He appeared in the first stage production of John Byrne's The Slab Boys, at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh (1978). Career Ĭoltrane moved into acting in his early twenties, adopting the stage name Coltrane (in tribute to jazz saxophonist John Coltrane) and working in theatre and comedy. Ĭoltrane later called for private schools to be banned and used to be known as ' Red Robbie', rebelling against his conservative upbringing through involvement with Amnesty International, Greenpeace, the Labour Party, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He studied painting at the Glasgow School of Art. Though he later described his experiences there as deeply unhappy, he played for the rugby First XV, was head of the school's debating society, and won prizes for his art. He started his education at Belmont House School in Newton Mearns before moving to Glenalmond College, an independent school in Perthshire. Howie and the nephew of businessman Forbes Howie. Coltrane was the great-grandson of Scottish businessman Thomas W. He had an older sister, Annie, and a younger sister, Jane. He also appeared in the films Henry V, Let It Ride, Danny, the Champion of the World, Ocean's Twelve, The Brothers Bloom, Great Expectations, and Effie Gray, and provided voice acting roles in the animated films The Tale of Despereaux and Brave.Ĭoltrane was born Anthony Robert McMillan on 30 March 1950 in Rutherglen, Scotland, the son of Jean Ross Howie, a teacher and pianist, and Ian Baxter McMillan, a GP who also served as a forensic police surgeon. In 2016, he starred in the four-part Channel 4 series National Treasure alongside Julie Walters, a role for which he received a British Academy Television Award nomination.Ĭoltrane appeared in the films Mona Lisa and Nuns on the Run and as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in the James Bond films GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough. In 2006, Coltrane came eleventh in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars, voted by the public. Eddie 'Fitz' Fitzgerald in the ITV television series Cracker, a role that saw him receive the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in three consecutive years from 1994 to 1996. Coltrane then gained national prominence starring as criminal psychologist Dr. In 1987, he starred in the BBC miniseries Tutti Frutti with Thompson, for which he received his first British Academy Television Award for Best Actor nomination. In 2011, he was honoured for his ' outstanding contribution' to film at the British Academy Scotland Awards.Ĭoltrane started his career appearing alongside Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, and Emma Thompson in the sketch series Alfresco. In 1990, Coltrane received the Evening Standard British Film Award – Peter Sellers Award for Comedy. He was appointed an OBE in the 2006 New Year Honours by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series. He started his career in comedy appearing alongside Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, and Emma Thompson in the 1983 sketch series Alfresco and in several of the Comic Strip Presents films.Īmong many comedy appearances, he made a memorable guest appearance as dictionary compiler Samuel Johnson in Blackadder The Third and appeared in Jack Dee's semi-autobiographical sitcom Lead Balloon as a prisoner doing a comedy course.Anthony Robert McMillan OBE (30 March 1950 – 14 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor. He also left £450,000 to his sister Annie Rae and £250,000 to a godson.Ĭoltrane gifted a model of the boat Aquitania, which was built on the Clyde, to Glasgow's Riverside Museum, The Sun reports. Probate records also show had a property and cars in Menorca worth £775,000 and almost £300,000 worth of funds held in the United States.Ĭoltrane instructed that the bulk of his wealth should be held in a trust for the benefit of his two adult children Spencer and Alice, administered by their mother – his ex-wife Rhona Gemmell – and his friend Gordon Bulloch. His will, which was signed in 2021, shows the value of his estate in the UK to be £3.85million – largely down to his properties in London. The comedian and actor passed away in October last year aged 72 from a string of conditions including multiple organ failure. Robbie Coltrane left an estate worth almost £5million when he died, it emerged last night.

Rhona gemmell