embodies the director, protruding lower lip and all, adapting his distinctive and deliberate accent as well as his droll and arid wit.

Mirren, who looks nothing like Alma, delivers an emotionally honest performance as a mid-century wife who, in a later era, would have no doubt forged a successful career of her own, given her storytelling talents.

In Hitchcock, (as in life, no doubt) she is his anchor both at home and, after a lackluster early screening of Psycho, at work.

On her recommendation, Hitch, who insisted the movie’s infamous shower scene play without music, was persuaded to lay in Bernard Herrmann’s shrieking chords, raising the scene’s tension to an unbearable level.

Director Sacha Gervasi, who holds a writing credit on The Terminal and directed the memorable documentary, Anvil:  The Story of Anvil, left script duties to John McLaughlin (Black Swan).

While his characterizations of Hitch and Alma are vividly rendered, minor roles like Vera Miles (Jessica Biel), Tony Perkins (James D’Arcy) and Janet Leigh are sketched in much more lightly. And the subplot involving Alma and Whitfield feels like a halfhearted attempt to inject the material with much-needed tension.

While some of his dialogue is snappy, McLaughlin struggles to find the right balance between humor and drama, and occasionally missteps with ‘fantasy’ sequences in which Ed Gein (Michael Wincott) visits Hitchcock providing helpful hints on murder.

The production was barred from using footage from Psycho, an obstacle Gervasi gracefully eludes in the film’s finest moment – a scene where Hitchcock stands in the lobby on opening night, listening to the audience reaction as the shower scene unspools.

Most of us, having seen the movie numerous times, hear Herrmann’s music and the image of poor Janet Leigh being butchered jumps starkly to mind as Hitch swings his arm to and fro, stabbing the air like a maestro conducting a symphony.

Hopkins is among the best actors of his generation and is being talked about for awards season. Should he win an Oscar, it would be his second Best Actor win, with five nominations.

Hitchcock, on the other hand, reinvented the thriller genre and remains one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. Although he was nominated for the Oscar six times, he never took home a statuette.

Hitchcock opens in theaters November 21. Watch its theatrical trailer below.

Alfred Hitchcock may have been the man of the hour at the New York City premiere of Hitchcock, but all anyone could talk about was the film’s star, Anthony Hopkins.

“I actually worked with Tony on my first film,” actress Toni Collette told Celebuzz on the red carpet. “It was an Australian film called The Efficiency Expert. I was 17, and I was petrified. I’m very lucky to have another opportunity to work with him again.”

Hitchcock — which also stars Helen Mirren (as Hitchcock’s wife, Alma Reville), Scarlett Johansson (as Janet Leigh),  Jessica Biel (as Vera Miles) and James D’Arcy (as Anthony Perkins) — centers on the making of the acclaimed filmmaker’s most groundbreaking film, Psycho.

 For the actors involved in the project, it was the chance of a lifetime to work alongside industry legends Hopkins and Mirren.

“I want to be Helen when I grow up,” Collette said.

As for first-time director Sacha Gervasi, the experience was life-changing. “I got the best actors in the world!” he said. “I got so lucky but for me it really was Tony Hopkins telling me, as a first-time filmmaker, ‘Listen, you’re not experienced. You’re completely crazy, but I want to make this movie with you. I feel it in my gut.’ And it was his decision that really enabled the film to happen.”

For more interviews from the Hitchcock premiere, including chats with D’Arcy and Michael Stuhlbarg (who plays Universal studio chief Lew Wasserman), watch the video, above.

While it was all-out glamour on the red carpet at the American Music Awards in L.A. on Monday, with too many hits to name and a surprisingly scant amount of misses, stars went bold on the red carpet fashion at the New York premiere of Hitchcock.

In a shocking reversal, music’s most notorious fashion sinners, including Nikki Minaj, Pink and more, wowed us in relatively subdued and — dare we say, classic — looks.

Meanwhile, across the country, co-stars and best-dressed regulars Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel mixed it up in looks more different than we’re accustomed to seeing the pair don.

Biel was on-trend in the sparkling metallic shade with sheer detailing — and coordinating glittery mani to boot — but on the 30-year-old newlywed, the two-piece look felt dated. While Biel’s silver Oscar de la Renta tunic and trousers were elegant and sophisticated, the loose fit of her glittering ensemble appeared dowdy and did little for her notoriously fit figure.

Johansson on the other hand, went for a walk on the wild side, rocking a nature-inspired print. While ScarJo went with a more modern silhouette, wearing a Rodarte fit-and-flare dress with an architectural bodice, a more streamlined silhouette would have lengthened Johansson’s petite frame.

Biel and Johansson both finished off their looks with the season’s hot hue, pairing oxblood lips with two of the season’s hottest hairstyles.

To take a closer look at both stars’ looks — and to see what Hithcock’s other leading ladies wore — click through our red carpet recap.

What do you think of the Hitchcock red carpet fashion? Do you agree with us? Share your take on the premiere’s fashion in the comments below.

Catch up on the latest fashion news on The Daily Buzz.

In the upcoming Alfred Hitchcock biopic, Scarlett Johansson goes Psycho.

Starring as late actress Janet Leigh in Hitchcock — about the making of the filmmaker’s acclaimed Psycho — Johansson was charged with recreating Leigh’s iconic shower scene from the classic 1960 thriller. When it came time to strip down for the infamous screaming sequence, Johansson had her apprehensions.

“My god, it’s just the unknown factors before you go in,” the actress told Celebuzz on the red carpet of the Hitchcock premiere in New York City. “I mean, nobody likes to see an actor have a modesty issue, or there’s water involved, and how is it going to work? You know, you’re asking all these questions. But once you get the first take out of the way, it’s OK.”

In anticipation of the big-screen release of the Sacha Gervasi-directed Hitchcock on Nov. 23, Johansson also recreated the Psycho scene for online magazine V and spoke more about how tensions were high when she stepped into the shower on Fox Searchlight production’s set.

“We only had the luxury to shoot the scene for a day,” the actress told V. “Everybody was feeling very nervous because it involved water and nobody wants the actor to get wet.… You have got to be brave, get into the shower, and face Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock jabbing you in the face with a 12-inch kitchen knife, you know.”

Though Hitchcock — which also stars Helen Mirren (as Hitchcock’s wife, Alma Reville), Jessica Biel (as Vera Miles) and James D’Arcy (as Anthony Perkins) — centers on Psycho, it’s not Johansson’s favorite film from the late director.

“Probably Strangers on a Train,” she said at the Sunday night premiere. “I always liked that film as a kid. I like the look of it, I like the cinematography, I like the suspense. I like everything about that film, [including] the performance side.”

Here’s proof that Scarlett Johansson is stunning even soaking wet.

Ahead of hitting the big screen in the upcoming Alfred Hitchcock biopic, the actress stripped down to recreate the iconic shower scene from the filmmaker’s classic shocker, Psycho, for online magazine V  as well. When it came to channeling the late Janet Leigh for the infamous screaming sequence for Hitchcock, Johansson said she threw caution to the wind.

“We only had the luxury to shoot the scene for a day,” the actress told V. “Everybody was feeling very nervous because it involved water and nobody wants the actor to get wet. They were concerned with modesty and all these things — but I don’t care about any of that stuff and Janet Leigh never did either,” the 27-year-old said. “You have got to be brave, get into the shower, and face Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock jabbing you in the face with a 12-inch kitchen knife, you know.”

Johansson said baring it all didn’t faze her. In fact, the actress — who recently split from advertising executive beau Nate Naylor — claimed she’s always been in tune with her sexuality. “I think all little girls are aware of their sex appeal, I think probably more so when they’re pubescent,” Johansson said. “I remember being an extremely flirtatious little girl. I liked boys. I think I was also inspired by certain films I watched when I was a girl. I loved Judy Garland and I loved these Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals and I had this idea of romance — the dream girl getting the dream guy — and all that stuff.”

But her role in Hitchcock — which also stars Jessica Biel and Helen Mirren — is a world away from romance. The much-anticipated film doesn’t just focus on Hitchcock’s success behind the camera, but also his strife. “The film is about…his struggle at the twilight, or in the autumn, of his career,” Johansson explained. “He had all this success, like North by Northwest, and everybody was looking for him to have another huge hit like that. And he found this pulp novel that kind of allowed him to explore all his perversions…. We get to see the mind of Hitchcock.”

Hitchcock opens Nov. 23.