Anthony Robert McMillan OBE (30 March 1950 – 14 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor and comedian. He gained worldwide recognition as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011), and as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in the James Bond films GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999). He was appointed an OBE in the 2006 New Year Honours by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama. In 1990, Coltrane received the Evening Standard British Film Award – Peter Sellers Award for Comedy. In 2011, he was honoured for his “outstanding contribution” to film at the British Academy Scotland Awards.

Coltrane started his career appearing alongside Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, and Emma Thompson in the sketch series Alfresco (1983–1984). In 1987, he starred in the BBC miniseries Tutti Frutti alongside Thompson, for which he received his first British Academy Television Award for Best Actor nomination. Coltrane then gained national prominence starring as criminal psychologist Dr. Eddie “Fitz” Fitzgerald in the ITV television series Cracker (1993–2006), a role which saw him receive the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in three consecutive years (1994 to 1996). In 2006, Coltrane came eleventh in ITV’s poll of TV’s 50 Greatest Stars, voted by the public.^[2] In 2016 he starred in the four-part Channel 4 series National Treasure alongside Julie Walters, a role for which he received a British Academy Television Award nomination.

Coltrane appeared in two films for George Harrison‘s Handmade Films: the Neil Jordan neo-noir Mona Lisa (1986) with Bob Hoskins, and Nuns on the Run with Eric Idle. He also appeared in Kenneth Branagh‘s Shakespeare adaptation Henry V (1989), the comedy Let It Ride (1989), Roald Dahl’s Danny, the Champion of the World (1989), Steven Soderbergh‘s crime-comedy thriller Ocean’s Twelve (2004), Rian Johnson‘s caper film The Brothers Bloom (2008), Mike Newell‘s Dickens film adaptation Great Expectations (2012), and Emma Thompson‘s biographical film Effie Gray (2014). He was also known for his voice performances in the animated films The Tale of Despereaux (2008), and Pixar‘s Brave (2012).

Early life and education

Coltrane was born Anthony Robert McMillan on 30 March 1950 in Rutherglen, Scotland, the son of Jean Ross Howie, a teacher and pianist, and Ian Baxter McMillan, a GP who also served as a forensic police surgeon.^[3] He had an older sister, Annie, and a younger sister, Jane.^{[4][5][circular reporting?]} Coltrane was the great-grandson of Scottish businessman Thomas W. Howie and the nephew of businessman Forbes Howie.^[6]

He started his education at Belmont House School in Newton Mearns before moving to Glenalmond College, an independent school in Perthshire. Though he later described his experiences there as deeply unhappy, he played for the rugby First XV, was head of the school’s debating society, and won prizes for his art.^[7] From Glenalmond, Coltrane went on to Glasgow School of Art, where he was ridiculed for “having an accent like Prince Charles” (which he quickly disposed of, though not before gaining the nickname “Lord Fauntleroy“), and thereafter Moray House College of Education (now part of the University of Edinburgh) in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Coltrane later called for private schools to be banned and used to be known as “Red Robbie”,^[8] rebelling against his conservative upbringing through involvement with Amnesty International, Greenpeace, the Labour Party, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Career

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Coltrane in costume in the 1980s

Coltrane moved into acting in his early twenties, taking the stage name Coltrane (in tribute to jazz saxophonist John Coltrane)^[9] and working in theatre and comedy. He appeared in the first theatre production of John Byrne‘s The Slab Boys, at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh (1978).^[10] His comic skills brought him roles in The Comic Strip Presents (1982–2012) series^[11] (in 1993 he directed and co-wrote the episode “Jealousy” for series 5),^[12] as well as the comedy sketch show Alfresco (1983–1984).^[13] In 1984 he appeared in A Kick Up the Eighties (Series 2) and Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee, and is credited as a writer for both.^[14][15]

Coltrane moved into roles in films such as Flash Gordon (1980), Death Watch (1980), Balham, Gateway to the South (1981), Scrubbers (1983), Krull (1983), The Supergrass (1985), Defence of the Realm (1985), Absolute Beginners (1986), Mona Lisa (1986), and appeared as “Annabelle” in The Fruit Machine (1988).

On television, he appeared in The Young Ones, Tutti Frutti (1987), as Samuel Johnson in Blackadder the Third (1987)^[16] (a role he later reprised in the more serious Boswell and Johnson’s Tour of the Western Islands (1993)), LWT’s The Robbie Coltrane Special (1989) (which he also co-wrote)^[17], and in other stand-up and sketch comedy shows. He played the part of Falstaff in Kenneth Branagh‘s Henry V (1989). He co-starred with Eric Idle in Nuns on the Run (1990) and played the Pope in The Pope Must Die (1991). He also played a would-be private detective obsessed with Humphrey Bogart in the TV film The Bogie Man (1992).^[18]

His roles continued in the 1990s with the TV series Cracker (1993–1996, returning in 2006 for a one-off special), in which he starred as forensic psychologist Dr. Edward “Fitz” Fitzgerald.^[19] The role won him three BAFTA awards.^[7]

Roles in bigger films followed: the James Bond films GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999), a supporting role in From Hell (2001), as well as half-giant Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter films (2001–2011). J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, had Coltrane at the top of her list to play Hagrid and, when asked whom she would like to see in the role, responded “Robbie Coltrane for Hagrid” in one quick breath.^[20][21]

Coltrane also presented a number of documentary programmes for the British ITV network based around his twin passions for travel and transportation. Coltrane in a Cadillac (1993) saw him cross North America from Los Angeles to New York City behind the wheel of a 1951 Cadillac Series 62 coupe convertible, a journey of 3,765 miles (6,059 km), which he completed in 32 days.^[22][23]

In 1997, Coltrane appeared in a series of six programmes under the title Coltrane’s Planes and Automobiles, in which he extolled the virtues of the steam engine, the diesel engine, the supercharger, the V8 engine, the two-stroke engine, and the jet engine. In these programmes he dismantled and rebuilt several engines. He also single-handedly removed the engine from a Trabant car in 23 minutes.^[24]

In September 2006, Coltrane was voted No. 11 in ITV’s TV’s 50 Greatest Stars and sixth in a poll of 2000 adults across the UK to find the ‘most famous Scot’, behind the Loch Ness Monster, Robert Burns, Sean Connery, Robert the Bruce, and William Wallace.^[2]

In August 2007, Coltrane presented a series for ITV called B-Road Britain, in which he travelled from London to Glasgow, stopping in towns and villages along the way.^[25]

Personal life and death

Coltrane married Rhona Gemmell on 11 December 1999. The couple had two children: son Spencer (b. 1992), and daughter Alice (b. 1998). Coltrane and Gemmell separated in 2003, and later divorced.^[26]

Coltrane suffered from osteoarthritis in later life. He said he was in “constant pain all day” in 2016, and from 2019 on he employed a wheelchair.^[27]

During the campaign for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, Coltrane voiced his conditional support for independence, stating that “I’d eventually like to see independence – but only an independent Labour Scotland.”^[28]

Coltrane died at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert on 14 October 2022. He was 72, and had been in ill health for two years.^[29][30][31]

Acting credits

Film

Television

Theatre

Music Video

Awards and honours

Honorary awards

• Coltrane won the Evening Standard British Film Award – Peter Sellers Award for Comedy 1990.^[55]
• He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2006 New Year Honours for his services to drama.^[3]
• In 2011, he was honoured for his “outstanding contribution” to film as the British Academy Scotland Awards (“BAFTA Scotland Awards”).^[56]

Publications

• Coltrane, Robbie; Stuart, Graham (May 1993). Coltrane in a Cadillac. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-1857021202.
• Coltrane, Robbie (October 1997). Coltrane’s Planes & Automobiles. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0684819570.
• Coltrane, Robbie (June 2008). Robbie Coltrane’s B-Road Britain. Transworld. ISBN 978-0593059968.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Robbie Coltrane

Wikiquote has quotations related to Robbie Coltrane.

• Robbie Coltrane at IMDb
• Robbie Coltrane at the BFI‘s Screenonline
• Robbie Coltrane discography at Discogs