Robbie Coltrane, actor who starred in ‘Harry Potter’ series as Hagrid, dies at 72
Actor Robbie Coltrane was one of the most sought-after guests on ‘The Jonathan Ross Show,’ a popular late night talk show on BBC Radio 2.
Coltrane joined the likes of John Lennon and Princess Diana as guests on the programme, which airs every Friday night at 10pm.
The show’s producer, Jonathan Ross, described him as “a super-talented and lovely man. He was very kind-hearted.”
A statement from Ross’s management confirmed Coltrane’s death.
“Our thoughts are with family, friends and colleagues of Robbie Coltrane who sadly died in London on Monday morning,” they said.
“He was a real star of television and pop music.”
Coltrane’s first film role was when he was cast as the title character in Alan Parker’s 1981 film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
And it is believed he was a big draw at the London Film Festival that year.
Coltrane also guest starred on another BBC show, The Magic Roundabout.
He starred alongside James Nesbitt as an unsympathetic wizard and he was a regular on the satirical show Have I Got News For You.
In 2001, he also starred as a judge in the ITV game show Who Do You Think You Are? He also guest starred on EastEnders in 2005.
Coltrane, who was born on 24 October 1951 to James and Annamay Coltrane, studied acting with Trevor Howard at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts from 1974 to 1979.
Coltrane was featured in the 2015 Vanity Fair article “10 Things I Admire About Robbie Coltrane”
Before his television career, he was in a string of films and TV roles including Being There, The Avengers, EastEnders, The Bill, Upstairs Downstairs, Blackadder, and The Bill.
He was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor in the 1988 film The Empire Strikes Back in which he played Obi-Wan Kenobi, a role he would reprise in The Clone Wars animated series The Clone Wars: The Official Story.
Coltrane married his long-term partner Jennifer Jenkins in 2008, with whom he had two children.
Coltrane was survived by his partner, his children, his parents
