After graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 1957, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and was then spotted by Laurence Olivier who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre. In 1968, he achieved renown playing Richard the Lionheart in the Academy Award-winning film The Lion in Winter. In the mid 1970s, Richard Attenborough, who would direct five Hopkins films, called him "the greatest actor of his generation."