ROBBIE COLTRANE

30 March 1950 – 14 October 2022

Playing half-giant Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter films between 2001 and 2011 made Robbie Coltrane a global star, but it was just one role in the Scottish actor’s varied career.

Born Anthony Robert Mcmillan in 1950 on the outskirts of Glasgow, Robbie took the stage name Coltrane in tribute to jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. After small roles in films and TV, Robbie drew attention in the early 1980s comedy series The Young Ones and The Comic Strip Presents…, before starring as the lead singer in a rock ’n’ roll band in Tutti Frutti and playing writer Samuel Johnson in Blackadder the Third, both in 1987.

But it was a drama that made

Robbie a household name – as criminal psychologist Fitz in ITV’S Cracker, he won three BAFTAS between 1994 and 1996. He next played Russian gangster Valentin Zukovsky in the James Bond movies Goldeneye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999).

Robbie returned to crime drama in 2009 when he starred as a detective, Douglas Hain, in ITV’S three-part thriller Murderland. His last major TV role was in 2016 as a veteran comedian facing historic rape allegations in C4 drama National Treasure, earning him a BAFTA nomination.

Married to sculptor Rhona Gemmell from 1999 to 2003, with whom he had two children, Robbie passed away on 14 October in hospital in

Scotland, aged 72.