LONDON, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- British actor Daniel Day-Lewis made film history Monday by winning the Best Actor Oscar for the third time, a feat hailed by his former primary school in London as "fantastic."
Day-Lewis won a third Best Actor honor for the title part in "Lincoln" to go with his first Oscar in 1990 for his role in "My Left Foot" and his win in 2008 for "There Will Be Blood."
"I think it's amazing; it's so good he has got three Oscars, I shall mention it tomorrow to the children," said Sherington Primary School head teacher Diane Atkinson.
Atkinson said she thought Day-Lewis's achievement would be an inspiration to current pupils at the 106-year-old school.
"We are quite an arty, creative school and we do lots of music and art," she told Xinhua.
Day-Lewis was a pupil at Sherington in the Charlton district of southeast London from 1964 to 1968.
He is the son of late British poet laureate (a title granted by the monarch for a leading poet) Cecil Day-Lewis, who died in 1972.
Daniel's triumph at the Oscars was foreshadowed by his winning the Best Actor award at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) a fortnight earlier.
Speaking at the Bafta Awards in central London, Day-Lewis revealed some of the impulses that drew him to the part.
Steven Spielberg had approached Day-Lewis several times before he agreed to play the lead role in "Lincoln."
The London-born actor, who also holds Irish citizenship, said that at first he only did not feel a need to perform the part of Lincoln, but felt quite strongly that it would be a wonderful part for somebody else to do.
"In the passage of time that changed, but it took a long time. I don't know why," he said.
"At least a large part of it is a need in you to express something of yourself through the life of another human being and that you recognize some kind of communion between your experiences, even if it is only distant."
The film is a well-funded historical blockbuster which has pleased public and critics. It garnered a leading 12 nominations at this year's Oscars, including nods for Best Film, Best Director, and for Best Actor, but ended with only two awards which also included the Best Production Design.