Pete Postlethwaite

Born: 1946-02-07, Warrington, Cheshire, England, UK

Died: 2011-01-02

Biography

Peter William "Pete" Postlethwaite, OBE (February 7, 1946 – January 2, 2011) was an English stage, film and television actor. After minor television appearances including in The Professionals, Postlethwaite's first success came with the film Distant Voices, Still Lives in 1988. He played a mysterious lawyer, Mr. Kobayashi, in The Usual Suspects, and he appeared in Alien 3, In the Name of the Father, Amistad, Brassed Off, The Shipping News, The Constant Gardener, The Age of Stupid, Inception, The Town, Romeo + Juliet, and Æon Flux. In television, Postlethwaite's most notable performance was as the villain Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill in the Sharpe television series and television movies opposite actor Sean Bean's character of Richard Sharpe. Postlethwaite was born in Warrington, England in 1946. He trained as a teacher and taught drama before training as an actor. Steven Spielberg called Postlethwaite "the best actor in the world" after working with him on The Lost World: Jurassic Park. He received an Academy Award nomination for his role in In the Name of the Father in 1993, and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2004 New Year's Honours List. He died of pancreatic cancer.

Filmography

• Casualty (1986)
• Inception (2010)
• Screen Two (1985)
• Last of the Summer Wine (1973)
• The Usual Suspects (1995)
• TFI Friday (1996)
• Between the Lines (1992)
• ScreenPlay (1986)
• The Town (2010)
• Sharpe (1993)
• Pie in the Sky (1994)
• Clash of the Titans (2010)
• Lovejoy (1986)
• Romeo + Juliet (1996)
• Alien³ (1992)
• The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
• Æon Flux (2005)
• Solomon Kane (2009)
• DragonHeart (1996)
• The Constant Gardener (2005)
• In the Name of the Father (1993)
• Dark Water (2005)
• James and the Giant Peach (1996)
• Treasure Island (1990)
• Split Second (1992)
• Martin Chuzzlewit (1994)
• The Duellists (1977)
• Mitch (1984)
• Brassed Off (1996)
• The Sins (2000)