ROBBIE COLTRANE
Date of Birth: March 30, 1950
Stocky Scottish comic actor Robbie Coltrane was trained for his craft in Glasgow and
Edinburgh. During the 1970s, he toured with the San Quentin Theatre Workshop and rose
to prominence as an improvisational nightclub comedian, usually working in ensemble
(one of his partners was actress Emma Thompson). In 1973, he produced the documentary
Young Mental Health.
Coltrane gained an American following with his antic performances in Nuns on the Run
(1990) and The Pope Must Die (1991); when the latter film's title courted censorship,
it was Coltrane himself who suggested that it be altered to The Pope Must Diet. In 1993,
Coltrane launched the British TV detective series Cracker, in which he essayed the
dramatic role of a volcanic, neurosis-ridden detective. When Cracker was broadcast
in America over the A&E cable service, the series earned Coltrane a Cable Ace Award.
He was once best known to North American audiences as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky from the
James Bond movie Goldeneye (1995), a role he reprised in The World is Not Enough (1999), but he has since become even better known for his role as the odd, but lovable gentle giant Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies.
He has two children with his wife, Rhona, from whom he is currently separated.