ROBBIE COLTRANE. Born Anthony McMillan in Rutherglen, Glasgow, Scotland, 31 March 1950. Attended Trinity College, Glenalmond, Perthshire; Glasgow School of Art. One son with partner Rhona Irene Gemmell. Began career as actor with the Traverse Theatre Company and Borderline Theatre Company, Edinburgh; worked briefly as stand-up comedian in the United States, late 1970s, then returned to England to appear in various alternative television comedy shows and dramas; subsequently established reputation as character actor in films; returned to the U.S. to develop film career, 1989. Recipient: Montreux Television Festival Silver Rose Award, 1987; Evening Standard Peter Sellers Award, 1991; British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award, 1993, 1994; Monte Carlo Silver Nymph Best Actor Award, 1994; BPG Best Actor Award, 1994; Royal Television Society Best Actor Award, 1994; FIPA (French Academy) Best Actor Award, 1994; Cable Ace Best Actor Award, 1994; Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award, 1994. Address: CDA 17, 47 Courtfield Road, London SW7 4DB, U.K.

TELEVISION SERIES

1981-84 A Kick Up the Eighties
1987 Tutti Frutti
1992 Coltrane in a Cadillac
1993 A Tour of the Western Isles
1993 Cracker
1994 Cracker II

TELEVISION SPECIALS

1982-92 The Comic Strip Presents (Five Go Mad in Dorset, Beat Generation, War, Summer School, Five Go Mad on Mescalin, The Strike, Gino--Full Story and Pics, GLC, South Atlantic Raiders, Demonella, Jealousy)
1985 Laugh, I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee
1986 Hooray for Hollywood
1988 Blackadder's Christmas Carol
1990 Mistero Buffo
1992 Open to Question

FILMS

Flash Gordon, 1980; Subway Riders, 1981; Krull, 1983; Chinese Boxes, 1984; Ghost Dance, 1984; Loose Connections, 1984; Scrubbers, 1984; The Supergrass, 1985; Revolution, 1985; National Lampoon's European Vacation, 1985; Defence of the Realm, 1985; Mona Lisa, 1986; The Secret Policeman's Third Ball, 1987; Caravaggio, 1986; Absolute Beginners, 1986; Eat the Rich, 1987; The Fruit Machine, 1988; Wonderland, 1988; Slipstream, 1989; Danny, the Champion of the World, 1989; Lenny Live and Unleashed, 1989; Let It Ride, 1989; Henry V, 1989; Bert Rigby You're a Fool, 1989; Where the Heart Is, 1990; Nuns on the Run, 1990; Perfectly Normal, 1990; The Pope Must Die! (U.S.: The Pope Must Diet!), 1991; Triple Bogey on a Par 5 Hole, 1992; Oh, What a Night, 1992; The Adventures of Huck Finn, 1993; Goldeneye, 1995.

STAGE (selection)

Slab Boys Trilogy; Yr Obedient Servant, 1987; Mistero Buffo, 1990.

PUBLICATION

Coltrane in a Cadillac, 1993.

Robbie Coltrane is one of Britain's most popular and versatile actors. During the 1980s he became a household name following a succession of spirited comedic stage, cinema, and small screen appearances. In the 1990s Coltrane's celebrity has developed internationally; his acting repertoire has matured to include dramatic roles, as befits his more mellow temperament and professional confidence.

In the mid-1970s he became involved in repertory theater in Edinburgh, before a brief stint in New York, where he participated in several experimental films. Returning to England, Coltrane achieved his first major stage success in The Slab Boys, a bittersweet trilogy about Glaswegian youth written by ex-collegemate John Byrne. Relocating to London in the early 1980s, Coltrane became associated with the city's burgeoning, politically-charged stand-up comedy movement. There he headlined alongside the likes of Rik Mayall, Jennifer Saunders, Ade Edmondson, and Dawn French--to name only a few of the talents who would soon become, collectively and individually, the core of British broadcasting's "alternative" comedy. Coltrane's first television credits were earned in various programs, taking first sketch then narrative forms, centered around the satirical humor generated by this new wave troupe. He co-starred in A Kick Up the Eighties and Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee, was a regular in The Comic Strip Presents ..., and frequently appeared as minor characters in shows such as Blackadder's Christmas Carol.

Effortlessly humorous, yet sharply critical, Coltrane proved to be an immediate audience favorite. Full-bodied and unpretentious, the Scotsman was often bracketed with his fellow comedic social commentator, Alexei Sayle. But whereas Sayle was manic and edgy, constantly exposing his personal identity, Coltrane's exuberant delivery was channeled into his role-playing and his amazing ability to parody the self-righteous through imitation. The Scot's capacity to produce more mainstream material is evident in his prodigious work record, his marketability as a celebrity endorser of commercial products, and his mass appeal across a variety of audiences and age groups.

Yet Coltrane's enthusiasm for his performances is unassailable. His own personal passions and vices--chain-smoking, 1950s cars, American glitz, outrageous figures, an appreciation for the style (if not the substance) of Chandleresque masculinity--have become recurrent motifs that function as backdrops to his stage and screen personae. Since the mid-1980s, Coltrane has rapidly progressed from supporting roles in successful feature films like Mona Lisa and Defence of the Realm to made-to-measure, screen-stealing leads in Henry V (an homage to Orson Welles amidst a tribute to Olivier), Nuns on the Run, and The Pope Must Die! Occasionally miscast as a genial funnyman, Coltrane has starred in his share of lightweight comedies. But as a known box office property, he is now able to choose his Hollywood offers more selectively--electing, for instance, to play the villain in the James Bond revival, Goldeneye.

Coltrane's thespian maturity has been achieved less in cinema than on the stage and in his television performances, where his ability to convincingly portray complex characters and convey contradictory emotions has more fully developed. His own enigmatic personality (jocular and acutely perceptive, sensitive yet forthright, both worldly and down-to-earth), combined with his penchant for panache (with its mixture of grand style and garish display) often surface in his TV roles. As Danny McGlone in the hit 1987 miniseries Tutti Frutti, Coltrane portrayed the endearing, egotistical frontman of the Majestics--a group of aging rock 'n' rollers touring Scotland in search of newfound fame and fortune. The critical and popular acclaim accorded this black comedy was due in large measure to the affectionately self-mocking tone of John Byrnes' screenplays; he and Coltrane again collaborated several years later on the serio-comic historical adaptation Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles. Coltrane's theatrical versatility, comedic range and gallery of accents were evident in his interpretation of Dario Fo's anti-establishment satire, Mistero Buffo. Juggling anger, hostility and humor between the numerous characterizations required in this one-man show, Coltrane performed the play at venues around the U.K. in 1990, prior to its broadcast as a BBC miniseries.

That year marked a turning point for the Scotsman, who married and retreated to the more sedate pace of a converted Stirlingshire farmhouse. Proclaiming his hell-raising years to be over, Coltrane consciously sought out dramatic roles. In a part written for him by social realist Jimmy McGovern, Coltrane played Dr. Eddie Fitzgerald, a forensic psychologist for the Manchester police force, in Granada TV's Cracker. "Fitz" apples his incredible mental agility to outwit suspects and solve a series of heinous crimes, all the while evidencing shortcomings of his own brought on by personal overindulgence and "deviant" behavior (drinking, smoking, debt, domestic ruin). Extremely well received in Britain and North America, Cracker's nine stories represent Coltrane's most accomplished screen performance to date--one rewarded with numerous industry honors, including the British Academy of Film and Television Arts' award for best television actor in 1995.

-Matthew Murray