Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid in the Harry Potter films, has died aged 72, his agent said on Friday.
Coltrane also played a former KGB agent-turned-Russian mafia boss in two James Bond films — Goldeneye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999) — with Pierce Brosnan as James Bond.
“My client and friend Robbie Coltrane OBE passed away on Friday October 14,” Belinda Wright said in a statement, calling the Order of the British Empire recipient “a unique talent.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Robbie was one of the funniest people I’ve met and used to keep us laughing constantly as kids on set,” said Daniel Radcliffe, who played the title role in the Harry Potter series. “I feel incredibly lucky that I got to meet and work with him and very sad that he’s passed.”
On the official James Bond Twitter account, franchise producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli paid tribute to Coltrane as “an exceptional actor whose talent knew no bounds.”
“We shall miss him as a dear friend. Rest in peace Robbie,” they said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Coltrane, who was born Anthony Robert McMillan on March 30, 1950, in Rutherglen, near Glasgow, Scotland, forged a career as an actor, comedian and writer.
On TV, he starred alongside Emma Thompson in the cult British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award-winning BBC mini-series Tutti Frutti in 1987.
He came to prominence and won more awards for his portrayal of the hard-drinking criminal psychologist Eddie “Fitz” Fitzgerald in the ITV series Cracker (1993-2006).
He was the English author and lexicographer Samuel Johnson in the TV comedy series Blackadder the Third alongside Mr. Bean star Rowan Atkinson and House star Hugh Laurie.
Frequent costar Stephen Fry wrote on Twitter that he was “awe/terror/love struck all at the same time” when he first met Coltrane 40 years ago.
“Such depth, power & talent: funny enough to cause helpless hiccups & honking as we made our first TV show, ‘Alfresco’. Farewell, old fellow. You’ll be so dreadfully missed,” he wrote.
On the big screen, Coltrane had roles in the 1987 Neil Jordan crime drama Mona Lisa and teamed up with former Monty Python star Eric Idle in the 1990 comedy Nuns on the Run.
However, he will best be remembered globally as Rubeus Hagrid, the half-giant half-human gamekeeper and keeper of the keys and grounds of Hogwarts school in the film franchise of J.K. Rowling’s best-selling Harry Potter books.
The role “brought joy to children and adults alike all over the world, prompting a stream of fan letters every week for over 20 years,” Wright said.
“As well as being a wonderful actor, he was forensically intelligent, brilliantly witty,” she said.
Rowling wrote on Twitter that she will “never know anyone remotely like Robbie again... He was an incredible talent, a complete one off, and I was beyond fortunate to know him, work with him and laugh my head off with him.”
Coltrane is survived by his children, Spencer and Alice, and their mother, Rhona Gemmell. No cause of death was given, but Wright thanked medical staff at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Scotland, “for their care and diplomacy.”
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS