Biography
Stocky Scottish comic actor Robbie Coltrane was trained as an artist in Glasgow. During the 1970s, he rose to prominence as an improvisational nightclub comedian, usually working in ensemble groups (one of his partners was actress
Emma Thompson). During the '80s, he was in a number of British features and made-for-TV movies. A regular at London's Comic Strip comedy club, he had a habit of appearing as himself in comedy specials like
Secret Policeman's Third Ball. He also showed up in small comedic cameos in
National Lampoon's European Vacation and
Kenneth Branagh's
Henry V. Though he was popular in the U.K. on TV shows like
Alfresco, Tutti Fruitti,
Black Adder, and
The Young Ones, he wasn't widely known in the U.S. until his antic performance in
Nuns on the Run with
Eric Idle. He then starred as the title character in the satiric comedy
The Pope Must Die (released in the U.S. as
The Pope Must Diet). In 1993, he starred in the British TV detective series
Cracker as Fitz, a nervous forensic psychologist who helps crack cases. He won a BAFTA TV award for the role, and he won a Cable ACE award when it was rebroadcast in the U.S. on A&E. When the show ended, he briefly joined up with the
James Bond film series as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in
GoldenEye and
The World Is Not Enough. In the late '90s, he starred in a few independent films (
Montana,
Frogs for Snakes) and played Sgt. Peter Goldy in the Hughes brothers' thriller
From Hell. However, he's been most successful in the area of family entertainment. He was delightful as the con man in
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with
Elijah Wood; he was Tweedledum to
George Wendt's Tweedledee in
Alice in Wonderland; and he found a fine place for himself as Hagrid the Giant in the
Harry Potter film series. In 2002, he earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the British Academy for
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. In 2003, he returned to British TV to play lawyer Jack Lennox in
The Planman. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide