Robbie Coltrane

Robbie Coltrane
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Birth name
Anthony Robert McMillan
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Height
6' 1" (1.85 m)
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Mini biography
Robbie Coltrane, one of Britain's most popular comedians who was head of the debating society at school, and won prizes for his art, is now an international film star who played in two James Bond films, and is best known in films as Rubeus Hagrid in the 'Harry Potter' franchise.

He was born Anthony Robert McMillan on March 30, 1950, in Rutherglen, a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. His father, Ian McMillan, was a general surgeon who also worked for police pathology. His mother, Jean, was a teacher and a pianist. Young Robbie was fond of art, music, films and cars. He was a voracious reader of his dad's books on medicine and crime. At age 12, he made his acting debut on stage at Glenalmond College, delivering rants from 'Henry V'. At that time he was fascinated with Marlon Brando and Orson Welles. He attended Glasgow Art School, majoring in drawing, painting and film, then studied art at Edinburgh's Moray House College of Education for a year. In 1973 he made a documentary titled 'Young Mental Health' which was voted Film Of The Year by the Scottish Education Council. At that time Robbie took the name Coltrane, due to his love of jazz, and began a career of a stand-up comedian at night clubs, at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as an actor with Edinburgh's renowned Traverse Theatre.

In 1980 Coltrane made his debut on television as Border Guard in BBC's mini-series 'The Lost Tribe', then made his big screen debut as Limousine driver in Mort en direct, La (1980). In 1981 he appeared in his first leading role as Detective Fritz Langley in Subway Riders (1981), by the famed underground director Amos Poe. From the 80s he became a well-known face through appearances in The Comic Strip series, then in "Alfresco" (1983) and Comic Strip movies The Supergrass (1985) and The Pope Must Die (1991) among other films. At that time Coltrane had trouble with alcohol, having a bottle of whiskey a day; in 1986 he flew to a clinic in Mexico and was treated for obesity. In 1987, his partner for 15 years, Paine, left him for good, leaving her portrait in Coltrain's barn.

In 1988 Coltrane met then 18-year-old Rhona Gemmell in a pub, they married and had a son, Spencer, and a daughter, Alice. His career took off during the early 90s with the leading role as Dr. Eddie 'Fitz' Fitzgerald, a forensic psychologist, in the popular TV series "Cracker" (1993). He made such a good performance as Valentin Zukovsky, a KGB man turned St. Petersburg mafia lord, in GoldenEye (1995), that they called him back for the same character in The World Is Not Enough (1999). Then Coltrane hit another lucrative franchise; he was personally selected by J.K. Rowling as her favorite choice to play half-giant Rubeus Hagrid in the 'Harry Potter' films.

In early 90s Coltrane wrote an autobiographical book 'Coltrane in a Cadillac', and also starred in the eponymous TV series, where he indulges his passion for vintage cars, and tells with great humor about his four-thousand-mile journey across America from Los Angeles to New York. In 2003 he separated from his wife. His interests outside of his acting profession has been reading books, and rebuilding and collecting vintage cars. Robbie Coltrane is currently residing in a converted farmhouse in Stirlingshire, Scotland, UK.

ROBBIE COLTRANE BIOGRAPHY

Born: 30 March 1950
Where: Rutherglen, Scotland
Awards: 3 BAFTAs
Height: 6' 1"

Filmography: Complete List

Just like the stunningly good-looking, comedians find it hard to get taken seriously in cinema. Even the brightest of them - Woody Allen or Steve Martin, for example - find that their "straight" work is usually given short shrift by a laugh-starved public. The financial imperative, consequently, demands that they stay funny. How, then, did Robbie Coltrane, for years known only as that fat Glaswegian comic on the peripheries of the Comic Strip team, manage to find fame and consistent work offers in Hollywood, based entirely upon his thespian abilities? How could it be that, while his far more illustrious peers were struggling away in such trash as Bring Me The Head Of Mavis Davis, Coltrane waslarging it in not one, but two James Bond blockbusters?

He was born Robert MacMillan, on the 30th of March, 1950, in Rutherglen, on the outskirts of Glasgow. His parents were both Scottish Calvinists. His father, Ian, was a GP and extremely busy - Robbie claims he hardly spoke to him till he was 6. His mother, Jean, was a teacher. Like her husband, she was bright and curious, keeping music, films and literature high on the family's agenda. Robbie has claimed that his earliest memory is of lying beneath the piano while his mother played.

There were other early influences that would heavily mark his later career. Not only did Robbie grow to love music, painting and films, he also fell for motor vehicles, and lorries in particular. His heroes included both actors and long-distance drivers. He'd even run around pretending to BE a lorry. And, as he approached puberty, there were his dad's books. As well as running the surgery, Ian worked as a police surgeon, thus the bookshelves held some thoroughly enticing tomes on biology, pathology and murderous mayhem in general. When Robbie was 11, Ian wanted him to view some crime victims, believing our culture foolishly cowers before death. Jean refused. Nevertheless, Robbie's extra-curricular delvings into those books gave him a far-above-average insight. He wanted to know WHY people do things like that.

He would also suffer, at an early age, genuine tragedy. Ian would die from lung cancer when Robbie was still in his teens. Worse, in 1976, Robbie's younger sister, Jane, committed suicide while studying at York University. Like Robbie, she was bubbling over with life, but suffered from depression. It was Robbie who travelled down to collect her belongings. On the way home, wild with grief, he would smash up his train carriage.

After a primary education at a local state school, Robbie had been sent to the Glenalmond public school in Perthshire, known as The Eton Of Scotland. This place was deeply authoritarian, with bullying and disciplinary beatings commonplace. Due to this unhappy experience, Robbie would later call for all public schools to be banned and swear he'd never send his son to one, "Not unless I hate him". But, while there, Fat Rab (as he was then called - friends say he named himself) used comedy and natural ebullience to get him through. He was immensely popular with the other kids. He once hung the prefects' gowns from the school's clock-tower. And, for this was public school, he joined a very minor cult, known as The Curry Boys. This, as ever, was born from a need to belong, not a desire to slaughter the Christ-Child, but the initiation ceremony was still notably revolting. The Boys had buried a crow's head which, naturally, became infested with maggots. Newcomers were required to pucker up and kiss it.

As he grew, so he became more rebellious, as befits a natural artist. At one point, expulsion was considered, but the teachers feared the reaction of Robbie's fellow pupils. Besides, though not academically brilliant, when he was interested he was an achiever. By 15, he'd reached a reasonable level of fitness, and had grown to 6' 1", allowing him to play prop for the First XV, as well as tour Canada with the Scotland schoolboy side. Beyond this, he was head of the debating society, and won prizes for his art.

In his teens, Robbie's vocation was unclear. He had made his stage debut, aged 12, delivering charged rants from Henry V while wrapped in chain mail. He loved movies and believes himself to have been utterly changed by Marlon Brando's biker in The Wild One, particularly the scene where he's asked "What are you rebelling against?" and he replies "What have you got?" He would, he thought, never take gyp from others, and never do what was expected of him. But Robbie was no simple vandal, he was interested in making things, as evinced by his older sister Annie's habit of sending him pictures of Orson Welles to cheer him up.

Annie was studying graphic art in Edinburgh, and Robbie would often visit her. Noticing how he got on with her friends, he realised that he too was an artist so, when the time came, he enrolled at Glasgow Art School, to study painting. Slowly, he recognised that his work was not up to his own high standards, but he continued on to graduation, then another year at Edinburgh's Moray House College Of Education before deciding that art was not for him.

Film was to be the thing. In 1973, his 50-minute documentary, Young Mental Health (a further pointer towards his most famous role) was voted Film Of The Year by the Scottish Education Council. Robbie, who'd take the name Coltrane due to his love of jazz, began to hang out with actors in Glasgow and Edinburgh, performing on the fringes of the Edinburgh Festival, as well as working as a chauffeur, driving directors and stars around. Supporting himself with a series of low-paid jobs, throughout the Seventies he worked with the San Quentin Theatre Group, the Bush Theatre, and Edinburgh's renowned Traverse Theatre. And it was with this last group that he formed a working relationship with playwright and director John Byrne, appearing in his The Slab Boys, a trilogy about three unruly Glaswegian kids, and Cuttin' The Rug, about factory workers.

At the same time, Coltrane engaged in improvisational nightclub work, as well as the kind of stand-up comedy that had served him so well at school. His personality, and mastery of accents, made him popular with audiences and allowed him to play hundreds of very different parts. And it's this all-round ability that allows you to chart Robbie's rise in two different ways. Most popular is the notion that his alternative comedy background led him into The Comic Strip series, Alfresco (written by Ben Elton and starring Fry and Laurie and Emma Thompson), then Blackadder, with his film career growing from his appearances in the Comic Strip movies The Supergrass and The Pope Must Die.

Actor - filmography
(In Production) (2000s) (1990s) (1980s)

The Tale of Despereaux (2008) (in production) (voice) .... Gregory
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) (post-production) .... Rubeus Hagrid

Stormbreaker (2006) .... Prime Minister
... aka Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (USA)
Cracker (2006) (TV) .... Dr. Eddie 'Fitz' Fitzgerald
... aka Cracker: A New Terror (USA: promotional title)
... aka Cracker: Nine Eleven (UK: promotional title)
Provoked: A True Story (2006) .... Lord Edward Foster
... aka Provoked (UK: short title)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) .... Rubeus Hagrid
... aka Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The IMAX Experience (USA: IMAX version)
"Still Game" .... Davie - Bus Driver (1 episode, 2005)
- Dial-A-Bus (2005) TV Episode .... Davie - Bus Driver
Ocean's Twelve (2004) .... Matsui
Pride (2004) (TV) (voice) .... James
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) .... Rubeus Hagrid
... aka Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The IMAX Experience (USA: IMAX version)
"Frasier" .... Michael Moon (2 episodes, 2004)
- Goodnight, Seattle: Part 1 (2004) TV Episode .... Michael Moon
- Goodnight, Seattle: Part 2 (2004) TV Episode .... Michael Moon
Van Helsing (2004) .... Mr. Hyde
Van Helsing: The London Assignment (2004) (V) (voice) .... Mr. Hyde
... aka Van Helsing Animated
The Planman (2003) (TV) .... Jack Lennox QC
Comic Relief 2003: The Big Hair Do (2003) (TV) .... Hagrid
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) .... Rubeus Hagrid
... aka Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens (Germany)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) .... Rubeus Hagrid
... aka Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Canada: English title) (International: English title) (UK)
... aka Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (USA)
On the Nose (2001) .... Delaney
From Hell (2001) .... Sergeant Peter Godley

The World Is Not Enough (1999) .... Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky
... aka T.W.I.N.E. (UK: promotional abbreviation)
Alice in Wonderland (1999) (TV) .... Ned Tweedledum
... aka Alice im Wunderland (Germany)
Message in a Bottle (1999) .... Charlie Toschi
The Ebb-Tide (1998) (TV) .... Capt. Chisholm
Frogs for Snakes (1998) .... Al
Montana (1998) .... The Boss
... aka Nothing Personal (Australia: video title)
Buddy (1997) .... Dr. Bill Lintz
"Cracker" .... Dr. Eddie 'Fitz' Fitzgerald (10 episodes, 1993-1996)
- White Ghost (1996) TV Episode .... Dr. Eddie 'Fitz' Fitzgerald
- True Romance (1995) TV Episode .... Dr. Eddie 'Fitz' Fitzgerald
- Best Boys (1995) TV Episode .... Dr. Eddie 'Fitz' Fitzgerald
- Brotherly Love (1995) TV Episode .... Dr. Eddie 'Fitz' Fitzgerald
- Men Should Weep (1994) TV Episode .... Dr. Eddie 'Fitz' Fitzgerald
(5 more)
In Search of James Bond with Jonathan Ross (1995) (TV) .... Valentin Zukovsky
GoldenEye (1995) .... Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky
Boswell & Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles (1993) .... Dr. Samuel Johnson
... aka Screenplay: Boswell & Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands (UK: series title)
"The Comic Strip Presents..." .... Max / ... (17 episodes, 1982-1993)
- Jealousy (1993) TV Episode .... Barrister
- Demonella (1993) TV Episode .... Arnold Silverstein
- Space Virgins from Planet Sex (1993) TV Episode .... Zarran/'N'
- Red Nose of Courage (1992) TV Episode .... Speaker
- GLC: The Carnage Continues... (1990) TV Episode .... Ken
(12 more)
The Legend of Lochnagar (1993) (voice) .... Scotsman
... aka Weekend Special: The Legend of Lochnagar (USA: series title)
The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993) .... The Duke
... aka The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Oh, What a Night (1992) .... Todd
The Bogie Man (1992) (TV) .... Francis F. Clunie
Alive and Kicking (1991) (TV) .... Liam Kane
... aka Screen One: Alive and Kicking (UK: series title)
The Pope Must Die (1991) .... The Pope
... aka The Pope Must Diet (USA)
Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole (1991) .... Steffano Baccardi
Midnight Breaks (1990) .... Fat
Nuns on the Run (1990) .... Charlie McManus
Where the Heart Is (1990) (uncredited)
Perfectly Normal (1990) .... Alonzo Turner

Henry V (1989) .... Falstaff
Lenny Live and Unleashed (1989) .... Taxi Driver
... aka Lenny Henry Live and Unleashed (Canada: English title: festival title)
Let It Ride (1989) .... Ticket Seller
Danny the Champion of the World (1989) (TV) .... Victor Hazell
Bert Rigby, You're a Fool (1989) .... Sid Trample
Slipstream (1989) .... Montclaire (at Village)
... aka Slipstream: Bounty Hunter 2000 (Philippines: English title)
"French and Saunders" (1 episode, 1988)
- Episode #2.6 (1988) TV Episode
Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988) (TV) .... Spirit of Christmas
The Fruit Machine (1988) .... Annabelle
... aka Wonderland
"Thompson" (2 episodes, 1988)
- Episode #1.1 (1988) TV Episode
- Episode #1.3 (1988) TV Episode
"The Lenny Henry Show" (2 episodes, 1985-1987)
- Christmas 1987 (1987) TV Episode
- Episode #2.5 (1985) TV Episode
"Blackadder the Third" .... Dr. Samuel Johnson (1 episode, 1987)
... aka Blackadder 3 (UK)
... aka Blackadder III (USA: video title)
- Ink and Incapability (1987) TV Episode .... Dr. Samuel Johnson
"Tutti Frutti" (1987) TV Series .... Big Jazza / ... (unknown episodes)
Eat the Rich (1987) .... Jeremy
Midnite Breaks (1986) .... Hudge
Mona Lisa (1986) .... Thomas
Absolute Beginners (1986) .... Mario
Caravaggio (1986) .... Scipione Borghese
Chinese Boxes (1986) .... Harwood
Revolution (1985) .... New York Burgher
The Supergrass (1985) .... Det. Sgt. Troy
... aka The Comic Strip Presents The Supergrass
"Girls on Top" .... Morris (1 episode, 1985)
- C.O.D. (1985) TV Episode .... Morris
European Vacation (1985) .... Man in the Bathroom
... aka National Lampoon's European Vacation (UK: video box title)
Defence of the Realm (1985) .... Leo McAskey
... aka Defense of the Realm (USA)
"A Kick Up the Eighties" (1981) TV Series .... Various Roles (1984)
"Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee" (1984) TV Series .... Various roles
"Minder" .... Mr. Henry (1 episode, 1984)
- What Makes Shamy Run? (1984) TV Episode .... Mr. Henry
"The Young Ones" .... Bouncer / ... (3 episodes, 1982-1984)
- Time (1984) TV Episode .... Captain Blood
- Bambi (1984) TV Episode .... Dr. Carlisle
- Oil (1982) TV Episode .... Bouncer
Ghost Dance (1983) .... George
Krull (1983) .... Rhun
... aka Dragons of Krull
... aka Dungeons and Dragons
... aka Krull: Invaders of the Black Fortress
... aka The Dungeons of Krull
The Crystal Cube (1983) (TV) .... Martin Bealey
"Are You Being Served?" .... C.B. Voice (1 episode, 1983)
... aka Grace Brothers
- Calling All Customers (1983) TV Episode (voice) .... C.B. Voice
"Alfresco" (1983) TV Series .... Various roles
Scrubbers (1983) .... Puff Guts
Loose Connections (1983) .... Drunk
Britannia Hospital (1982) .... Picket
Kevin Turvey: The Man Behind the Green Door (1982) (TV) .... Mick
Gateway to the South (1981)
"Keep It in the Family" .... Mr. Conway (1 episode, 1981)
- A Matter of Principle (1981) TV Episode .... Mr. Conway
Subway Riders (1981) .... Detective Fritz Langley
Flash Gordon (1980) .... Man at Airfield
"The Lost Tribe" (1980) (mini) TV Series .... Border Post Guard
Mort en direct, La (1980) .... Limosine driver
... aka Death Watch - Der gekaufte Tod (West Germany)
... aka Death in Full View
... aka Deathwatch (USA)
... aka Gekaufte Tod, Der (West Germany)