Before They Were Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis on “Shoestring”

It’s become a fun tradition here at The Back Row for me to do “Before They Were Stars” features on the Academy Award nominees shortly after they’ve been announced. It’s also become a tradition for Daniel Day-Lewis to get in the mood to win an Oscar every few years and decide to resurface to deliver a knockout performance, and he’s definitely the favourite to win this year for Lincoln. I’ve already showcased Day-Lewis’ brief screen debut at the age of 14 as an extra in the film, Sunday Bloody Sunday. His second screen role was playing a disc jockey in a 1980 episode of a British detective series called Shoestring. He’s only onscreen for 25 seconds and doesn’t even get a close-up, but I can only assume Day-Lewis spent a year working as a DJ in order to prepare for this role.