RIP Pete Postlethwaite - The Drunken stepFORUM - A place to discuss your worthless opinions

#1 01-03-2011, 06:59 AM

Actor Pete Postlethwaite dies
Oscar nominee dies peacefully in hospital at age of 64 after long struggle with cancer

The actor Pete Postlethwaite has died at the age of 64. Friends said he passed away peacefully in hospital in Shropshire yesterday having suffered from cancer for some time.

Postlethwaite was once described by the film director Steven Spielberg as "probably the best actor in the world today".

He worked with Spielberg on two films in 1997 ? the fantasy adventure film The Lost World: Jurrassic Park, and Amistad, about a slave mutiny on a ship.

The craggy-featured actor received an Oscar nomination for his performance as Guiseppe Conlon in the 1993 film In The Name Of The Father, about the wrongful convictions of the Guildford Four.

His notable films included the 1996 film Brassed Off, in which he played the leader of colliery band in a Yorkshire community devastated by mine closures. The film was a favourite of the former deputy prime minister John Prescott, and became the inspiration for a coalfield regeneration programme.

Postlethwaite also played the menacing criminal mastermind Kobayashi in the 1995 hit film The Usual Suspects.

In recent years Postlethwaite became known as much for his political activism as his acting. He was the front man in the climate change film The Age of Stupid, arriving at the 2009 London premiere on a bicycle.

After the film's release he threatened to hand back the OBE he was awarded in 2004 in protest at the government's controversial decision to give the go-ahead for Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent.

He also adapted his home to become environmentally responsible, installing a wind turbine and other features.

In 2003 he marched against the war in Iraq and was a vocal supporter of the Make Poverty History campaign.

Born in Warrington, Postlethwaite had originally planned to be a priest. He became a teacher but eventually took to the stage, beginning his career at the Everyman theatre in Liverpool. In 2008 he returned to the Everyman to play the lead in King Lear, a role he had always wanted to play. The performance was one of the highlights of Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture.

He is survived by his wife, Jacqui, his son, Will, and daughter, Lily.

Five Inch Taint · #2 01-03-2011, 12:46 PM

London (CNN) -- Oscar-nominated actor Pete Postlethwaite, who starred in "Inception" and "The Usual Suspects," has died at the age of 64, his agent said Monday.

Highly intense, with a bulbous nose, high cheekbones and ruddy complexion, the actor was immediately recognizable in films ranging from the second "Jurassic Park" movie to "Romeo + Juliet."

It was for his role as Daniel Day-Lewis's father in the IRA drama "In the Name of the Father" that he got his only Oscar nomination, for best supporting actor. He lost out to Tommy Lee Jones for "The Fugitive."

He also starred in the British brass band movie "Brassed Off," and worked with Steven Spielberg on the slave revolt story "Amistad."

Spielberg reportedly called him "the best actor in the world," prompting Postlethwaite to respond that what the director actually said was that he "thought he was the best actor in the world."

He made his name as part of a cohort of great British actors including Bill Nighy, Anthony Sher, Jonathan Pryce and Julie Walters at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, England, in the 1970s.

He returned to the Everyman in 2008 to play King Lear in Shakespeare's great tragedy.

He was awarded the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, in 2004.
Postlethwaite died of cancer, British media reported.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/Movi...ex.html?hpt=T2