Robbie Coltrane (1950-) b. Rutherglen, Scotland.

Born Anthony Robert McMillan, portly comic actor Robbie Coltrane was born in Rutherglen, Scotland, and graduated from Glasgow School of Art. During the late 1970s, he rose to prominence as an improvisational comedian on the nightclub circuit before moving into films when debuting in Death Watch (1980). Despite a smattering of small films roles he became a recognisable figure in alternative comedy and was a frequent participant in The Comic Strip Presents productions and BBC2′s tv comedy series The Young Ones and Blackadder. Coltrane won notice for his turn as Bob Hoskins’ mechanic pal in Mona Lisa (1986) and in Derek Jarman‘s Caravaggio (1986).

In the 1990s, Coltrane continued his cinema career with performances in weak comedies such as Nuns on the Run (1990) and The Pope Must Die (1991), and had cameo roles in the James Bond films GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999) as Russian gangster Valentin Zukovsky. In 1993, Coltrane began his best-known role as police psychologist Fitz in the award-winning ITV detective series Cracker. He won a legion of new fans when he appeared as the kindly gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001), and has reprised his role several times in subsequent Potter outings.