00:00Doug Urbanski is coming to the stage.
00:16So Gary is sitting right above Clark Gable and Jack Benny.
00:21That's how I think of you, Gary.
00:23A mixture.
00:24Both of them.
00:25But somewhere along the line, Gary and I had a talk way back in like 1989 or 88.
00:31And we met and had lunch and the topic was longevity.
00:35About careers and such a strange word, career.
00:39Where you are now, in 1909, Francis X. Bushman was one of the three biggest stars in the world.
00:47He had starred in Ben-Hur.
00:50By 1924, his career was ending.
00:53And in 1926 or 7, when they were building this theater, he donated this land, where his mansion was, so they could build the Chinese theater.
01:04He eventually lost everything in the stock market crash and he survived on cameo appearances and television shows for the rest of his life.
01:10So you think about careers, you think about longevity, and you think of someone like Jack Benny, who conquered films and television, or Bob Hope.
01:18Bob Hope.
01:18Films, radio, vaudeville, television.
01:21Very few get to do all this stuff, but Gary has done it.
01:25I was reading Gloria Swanson's book, weirdly enough, the other day.
01:33And she quoted something she called corny.
01:36Because the ads all said Gloria Swanson is Norma Desmond.
01:41Just as we would say John Barrymore is Hamlet.
01:45Or Greta Garbo is Camille.
01:48Well, I'm looking at the list of Gary.
01:50Gary, what do we say?
01:52He is Winston Churchill.
01:54And he is Sid Vicious.
01:55And he is Joe Orton.
01:57He is Dracula.
02:00It's a corny thing, but he is all of these people.
02:03Alan Horn, the brilliant head of Warner Brothers, wanted Gary to be in their franchises.
02:10He wanted Gary to be in the Batman franchises.
02:12He wanted Gary to be in the Potter.
02:14He called Gary Oldman the talisman of good luck for franchise movies.
02:19And I think they made several billion dollars because he believed in this.
02:24So Gary Oldman has played famously real people and also literary figures.
02:32Who has a career where you get to do both of that and often?
02:37So he also is Jim Gordon.
02:40He is Sirius Black.
02:41He is the greatest spy of all time, George Smiley.
02:46He's also currently Jackson Land because Gary has now not only conquered film, but he's conquered television as well.
02:55Now he's lately trying to, and succeeding at conquering theater.
02:59And very soon Gary will have, his knighthood will be official.
03:04He's had box office success, television success, awards, British Academy Awards.
03:08I think with the Churchill film, he won about 60 or 70 of every award on the planet that was available to be won.
03:16So longevity.
03:1840 years is a very long time to have a career that sustains.
03:25And right now, it doesn't stop.
03:27The show is a success.
03:28And we even talk about other shows and other projects.
03:3140 years.
03:33In one month, Gary will go to Windsor Castle.
03:37And the king will put the sword on his shoulder and give him the knighthood.
03:42Which is already gone.
03:43It just makes it official.
03:46Today, in a theater that has been here for a hundred years, almost.
03:51By the way, this theater was built to show silent films.
03:53And now it has IMAX movies.
03:56So careers may come and go, but the Chinese theater is like the knighthood.
03:59It is still here, and it is forever.
04:03So, today is to honor the career.
04:07I've been blessed with knowing the person.
04:11And I will say it as corny as it sounds.
04:14You are here today because Gary Oldman is Gary Oldman.
Comments