Harry Potter actor Robbie Coltrane has died at 72, Deadline has confirmed. The Scottish star died in a hospital near his home in Larbert, Scotland. He had been ill for the last two years.
While being an actor since 1979, Robbie Coltrane was best known for playing the half-giant, half-wizard Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies that Daniel Radcliffe led, which had run from 2001 to 2011. He was also in two James Bond films as, Valentin Zukovsky, Goldeneye and The World Is Not Enough. He also starred in Cracker, the Pixar film Brave, National Treasure, Nuns on the Run, Ocean’s Twelve, and Mona Lisa. He reprised his role as Hagrid for the short Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. His final role was in some episodes of the comedy series Urban Myths.
Harry Potter actor Robbie Coltrane died at 72
Over the course of his career, he won three BAFTAS, along with multiple nominations in other roles. In Cracker, he played forensic psychologist Dr. Edward ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald. He won three BAFTAS for his role in the crime drama series that ran for three seasons. He had been nominated for Tutti Frutti, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and National Treasure.
He was born Anthony Robert McMillan on March 30, 1950, in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied art at Glasgow Art School and Moray House College of Education. After that fell flat, he went to standup comedy in various clubs. The name that everyone knows him by came from jazz musician John Coltrane, who changed his name to honor the musician.
For fans of the actor, Robbie Coltrane wrote an autobiography in 1993, Coltrane in a Cadillac, the same name as a TV series from the same year. He chronicled a road trip in which he drove across America from Los Angeles to New York City in a 1951 Cadillac.