ANTHONY R. MCMILLAN, GOODBYE TO RUBEUS HAGRID

Today, The Grandma has received more sad news. Robbie Coltrane, the Scottish actor who played Rubeus Hagrid in Harry Potter saga has passed away.

 

The Grandma wants to talk about Coltrane, his career, and his unforgettable roles.

Anthony Robert McMillan (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.

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).

More information: The Guardian

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. He had an older sister, Annie, and a younger sister, Jane.

Coltrane was the great-grandson of Scottish businessman Thomas W. Howie and the nephew of businessman Forbes Howie.

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. He studied painting at the Glasgow School of Art.

Coltrane moved into acting in his early twenties, taking the stage name Coltrane 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). His comic skills brought him roles in The Comic Strip Presents (1982-2012) serie and the comedy sketch show Alfresco (1983-1984).

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.

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), LWT's The Robbie Coltrane Special (1989) (which he also co-wrote), 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).

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. The role won him three BAFTA awards.

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.

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 6,059 km, which he completed in 32 days.

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.

More information: The Guardian

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.

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.

Coltrane voiced characters in several animated films, including The Tale of Despereaux (2008) Pixar's Brave (2012), as well as the title roles of Gooby and The Gruffalo (both 2009).

In 2016, Coltrane starred in National Treasure, a four-part drama in which he played a former comedian accused of historic sexual offences. He was nominated for Best Actor at the 2017 British Academy Television Awards, and won in the category at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards.

Maureen Ryan of Variety wrote that Coltrane does a masterful job of depicting every nuance of the character, whose wicked sense of humor masks a startling, and possibly intentional, lack of self-awareness.

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.

On 14 October 2022, Coltrane died at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Scotland at the age of 72.

More information: Rubeus Hagrid, Strong Honesty and Loyalty

What you do is get the right director
and the right screenwriter and the right cast.
It's a fantastic job.

 

Robbie Coltrane