Pete Postlethwaite

Peter William Postlethwaite, OBE (/ˈpɒsəlθweɪt/; 7 February 1946 – 2 January 2011)[1][2] was an English character actor,[3] who appeared in In the Name of the Father (1993), Dragonheart (1996), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Brassed Off (1996), Sharpe (1997), Amistad (1997), The Constant Gardener (2005), Clash of the Titans (2010), and Inception (2010).

Pete Postlethwaite OBE
Postlethwaite at the Make Poverty History March in 2005
Born	Peter William Postlethwaite (1946-02-07)7 February 1946 Warrington, Lancashire, England
Died	2 January 2011(2011-01-02) (aged 64) Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1975–2010
Spouse(s)	Jacqueline Morrish ( m. 2003)
Children	2

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 international 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 a wide variety of films.

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).[4] 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, he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Ben Affleck's The Town (2010).

Early life

Postlethwaite was born in Warrington, at that time part of Lancashire, the fourth and youngest child of William Postlethwaite (1913–1988), a cooper, wood machinist, and school caretaker, and Mary Geraldine (née Lawless; 1913–2000), working-class Roman Catholics.[5][6] He had two sisters, Anne and Patricia, and a brother, Michael (1944–2006). Despite portraying Irish characters on multiple occasions, Postlethwaite was not of Irish descent.[7]

Postlethwaite attended St Benedict's RC Junior School and a seminary. He then joined the 4th form at West Park Grammar School, St Helens where he enjoyed sport including rugby league. He spent an extra year re-sitting some O-levels and then took four A-levels in English, history, geography and French.[8] He trained as a teacher at St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill where his chosen subjects were physical education and drama and then taught drama at Loreto College, Manchester, before training as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Career

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 name "would never be put up in lights outside theatres because they couldn't afford the electricity". Postlethwaite rejected the advice.[9]

He initially trained to be a Catholic priest[10] 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, Matthew Kelly and Julie Walters. Postlethwaite and Walters had an intimate relationship during the latter half of the 1970s.[11] 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 other successful films, including Alien 3, Amistad, Brassed Off, The Shipping News, The Constant Gardener, Inception, James and the Giant Peach 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.[12] 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.[11]

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'.[13]

Steven Spielberg called Postlethwaite "the best actor in the world" after working with him on The Lost World: Jurassic Park,[14] 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.'"[15]

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 Postlethwaite'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, which premiered in March 2009. Having recently installed a wind turbine in his garden, he said was impressed by the film and wrote in The Sun newspaper that, "The stakes [of climate change] are very, very high. They're through the roof. How could we willingly know that we're going into extinction ... and let it happen."[16][17]

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 Fischer, an industrialist who is slowly dying. 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.[18][19][20] 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.[21] 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.[22]

Awards

Postlethwaite was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2004 New Year Honours list and received an Honorary Fellowship in recognition of outstanding contribution to the dramatic arts by Liverpool John Moores University in 2005 and an honorary degree from the University of Liverpool 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.

Personal life

Postlethwaite lived in West Itchenor, West Sussex before moving near Bishop's Castle, Shropshire. He began a relationship with Jacqueline "Jacqui" Morrish, a former BBC producer, in 1987; the couple married in 2003 at St Nicholas' Church, Itchenor. They had two children, William John "Billy" (born 1989), and Lily Kathleen (born 1996). Billy is an actor who trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and has most notably appeared in the TV series Holby City, Game of Thrones and Chernobyl.[11]

Postlethwaite was a lifelong supporter of Liverpool FC.[23]

Postlethwaite was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1990, and had his right testicle removed.[24][25] He was a smoker from the age of ten until his death.[26] 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?"[27]

Postlethwaite appeared as a taxi driver in one of the Labour Party's political broadcasts during the 1997 general election.[28] He marched in London against the Iraq War in 2003.[29] 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.[30] The proposal to build a new power station at Kingsnorth was shelved by the coalition government in October 2010.

Illness and death

Postlethwaite died of pancreatic cancer[31] at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on 2 January 2011, and was survived by his wife and children.[32][33][34][35] The cancer had been diagnosed in March 2009.[36] 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.[8][37]

Filmography

Film

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. Nuttal
1985	Cyrano de Bergerac	Ragueneau	Television film
1987	Coast to Coast	Kecks McGuinness	Television film
1988	Distant Voices, Still Lives	Father
1988	Tumbledown	Major at Rehabilitation Centre	Television film
1988	To Kill a Priest	Josef	Credited as Peter Postlethwaite
1988	The Dressmaker	Jack	Credited as Peter Postlethwaite
1988	Number 27	Becket
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	Friar 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	Bastard	Sincai
1997	Amistad	William S. Holabird
1998	Among Giants	Raymond 'Ray'
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	Wayward Son	Ben Alexander
1999	The Divine Ryans	Uncle Reg Ryan
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	Dark Water	Veeck
2005	The Constant Gardener	Dr. Lorbeer / Dr. Brandt
2005	Red Mercury	Gold Commander
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[38]	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 (posthumous) Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2011	Killing Bono	Karl	Posthumous release (final film role)

Television

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	Customer in Sid's 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
1992	The Bill	Ray Goller	Episode: "Principled Negotiation"
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

Selected theatre performances

• Antonio Bologna in The Duchess of Malfi. Directed by Adrian Noble at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. (1980)
• Brutus Jones in The Emperor Jones by Eugene O’Neill. Directed by Richard Negri at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. (1980)
• Max in The Homecoming by Harold Pinter. Directed by Greg Hersov at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. Postlethwaite won a (MEN Award) for best actor.(2002)
• Scaramouche Jones toured New Zealand (2003)
• Prospero in The Tempest. Directed by Greg Hersov at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. (2007)
• King Leah in ‘’King Leah’’. Directed by Rupert Goold at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. (2008)

References

1. Weber, Bruce (3 January 2011). "Pete Postlethwaite, British Actor, Dies at 64". The New York Times.
2. "Pete Postlethwaite Biography".
3. Shapiro, T. Rees (4 January 2011). "Pete Postlethwaite, brilliant character actor of 'Usual Suspects,' 'Name of the Father'". The Washington Post.
4. Bradshaw, Peter (4 January 2011). "Pete Postlethwaite: A face we won't forget". The Guardian.
5. "Pete Postlethwaite". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. 3 January 2011. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
6. Tim O'Sullivan (January 2015). "Postlethwaite, Peter William [Pete] (1946–2011)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/103537. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
7. "Review: Autobiography Pete Postlethwaite: A Spectacle of Dust". Irish Independent. 1 December 2012.
8. Postlethwaite, Pete; Richardson, Andy (1 June 2011). A Spectacle of Dust: The Autobiography (Hardcover ed.). Orion Publishing. ISBN 978-0297864936.
9. McLellan, Dennis (4 January 2011). "Pete Postlethwaite dies at 64; actor was nominated for an Oscar for 'In the Name of the Father'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
10. "Australia's soul singer". The Guardian. 20 June 2008.
11. Wheatley, Jane (27 October 2008). "The Coronation of Pete Postlethwaite". The Times. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
12. "ENOUGH ROPE with Andrew Denton – episode 12: Pete Postlethwaite". Australia: ABC. 2 June 2003. Archived from the original on 7 January 2011. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
13. Pratchett, Terry and Kidby, Paul. The Art of Discworld, Victor Gollancz Ltd, 2004; ISBN 0-575-07511-2
14. "Pete's progress". The Observer. London. 1 October 2000. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
15. Cavendish, Dominic (25 April 2007). "The poet in Pete's soul". The Telegraph. London, UK. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
16. "Reactions: Spanner Films". Ageofstupid.net. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
17. "Press: Stupid on Channel 4 News". Ageofstupid.net. 16 February 2008. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
18. Knegt, Peter (24 January 2011). "For Your Consideration: Final 2011 Oscar Predictions".
19. "Oscar predictions: Final pre-nomination rankings".
20. "CRAVE Online Predicts the 2011 Oscar Nominations! – CraveOnline". 24 January 2011. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015.
21. "Killing Bono premier – meg".
22. "Jim Broadbent takes Pete Postlethwaite part in drama", BBC.co.uk; accessed 24 January 2014.
23. Lusher, Tim (3 January 2011). "Pete Postlethwaite remembered". The Guardian.
24. "Sean Martella's Testicular Cancer Update Blog: Cancer Survivors Part 1 – Pete Postlethwaite". Seanmartella.blogspot.com. 17 January 2008. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
25. "Pete's progress". The Observer. London. 1 October 2000. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
26. "Pete Postlethwaite". The Telegraph. London. 16 February 1945. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
27. Smith, Aidan (8 March 2009). "Pete Postlethwaite interview: For the love of Pete". Scotland on Sunday. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
28. Walker, Michael (3 January 2011). "Country Standard: Pete Postlethwaite – 1997 PPB Taxicab Angel". Country-standard.blogspot.com. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
29. Weaver, Matthew (3 January 2011). "Actor Pete Postlethwaite dies". The Guardian. London.
30. Siegle, Lucy (16 March 2009). "The night Miliband said 'I'm with Stupid, but...'". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
31. "Five years on: Celebrating Pete Postlethwaite's legacy". 7 January 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
32. Lesnik, Tim (17 February 2011). "Daniel Day Lewis Pays Tribute to Pete Postlethwaite". Archived from the original on 4 March 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
33. "Oscar-nominated actor Pete Postlethwaite dies aged 64". BBC. 3 January 2011. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
34. Actor Pete Postlethwaite dies age 64 The Independent (London) 3 January 2011
35. Bradshaw, Peter (1 January 2011). "Pete Postlethwaite: A face we won't forget". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
36. "Film of the Day: 2 January – the Usual Suspects (1995)".
37. "Pete Postlethwaite's book serialised in the Shropshire Star". Shropshire Star. 20 June 2011. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
38. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

External links

• Pete Postlethwaite on IMDb
• Pete Postlethwaite at the TCM Movie Database
• Pete Postlethwaite at AllMovie
• Pete Postlethwaite at the BFI's Screenonline
• Daily Telegraph Obituary
• Pete Postlethwaite at Find a Grave