Died: January 2, 2011 (at age 64)
Birthplace: Warrington, Cheshire, England, United Kingdom
Peter William "Pete" Postlethwaite (/ˈpɒsəlθweɪt/; 7 February 1946 - 2 January 2011) was an English actor. After minor television appearances, including in The Professionals, his first major success arose through the British autobiographical film Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988). He had a transatlantic breakthrough when he portrayed David in Alien 3 (1992), and his reputation was further solidified when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for In the Name of the Father (1993). Following this role, he portrayed the mysterious lawyer, Mr. Kobayashi, in The Usual Suspects (1995) and went on to appear in films such as Brassed Off (1996), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Amistad (1997), The Shipping News (2001), The Constant Gardener (2005), The Age of Stupid (2009) and Inception (2010).
In television, Postlethwaite played Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill on Sharpe. He trained as a teacher and taught drama before training as an actor. Director Steven Spielberg called him "the best actor in the world" after working with him on The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2004 New Year Honours list. Less than one month after his death of pancreatic cancer, he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Ben Affleck's The Town (2010).
Postlethwaite was born in Warrington, Cheshire, the fourth and youngest child of William (1913-1988) and Mary Postlethwaite (née Lawless; 1913-2011), working-class Roman Catholics.
He had two sisters, Anne and Patricia, and a brother, Michael. He trained as a teacher at St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill and taught drama at Loreto College, Manchester, before training as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Despite portraying Irish characters on multiple occasions, It had been claimed that Postlethwaite was not of Irish descent. However, Postlethwaite's maternal grandmother, Ellen Lally Lawless, was the daughter of Bridget and Patrick Lally, immigrants to Warrington from County Galway.
Early in his career, Postlethwaite was advised to adopt a new surname for his acting work by his first agent and by peers who quipped that his "would never be put up in lights outside theatres because they couldn't afford the electricity". Postlethwaite rejected the advice.
He initially trained to be a Catholic priest but opted for a career in theatre and started his career at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, where his colleagues included Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Antony Sher, and Julie Walters. Postlethwaite and Walters had an intimate relationship during the latter half of the 1970s. He was a veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company and other acting companies. On 13 January 1981, he took the leading role in a BBC TV black comedy by Alan Bleasdale, The Muscle Market, which was a spin-off from Boys from the Blackstuff; it was part of the Play for Today series.
After other early appearances in small parts for television programmes such as The Professionals, Postlethwaite's first film success came with the film Distant Voices, Still Lives in 1988. He received an Academy Award nomination for his role in In the Name of the Father in 1993. He is well known for his role as mysterious lawyer Mr. Kobayashi in The Usual Suspects. He made appearances in several successful films, including Alien 3, Amistad, Brassed Off, The Shipping News, The Constant Gardener, Inception, and as Friar Lawrence in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet.
In 2003, he was both the physical and vocal actor for the villain Deeth in Zixx: Level One, a Canadian TV series created by IDT Entertainment. Later that same year, he toured Australia and New Zealand in a 90-minute one-man play, Scaramouche Jones, in which he played a clown trying to find out why he is who he is before he dies at midnight, receiving a nomination for the TMA Award for Best Actor and winning the Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Solo Performance. This was directed by Rupert Goold, who would also direct his Lear in 2008, in which Postlethwaite played every character. As well as Australia, the play toured Canada, New Zealand and the UK to great acclaim.
In The Art of Discworld (2004), Terry Pratchett wrote that he had always imagined Sam Vimes as 'a younger, slightly bulkier version of Pete Postlethwaite'.
Steven Spielberg called Postlethwaite "the best actor in the world" after working with him on The Lost World: Jurassic Park, to which Postlethwaite quipped: "I'm sure what Spielberg actually said was, 'The thing about Pete is that he thinks he's the best actor in the world.'"
One of his more notable roles was Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill in ITV's Sharpe series. The actor said this was one of his favourite roles and that he and fellow actor Sean Bean played well off each other because of their mutual love and respect. Bernard Cornwell, the author and creator of the Sharpe series, specifically wrote Hakeswill's character in later novels to reflect Postletwaite's performance as the character in the TV series. Postlethwaite co-starred with Bean in When Saturday Comes.
Postlethwaite next starred in a Liverpool stage production of King Lear in 2008 at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, and at the Young Vic, London. He appeared in the climate change-themed film The Age of Stupid, premiered in March 2009. Having recently installed a wind turbine in his garden, he said was extremely impressed by the film and made an impassioned call for action on climate change on its release in The Sun newspaper
"The stakes are very, very high. They're through the roof. How could we willingly know that we're going into extinction ... and let it happen."
Terminally ill, Postlethwaite made a conspicuous return to Hollywood in three 2010 films, first as Spyros in Clash of the Titans. He next appeared in the blockbuster hit Inception as Maurice Fisher, an industrialist who is slowly dying (similarly to how Postlethwaite was). Lastly, his performance in The Town as florist/crime boss Fergus "Fergie" Colm was well-received by critics, making several publications' lists of Oscar predictions for Best Supporting Actor. Postlethwaite's last appearance on screen was in Nick Hamm's film Killing Bono, based on the memoir of Neil McCormick. The role was written specially for Postlethwaite to accommodate his illness. The film was released on 1 April 2011. His final role was due to be in the BBC series Exile, written by Danny Brocklehurst and Paul Abbott, but he had to pull out because of ill health. Jim Broadbent replaced him in the role.
Postlethwaite was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2004 New Year Honours list and received an honorary degree from Liverpool University in 2006. He received an Academy Award nomination for his role In the Name of the Father and was posthumously nominated for a BAFTA Award for his performance in The Town.
Postlethwaite lived in West Itchenor, West Sussex before moving near Bishop's Castle, Shropshire. He lived with his wife, Jacqueline (Jacqui) Morrish Postlethwaite, a former BBC producer, with whom he began a relationship in 1987 and married in 2003 at St Nicholas' Church, Itchenor. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1990, and had one testicle removed. Postlethwaite was a smoker from the age of ten. In a March 2009 interview with Scotland on Sunday, the actor referred to his smoking habit, stating: "We've got to hope the next generation will do things differently. I'm sure that in 20 years' time the kids will say: 'Can you believe that people actually used to smoke — put these funny little things in their mouths, lit them and sucked all that crap into their lungs?"
Postlethwaite appeared as a taxi driver in one of the Labour Party's political broadcasts during the 1997 general election. He marched in London against the Iraq War in 2003. He was an activist calling for action to prevent climate change. At the UK premiere of The Age of Stupid on 16 November 2009, he told then-Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband that he would return his OBE and vote for any party other than Labour if the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station was given the go-ahead by the government. The proposal to build a new power station at Kingsnorth was shelved by the coalition government in October 2010.
In March 2009, Postlethwaite was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, from which he died at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on 2 January 2011. He left behind two children, William John (born 1989), a drama student at LAMDA, and Lily Kathleen (born 1996), his wife and his mother. Postlethwaite continued acting almost to the end of 2010, showing clear signs of weight loss during his last performances. In his last two years, he worked on his memoir A Spectacle of Dust with Andy Richardson. It was published on 1 June 2011.
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1975 | The Racer | Ecco | Short film |
1977 | The Duellists | Man Shaving General Treillard | Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1978 | Doris and Doreen | Mr. Lomax | Television film |
1983 | Fords on Water | Winston's Boss | Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1984 | A Private Function | Douglas J. Nuttol | |
1985 | Cyrano de Bergerac | Ragueneau | Television film |
1987 | Coast to Coast | Kecks McGuinness | Television film |
1988 | Tumbledown | Major at Rehabilitation Centre | Television film |
1988 | The Dressmaker | Jack | Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1988 | Number 27 | Becket | |
1988 | To Kill a Priest | Josef | Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1988 | Distant Voices, Still Lives | Father | |
1990 | Hamlet | Player King | |
1990 | Treasure Island | George Merry | Television film Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1991 | The Grass Arena | The Dipper | Television film |
1991 | A Child from the South | Harry | Television film |
1991 | They Never Slept | Panter | Television film |
1992 | Split Second | Paulsen | |
1992 | Alien 3 | David | |
1992 | Waterland | Henry Crick | Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1992 | The Last of the Mohicans | Captain Beams | |
1993 | Anchoress | William Carpenter | |
1993 | In the Name of the Father | Giuseppe Conlon | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor |
1994 | Suite 16 | Glover | |
1994 | Sin Bin | Mitch | Television film |
1994 | Sharpe's Company | Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill | Television film |
1994 | Sharpe's Enemy | Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill | Television film |
1995 | The Usual Suspects | Mr. Kobayashi | National Board of Review Award for Best Cast |
1996 | When Saturday Comes | Ken Jackson | |
1996 | James and the Giant Peach | Magic Man Narrator |
|
1996 | Dragonheart | Brother Gilbert of Glockenspur | |
1996 | Crimetime | Sidney | |
1996 | Romeo + Juliet | Father Lawrence | |
1996 | Brassed Off | Danny | |
1997 | The Serpent's Kiss | Thomas Smithers | |
1997 | The Lost World: Jurassic Park | Roland Tembo | Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor |
1997 | Bandyta | Sincai | |
1997 | Amistad | William S. Holabird | |
1998 | Among Giants | Ray | |
1999 | The Divine Ryans | Uncle Reg Ryan | |
1999 | Wayward Son | Ben Alexander | |
1999 | Lost for Words | Deric Longden | Television film Nominated - British Academy Television Award for Best Actor |
1999 | Alice in Wonderland | The Carpenter | Television film |
1999 | Butterfly Collectors | John McKeown | Television film |
1999 | Animal Farm | Farmer Jones Benjamin |
Television film |
2000 | When the Sky Falls | Martin Shaughnessy | |
2000 | Rat | Hubert Flynn | |
2001 | Cowboy Up | Reid Braxton | |
2001 | The Shipping News | Tert Card | |
2002 | Triggermen | Ben Cutler | |
2002 | Between Strangers | John | |
2003 | The Selfish Giant | Arthur | Short film |
2004 | The Limit | Gale | |
2004 | Strange Bedfellows | Russell McKenzie | |
2005 | Red Mercury | Gold Commander | |
2005 | Dark Water | Veeck | |
2005 | The Constant Gardener | Dr. Lorbeer/ Dr. Brandt | |
2005 | Æon Flux | Keeper | |
2006 | Valley of the Heart's Delight | Albion Munson | |
2006 | The Omen | Father Brennan | |
2007 | Ghost Son | Doc | |
2007 | Closing the Ring | Quinlan | |
2007 | Liyarn Ngarn | Narrator | Documentary |
2008 | Player | Colin | Short film |
2009 | The Age of Stupid | The Archivist | Documentary |
2009 | Solomon Kane | William Crowthorn | |
2009 | Waving at Trains | Douglas | Short film |
2010 | Clash of the Titans | Spyros | |
2010 | Inception | Maurice Fischer | Nominated - Central Ohio Film Critics' Association Award for Best Ensemble Nominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated - Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble |
2010 | The Town | Fergus "Fergie" Colm | National Board of Review Award for Best Cast Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast |
2011 | Killing Bono | Karl |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1975 | Second City Firsts | Episode: "Thwum" Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
|
1976 | Plays for Britain | Soldier | Episode: "The Paradise Run" Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1978 | Last of the Summer Wine | Man in Cafe | Episode: "A Merry Heatwave" Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1978 | Going Straight | Thomas Clifford Crowther | Episode: "Going Going Gone" Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1979 | Afternoon Off | Gallery Attendant | |
1979 | Horse in the House | Uncle Doug | 6 episodes |
1981 | Play for Today | Danny Duggan | Episode: "The Muscle Market" Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1981 | Coronation Street | Detective Sergeant Cross | Episode 2061 |
1981 | Crown Court | Episode: "The Merry Widow: Part 1" | |
1982-1993 | Minder | Jack "Oily" Wragg Eric "Logie" Lawson |
2 episodes Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1984 | Mitch | Jack Frost | Episode: "Squealer" Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1985 | Victoria Wood As Seen on TV | Barry | Episode 1.6 Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1985 | Summer Season | Episode: "A Crack in the Ice" Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
|
1989 | Tales of Sherwood Forest | Eric | 7 episodes |
1990 | Screenplay | Paula's Father | Episode: "Needle" |
1990 | Debut on Two | Tony Keef |
2 episodes |
1990 | Boon | Steve McLaughlin | Episode: "Undercover" |
1990 | Zorro | Episode: "The Marked Man" | |
1990-1993 | Casualty | Ralph Peters Hank |
2 episodes |
1992 | El C.I.D. | Vince | Episode 3.1: "Making Amends" |
1992 | Between the Lines | Chief Superintendent Jameson | Episode: "Out of the Game" |
1992 | Shakespeare: The Animated Tales | Quince | Episode: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Credited as Peter Postlethwaite |
1993 | Lovejoy | Terence Sullivan | Episode: "Goose Bumps" |
1994 | Pie in the Sky | Kevin Tasker | Episode 1.8: "A Matter of Taste" |
1994 | Martin Chuzzlewit | Montague Tigg/Tigg Montague | 5 episodes Nominated - British Academy Television Award for Best Actor |
2000 | The Sins | Len Green | Miniseries Nominated - British Academy Television Award for Best Actor |
2003 | Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion | Charles Burchell | Miniseries |
2008 | Criminal Justice | Hooch | Miniseries |