ROBERT CARLYLE
Date of Birth: April 14, 1961
The son of a "bohemian" house painter, Carlyle got the acting bug at the age of 21 when he began hanging out at the Glasgow Arts Centre "on the promise of some attractive women." But picking up babes wasn't the only arena where he lucked out; his first gig as an actor was to play Orestes in the Centre's
production of The Golden Mask of Agamemnon.
Carlyle then studied theater at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and, after three years, took to the stage in a variety of repertory companies before becoming bored with performing "the same old Chekhov and Ibsen." In 1990 he met up with Ken Loach who gave Carlyle his big-screen break in Riff
Raff.
Before he shot to fame with his portrayal of Begbie in Trainspotting, Carlyle was perhaps best known for the BBC series Hamish MacBeth,
where he played a dope-smoking Highlands village police constable. Now with The Full Monty on his list of credits, Carlyle is fast becoming the Scotland's sexiest export since Sean Connery.
"I'm happy going along the way I'm going," he says. "I have no great desire to jump into this crazy race for megastardom." Too late.
Filmography:
The Meat Trade (2009)
The Tournament (2009)
I Know You Know (2008)
Summer (2008)
Stone of Destiny (2008)
28 Weeks Later... (2007)
Flood (2006)
Eragon (2006)
The Mighty Celt (2005)
Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School (2005)
Dead Fish (2004)
Die Another Day: From Script to Screen (2002) (V) (voice) .... Narrator
Black and White (2002)
Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2003)
Formula 51 (2002)
To End All Wars (2001)
There's Only One Jimmy Grimble (2000)
The Beach (2000)
Plunkett & Macleane (1999)
Angela's Ashes (1999)
Ravenous (1999)
World Is Not Enough, The (1999)
Full Monty, The (1997)
Face (1997)
Carla's Song (1996)
Trainspotting (1996)
Go Now (1995)
Priest (1994)
Being Human (1993)
Safe (1993)
Riff-Raff (1990)
Silent Scream (1990)