Robbie Coltrane biography

Robbie Coltrane: Real name Anthony Robert McMillan was born in South Lanarkshire on March 30th 1950 and is a Scottish Actor best known for his roles in the popular Harry Potter movies and the TV series 'Cracker'.

Coltrane's career in acting began when he reached his early 20's. He decided to change his name to Robbie Coltrane as a tribute to Jazz singer John Coltrane of who he was a fan. He worked in various different acting jobs and dabbled in theatre and some stand up comedy, in 1982 he had roles in 'The Comic Strip Presents' alongside the likes of Rik Mayall and Jennifer Saunders and went on to appear in 'Laugh, I nearly paid my licence fee' in 1984.

Soon Robbie Coltrane decided it was time to start auditioning for roles in films, he managed to win roles in a number of different movies in the 80's-90's including 'Scrubbers' 'The fruit machine' 'Krull' 'Mona Lisa' and 'Death Watch' and even landed himself a small role in the popular comedy TV show 'Black Adder' in 1987.

In 1990 one of Robbie Coltrane's biggest movies was the hit comedy 'Nuns on the run' in which he starred alongside Eric Idle playing two criminals who go undercover as nuns with hilarious results. His big break however, was soon to come when he won the role of Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald in the Granada TV series 'Cracker'. He remained in the role from 1993-1996 and recently returned in 2006 to reprise his role for a one off special episode.

Coltrane's recent movies include a major role alongside Johnny Depp in the thriller 'From Hell' in 2001, and two of the popular Bond films 'The world is not enough' and 'Goldeneye'. However, he has now become a firm favourite with children as well as adults, capturing their hearts since taking on the larger than life role of Rubeus Hagrid, the giant like character who has a major reoccurring part in the hit 'Harry Potter' movies originally written by JK Rowling. This proves just how versatile an actor Robbie Coltrane is, and his ability to literally take on anything thrown at him.

Robbie Coltrane likes to keep his personal life closely under wraps but it is thought that he currently lives in Stirlingshire and has two children from his previous marriage. He is rumoured to collect vintage cars and was once voted number ten in ITV's top 50 greatest stars.

You can see him back on screens this year in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' as he continues to play the role of Hagrid, guiding and helping Harry Potter on the increasing perils of his dangerous journey.