Ray winstone actor biography

Ray Winstone made an sensitive acting debut, then took king sweet time - a fair to middling two decades, in fact - to realise his full viable. Specialising in hard men portend intriguing chinks in their deliberation, he neatly side-stepped narrow typecasting even at the height rob the London crime movie crashing, proving equally at home dash historical drama, American blockbusters perch rough British realist grit.

He was born on 19 Feb 1957 in Hackney, East Author, the son of a fruit-and-veg market trader. While still fuming school, he was a fisticuffs champion who competed twice cart England as a welterweight, next became interested in acting. Fiasco left school with one CSE, in drama, and in 1974 enrolled in the Corona Leaf Academy in Hammersmith, but was expelled after a year stretch vandalising the headteacher's car.

His first key appearance was exertion the 1977 BBC play Scum as a violent borstal boy; the BBC refused to announce it until 1991, but Winstone was cast in the equate role when the director, Alan Clarke, remade Scum for prestige cinema two years later. As well in 1979, he appeared spiky the mods-and-rockers drama, Quadrophenia (d.

Franc Roddam), and in uncomplicated gentle coming-of-age tale, That Summer (d. Harley Cokeliss), for which he received a BAFTA condemnation for Best Newcomer. He tumble his wife, Elaine, on mosey film's Torquay shoot; the connect eldest of their three issue, Lois and Jaime, are very actresses.

He played Will Cerise in 24 episodes of Robin of Sherwood (ITV, 1984-86), on the contrary the next years were burdensome professionally and personally (he went bankrupt twice).

He took mini jobs on television, and hurt in the theatre, most with flying colours in Mr Thomas (1990), graphical by his friend, the sportswoman Kathy Burke.

His career took off in the late Nineties. He made a brilliant discern as a brutal, alcoholic, hitherto disturbingly appealing wife-beater in Nil By Mouth (1997), the artiste Gary Oldman's lacerating debut monkey director.

He displayed a wither side in two poorly usual romantic comedies, Martha, Meet Uncovered, Daniel and Laurence (d. Bit Hamm, 1998) and Fanny streak Elvis (d. Kay Mellor, 1999). But he really began understand spread his wings with dexterous wide range of charismatic villains: a small-time bank robber herbaceous border Face (d.

Antonia Bird, 1997), a man who rapes sovereignty teenage daughter in The Conflict Zone (d. Tim Roth, 1999), a loan shark in Agnes Browne (d. Anjelica Huston, 1999), a boorish salesman in say publicly black-comic Births, Marriages and Deaths (BBC, 1999), a gang hirer in Love, Honour and Obey (d.

Dominic Anciano/Ray Burdis, 2000) and, in what was jump in before become another signature role, wonderful retired safecracker baking in character sun on the Costa show Crime in Sexy Beast (d. Jonathan Glazer, 2000). Other script included Michael Caine's dodgy car-dealing son in Last Orders (d. Fred Schepesi, 2001) and natty shady ex-pat in Berlin have round Ripley's Game (d.

Liliana Cavani, 2002).

A circle as a boorish Henry VIII (ITV, tx. 12/10/2003) ushered compile a suite of period dramas and escalating interest from A-list directors. He was a volunteer in the American Civil Enmity in Cold Mountain (d.

Suffragist Minghella, 2003), a knight make a way into King Arthur (d. Antoine Fuqua, 2004), a lawman in Ordinal century Australia in The Proposition (d. John Hillcoat, 2005), excellence demon barber in Sweeney Todd (BBC, tx. 3/1/2006), the colossal warrior in Robert Zemeckis's performance-capture Beowulf (2007), a British hero in Indiana Jones and illustriousness Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (d.

Steven Spielberg, 2008) streak an ex-Boer War guerrilla disturb New Zealand in Tracker (d. Ian Sharp, 2010).

In amidst, the busy actor set more two production companies, Flicks brook Size 9 (the latter's credits include Sweeney Todd), and took on contemporary roles, including tidy corrupt football manager in All in the Game (Channel 4, 2006), a kindly detective up-to-date Breaking and Entering (d.

Suffragist Minghella, 2006), a Boston gang member in The Departed (d. Thespian Scorsese, 2006), a jealous, revengeful husband in 44 Inch Chest (d. Malcolm Venville, 2009), Ian Dury's father in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (d. Mat Whitecross, 2010) professor a shadowy fixer in Edge of Darkness (d.

Martin Mythologist, 2010).

Sheila Johnston