For Mr Gary Oldman
Dear Mr Oldman,
Please forgive me for asking to pass on this little message to you, as I wanted this to get directly to you and not passed around to a sea of agents and PR.
I have had the great fortune of being a portrait photographer of actors for over 35 years and have had the honour of photographing the greatest actors of their generation; from Paul Newman, Rod Steiger and Lauren Bacall to Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep. I think, when I was 19 and I photographed my very first actor…the wonderful Stephen Fry…that I had the little way of getting something a little different from my portraits which I had not seen before.
Over the years I have used my photography to raise money for many charities over the world. Cancer, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Diabetes UK, Save The Arctic, Guide Dogs, Amfar, SoccerAid, to name just a few. To date I have raised over £79M from doing a job I love. I am currently shooting an exhibition for Steven Tyler’s JANIE’S FUND for abused girls, and this is why I wanted to approach you.
I am arranging an exhibition of my portraits for a show in LA for Janie’s Fund to be the benefactor, they shall receive 100% of the income. I am photographing iconic actors and once again you are on my list of faces I would love to work with. In my wish-list of actors I want to shoot, which I made in 2005 there are only two that are missing. Gene Hackman and Gary Oldman. Needless to say, my list has now come down to the one missing name now.
I mentioned this to my lovely friend of 25 years, John Hurt, that I was after you. He beamed and said that during Tinker Tailor he fell in love with you and hoped he would see the portait we would create. Even though Johnny has gone I still feel him, and smell his red wine breath, from time to time. So, I know he is still looking over me.
I know you are currently in York doing Krapp’s Last Tape (which incidentally when Johnny preformed this piece, I did the theatre artwork!) and I was hoping you may find a free 15 minutes for me to take your portrait for this project? I cannot express how grateful I would be both personally and professionally if we could make this happen.
My phone number is 07932691235 and my email is info@andygotts.com.
I will also make a little grid of some of my portraits so you can see my style.
Yours hopefully,
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Andy
Dr Andy Gotts MBE MA
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