Veteran Scottish comic and dramatic actor Robbie Coltrane, best known for his roles as Hagrid in the “Harry Potter” films and for the lead role in classic crime series “Cracker,” has died. He was 72.
Following early TV roles in “A Kick Up the Eighties” and “Blackadder,” he came to attention with small roles in films like “Krull,” “Mona Lida,” and as Falstaff in Kenneth Branagh’s “Henry V” before nabbing a memorable leading turn opposite Eric Idle in “Nuns of the Run”.
He then made a big name for himself on British TV as anti-social criminal psychologist Dr. Edward ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald in Jimmy McGovern’s “Cracker” which ran from 1993-2006.
In the mid-late 1990s he secured a key supporting role as Valentin Zukovsky opposite Piere Brosnan’s James Bond in both “Goldeneye” and “The World is Not Enough”.
Other roles included “From Hell,” “Ocean’s Twelve,” “Stormbreaker,” and “The Pope Must Die”.
Coltrane will likely best be remembered though as Rubeus Hagrid, the giant groundskeeper at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in the “Harry Potter” films.
Our sincerest condolences go out to his family and friends.
Source: THR
