Film star Daniel Day-Lewis retires from acting

Image copyright PA

Oscar-winning actor Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, who starred in Gangs of New York and Last of the Mohicans, has retired.

A statement issued through the 60-year-old star's agent said he "will no longer be working as an actor".

It said it was a "private decision" and he was "immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences".

Day-Lewis, who holds both British and Irish citizenship, won three best actor Academy Awards for roles in My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln.

His representative, Leslee Dart, said in a statement: "Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as an actor.

"This is a private decision and neither he nor his representatives will make any further comment on this subject."

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It is not the first time Day-Lewis has stepped away from movies.

Known for leaving long stretches between roles, in the 1990s Day-Lewis went into what he called "semi-retirement" and became a shoemaker's apprentice in Florence, Italy.

He was lured back to acting by Martin Scorsese and his offer of the role in Gangs of New York.

As for Day-Lewis' stage work, his last appearance was in a 1989 National Theatre production of Hamlet in London. He walked out mid-performance and has not returned to the stage since.

Day-Lewis made his screen debut as a teenager in 1971, in Sunday Bloody Sunday.

He won his first Academy Award for best actor in 1990, after playing wheelchair-user Christy Brown in My Left Foot.

He then starred in The Last of the Mohicans (1992), In the Name of The Father (1993), The Boxer (1997) and Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002).

He won his second best actor award in 2008, for playing oil man Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, before winning a third award for his portrayal of the former US president in Lincoln (2013).

He was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2014.

Speaking at the time, he said he was "entirely amazed and utterly delighted in equal measure" to receive the honour.

He will star in his final film - Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread, based on the fashion world of 1950s London - later this year.

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