Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I have stared death in the face, so now I try to live a quiet life... except when I’m taking hostages in Coronation St
who is domineering or bullying. Phelan is an extreme example, but everyone can relate to him.”
His character has become so synonymous with evil that Connor even scares little old ladies when he is out and about in Manchester.
He explains: “The most disturbing time is if I meet somebody, usually elderly, whose memory is not what it was, and they look at me and I see genuine fear on their faces. So I go straight over and reassure them.
“I crack open my widest smile, take my glasses off and say something along the lines of, ‘yes it is him/me, that really horrible bloke off Corrie… but I share the same face with this fella called Connor and he’s really a big, big pussycat’.”
Fame is new to Connor. Before taking up acting in his 30s, he worked as a lifeguard, a boxing coach and a car salesman. He was born in Liverpool in 1960, just nine days after the first ever episode of Coronation Street was screened. “When people say they grew up watching Coronation Street, I really did. My mum was a huge fan,” he smiles.
His parents were both bookies and Connor admits he wasn’t academic. “My mum used to joke that they couldn’t get the police to make me go to school. It wasn’t a great time in the 70s growing up in Liverpool, everybody seemed demoralised by the powers that be.”
He got the acting bug at the age of 30 when he went to stay with his brother in Plymouth and wandered into the Barbican Theatre.
“The actors were rehearsing a play” he recalls. “It was really exciting and I got a really visceral response to that. It was like when you fall in love instantly. It was like I had found the thing I had always been looking for.”
Connor started acting at writers’ workshops before landing his first TV role at the age of 35. At the same time, he rediscovered his love of painting and started a fine-art degree, in which he achieved a first, before completing a Masters degree earlier this year.
He says: “Money was tight. But it was doing something for me, so what does it matter if you are eating beans on toast for a few years? If something strikes you like that, you can’t ignore it.”
When Connor isn’t hard at work on the cobbles, he spends as much time as he can at his painting studio in Plymouth, where he runs a project mentoring up-and-coming artists.
He has also been nominated for a whole host of awards for his portrayal of Phelan, including being up for the National Television Award for best serial drama performance.
He says: “I am very grateful. It is not just recognition for what I bring to the party, but for the show, which I think is long overdue the recognition it deserves.”
And as much as Connor is loving every minute, he knows one day the end has to come for the villainous conman.
“There is no doubt Pat will get his comeuppance. The soap laws dictate that and you come in knowing that as an actor. That is what we enjoy our soaps for. The viewers know eventually he will be the architect of his own destruction.
“What will be will be. When this job ends, if there is no work, I will go back to my painting studio. I am just concentrating on now and doing the best work I can. I love it – it is just great.”