Pete Postlethwaite (1945-2011) b. Warrington, Cheshire, England.

Postlethwaite was born in Warrington, Cheshire, the youngest child of Bill and Mary Postlethwaite. He studied to become a teacher at St Mary’s University College in Twickenham before enrolling in drama school at 24. Refusing to change his he built a solid reputation in repertory before moving into TV. Unknown until the late 1980s, Postlethwaite gradually moved to prominence by playing villains, his first big break came in Terence Davies� Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), he then burst from anonymity in 1994 by winning an Academy Award nomination for his moving performance as the wrongfully convicted Giuseppe Conlon in In Name of the Father (1993). Also memorable as Keyser Soze�s deadpan go-between, Kobayashi, in The Usual Suspects (1995), and bestial Obadiah Hakeswell in ITVs costume action series Sharpe.

He showed a gentler side to his character when cast as Yorkshire bandleader Danny in the upbeat Mark Herman comedy drama Brassed Off (1996). He played the surly, self-important editor of The Gammy Bird, a Newfoundland newspaper in The Shipping News (2001). He returned to British TV with prominent roles in the crime series The Sins (2000) and playing a pivotal character in the BBC�s five-part legal drama, Criminal Justice (2008). He was appointed OBE in 2004. In recent years he appeared in sword and sorcery action drama Solomon Kane (2009), Ben Affleck’s crime drama The Town (2010) and Christopher Nolan’s thriller Inception (2010).