Aww man. :-(
One of his early (if not earliest) movie roles was a bit part in the 1980 Flash Gordon film as a random nobody at the airfield right in the beginning of the movie.
I saw an interview with Coltrane where he talked about how even though it was a bit part for scale, he was always grateful for it being something he could put on his resume when he was just getting into movies.
I remember that scene, of course I had no idea it was him. He was a perfect Hagrid.
Its really hard to imagine anyone else inhabiting that role. He has a size and physical presence, but also a warmth and humor that just worked.
If anyone hasn’t seen it, I can’t recommend Cracker enough. One of the best shows of its era, and a fantastic lead performance by Robbie Coltrane. I’d only known him as a comic actor before that role, and it was a revelation.
He has a great face! I always enjoyed watching him.
I second the Cracker recommendation, should you have somehow missed it.
RIP to a fine comic actor who was in so many things before eventually being immortalized as Hagrid. I was going to say I first saw him in that Blackadder episode, but looking at IMDB it turns out that even then this American had seen him in a bunch of things before before that - in Krull, Mona Lisa, Absolute Beginners, European Vacation and even technically Flash Gordon (where he was “Man at Air Field,” it says here.)
Wow yes I had totally forgotten all about this movie…and I really enjoyed it at the time.
He was already a very familiar face to me even the first time that I saw him as Hagrid, so I’ve definitely seen him in other roles before.
I imagine a lot of folks knew him from the Pierce Brosnan Bond movies
Nuns on the Run.
Robbie indulged his love (and knowledge) of engineering in a BBC series many years ago called “Coltrane’s planes and automobiles”. A lovely series of the story of the engine.
Here’s the episode on diesel engines. I’d recommend the one on the two stroke which is very funny.
