Pete Postlethwaite

Pete Postlethwaite

Birth : 1945-02-07, Warrington, Cheshire, England, UK

Death : 2011-01-02

History

Pete Postlethwaite 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 on 2 January 2011. Description above from the Wikipedia article Pete Postlethwaite, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Profile

Pete Postlethwaite

Movies

Killing Bono
Karl
The true story of Neil and Ivan McCormick, two Irish brothers who attempt to become rock stars but can only look on as their high school friends U2 become the biggest band in the world.
Return to Jurassic Park
Self
A multi-part documentary about the making of the Jurassic Park trilogy. Each part walks through the making of part of one of the films, including the hurricane during the shooting of the first film, and how advances in CGI for Jurassic Park helped change the world of special effects forever. All interviews for these retrospective documentaries come with comments from Spielberg, Johnston, Neill, Dern, Goldblum, the effects crews, the child actors, and Peter Stormare. This documentary is broken into five parts: Dawn of a New Era (25 min) Making Prehistory (20 min), the Next Step in Evolution (15 min), and the Third Adventure (25 min), Finding the Lost World (28 min), and Something Survived (16 min).
The Town
Fergus "Fergie" Colm
Doug MacRay is a longtime thief, who, smarter than the rest of his crew, is looking for his chance to exit the game. When a bank job leads to the group kidnapping an attractive branch manager, he takes on the role of monitoring her – but their burgeoning relationship threatens to unveil the identities of Doug and his crew to the FBI Agent who is on their case.
Inception
Maurice Fischer
Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.
Clash of the Titans
Spyros
Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus is helpless to save his family from Hades, vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus and unleash hell on earth. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, Perseus and his warriors will only survive if Perseus accepts his power as a god, defies fate and creates his own destiny.
The Age of Stupid
The Archivist
The Age of Stupid is the new movie from Director Franny Armstrong (McLibel) and producer John Battsek (One Day In September). Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?
Solomon Kane
William Crowthorn
A nomadic 16th century warrior, condemned to hell for his brutal past, seeks redemption by renouncing violence, but finds some things are worth burning for as he fights to free a young Puritan woman from the grip of evil.
Clough: The Brian Clough Story
Narrator
30 years since his first European Cup success, 15 years since his retirement and 5 years after his death; Brian Clough continues to fascinate. The Afterlife of Brian continues a pace; best-selling book after best-selling book, a statue is unveiled in Nottingham city centre, and a feature film is released. "Clough" has intimate access with the family as Brian is forever remembered in bronze and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of Nigel as he becomes the new manager of Derby County, on the night the wheel comes full circle and he takes over at the club his father walked out on 35 years ago.
Waving at Trains
Douglas Warren
Some summer days last forever… A poignant short film starring Oscar-nominated actor Pete Postlethwaite in one of his last film roles.
Player
Colin
The story of a claustrophobic relationship between a single mother and her piano prodigy son. Arriving in a tight-knit rural community, the pair become embroiled in local romances which push their own relationship to boiling point.
Closing the Ring
Quinlan
During the 1940s, a group of young men go off to war, leaving behind Ethel Ann, who is in love with one of them, Teddy. In modern-day Belfast, a man named Jimmy endeavors to return a ring found in the wreckage of a crashed plane. He travels to Michigan, where the grown Ethel Ann, who married another man after Teddy was killed in battle, now lives. Ethel Ann must decide whether to go with Jimmy to meet the soldier who last saw Teddy alive.
Ghost Son
Doc
A widowed newlywed stays on her deceased husband's South African farm, then bears a child who seems to be possessed by the dead man.
The Omen
Father Brennan
A diplomatic couple adopts the son of the devil without knowing it. A remake of the classic horror film of the same name from 1976.
Valley of the Heart's Delight
Albion Munson
When a fatal kidnapping ignites a firestorm of suspicion and rage in idyllic 1933 San Jose, California, a hard-nosed young reporter takes on the powers-that-be to prevent the lynching of two men he believes are innocent.
Anatomy of a Global Thriller: Behind the Scenes of The Constant Gardener
Self
The Constant Gardener featurette.
Beneath the Surface: The Making of 'Dark Water'
Self
Æon Flux
Keeper
400 years into the future, disease has wiped out the majority of the world's population, except one walled city, Bregna, ruled by a congress of scientists. When Æon Flux, the top operative in the underground 'Monican' rebellion, is sent on a mission to kill a government leader, she uncovers a world of secrets.
The Constant Gardener
Lorbeer
Justin Quayle is a low-level British diplomat who has always gone about his work very quietly, not causing any problems. But after his radical wife Tessa is killed he becomes determined to find out why, thrusting himself into the middle of a very dangerous conspiracy.
Dark Water
Veeck
Dahlia Williams and her daughter Cecelia move into a rundown apartment on New York's Roosevelt Island. She is currently in midst of divorce proceedings and the apartment, though near an excellent school for her daughter, is all she can afford. From the time she arrives, there are mysterious occurrences and there is a constant drip from the ceiling in her daughter's bedroom.
Red Mercury
Gold Commander
Three young Muslim men, part of a terror cell, are making a bomb in a London flat, when they get a call to vacate immediately with their gear. The police have been alerted and they are under suspicion.
Gone Dark / The Limit
Gale Carmody
An elderly woman turns the tables on her kidnapper.
Strange Bedfellows
Russell McKenzie (taxman)
Two 'very straight' old timers have to learn how to pass as a loving gay couple after falsely claiming same-sex status to take advantage of newly legislated tax laws.
Cowboy Up
Reid Braxton
"Cowboy Up" is a celebration of the risk-taking, daredevil personalities of modern rodeo. In the world of professional bull riding, newcomer Ely Braxton (Marcus Thomas) is the craziest guy around; his brother Hank (Kiefer Sutherland) is a rodeo clown, and the two use each other to play up their acts. But love may be one thing that tears the brothers apart. When Ely falls for the rodeo's sweetheart (Daryl Hannah), Hank is filled with jealousy and hatred. The brothers try to come to grips with their differences, but the competition gets as fierce as the bulls in the ring.
Between Strangers
John
Three women confront their pasts which changes their futures.
Round Up: Deposing 'The Usual Suspects'
Kobayashi (archive footage)
Documentary that includes interviews with Singer as well as the rest of the cast - mainly Spacey. There is no "plot" or "promotional" elements to this documentary - all of the information offered is substantial and informative as we are let in on all the details of trying to seek out the right actors for the parts, as well as the thoughts of the actors about joining an independent production helmed by a young director. Part 2 is a more interesting look at the production itself, complete with the problems and obstacles that faced the low-budget feature, as well as the happier memories of the work that the cast and crew went through. There's a lot of discussion of the infamous laughter during the lineup sequence, complete with a few outtakes of the scene.
Triggermen
Ben Cutler
Two British conmen in Chicago are mistaken for hired hitmen by mobsters wanting to rub out a rival gangster. Keen to make a fast buck, they pretend they are the hitmen but soon find they get more than they bargained for when the real ones turn up.
The Shipping News
Tert Card
An emotionally-beaten man with his young daughter moves to his ancestral home in Newfoundland to reclaim his life.
Rat
Hubert Flynn
After a night of drinking Guiness at the local watering hole, an ordinary, working-class, family man in Dublin's life is turned upside-down when he wakes up as a rat.
Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings
The comedienne stars in this festive sketch show, alongside a host of celebrity guests.
When the Sky Falls
Martin Shaughnessy
Fact-based story about Irish crime-investigating reporter Sinead Hamilton, who invaded the Irish underworld and attempted to expose the illegitimate activities she found. Hampered by the system, a police consort is ineffectual at aiding her despite trying to step outside of the normal bounds. Kevin McNally plays her husband, who hates her activities and the danger in which she places herself. Nonetheless, he grudgingly admires her persistence and encourages her investigation.
Animal Farm
Benjamin (voice) / Farmer Jones (voice)
An animated film from 1999 based on the famous novel by George Orwell. Animals on a farm lead a revolution against the farmers to put their destiny in their own hands. However this revolution eats their own children and they cannot avoid corruption.
Wayward Son
Ben Alexander
Former fashion photographer Randall Harris debuts with this gritty drama about justice and redemption in rural Georgia during the Great Depression. Jesse Banks Rhodes (Harry Connick, Jr.) is suddenly and inexplicably released from jail after serving part of a life sentence on a trumped up charge for murder. He heads back for Georgia to reclaim his life and finds himself staying with farmer Ben Alexander (Pete Postlethwaite). Initially, Ben's family is mistrustful of the ex-con, but slowly they begin to warm to him, particularly Ben's fragile daughter Wesley (Patricia Clarkson). After witnessing the murder of a black worker at the hands of his drunken white racist boss, Jesse vows to make things right.
Alice in Wonderland
Carpenter
Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit-hole into a whimsical Wonderland, where she meets characters like the delightful Cheshire Cat, the clumsy White Knight, a rude caterpillar, and the hot-tempered Queen of Hearts and can grow ten feet tall or shrink to three inches. But will she ever be able to return home?
Lost for Words
Deric Longden
Deric Longden and his wife, Aileen, come to terms with the fact that his mother, Annie, is getting too old to live on her own. Annie suffers her first stroke and a nursing home is the obvious solution, but which one and where?
The Worlds of Harry Connick Jr.
Self
Narrated by Connick himself in a candid look at his own life and career, the program features interviews with jazz greats Branford and Wynton Marsalis and their father, Ellis Marsalis.
The Divine Ryans
Uncle Reg Ryan
When Draper Doyle’s father drops dead two days after his birthday, Draper realises that he his memories of visiting his father two days previously have vanished. With the help of Uncle Reg, he attempts to piece his memory back together.
Among Giants
Ray
A manager hires Ray, off the books, to paint all the power towers in a 15-mile stretch of high-tension wires outside Sheffield. Ray's crew of men are friends, especially Ray with Steve, a young Romeo. Into the mix comes Gerry, an Australian with a spirit of adventure and mountain climbing skills. She wants a job, and against the others' advice, who don't want a woman on the job, Ray hires her. Then she and Ray fall in love. He asks her to marry him, gives her a ring. Steve's jealous; Ray's ex-wife complains that he spends on Gerry, not his own kids, and she predicts that Gerry won't stay around. Plus, there's pressure to finish the job fast. Economics, romance, and wanderlust spark the end.
Amistad
Holabird
In 1839, the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. During the long trip, Cinque leads the slaves in an unprecedented uprising. They are then held prisoner in Connecticut, and their release becomes the subject of heated debate. Freed slave Theodore Joadson wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property lawyer Roger Baldwin to help his case. Eventually, John Quincy Adams also becomes an ally.
Bandyta
Sincai
Bastard depicts the distress of needy children and the love of a nurse and a hard boiled criminal. A film from Polish director Maciej Dejczer and actor Til Schweiger’s first international film.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Roland Tembo
Four years after Jurassic Park's genetically bred dinosaurs ran amok, multimillionaire John Hammond shocks chaos theorist Ian Malcolm by revealing that he has been breeding more beasties at a secret location. Malcolm, his paleontologist ladylove and a wildlife videographer join an expedition to document the lethal lizards' natural behavior in this action-packed thriller.
The Serpent's Kiss
Thomas Smith
A man sends a young architect to build an extravagant garden to bankrupt the husband of the woman he once loved.
The Making of 'The Lost World'
Himself
Behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of director Steven Spielberg's 1997 film "The Lost World."
Brassed Off
Danny
A Yorkshire coal mine is threatened with closure and the only hope is for the men to enter their Grimley Colliery Brass Band into a national competition. They believe they have no hope until Gloria appears carrying her Flugelhorn. At first mocked for being a woman, she soon becomes the only chance for the band to win.
Romeo + Juliet
Father Laurence
In director Baz Luhrmann's contemporary take on William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, the Montagues and Capulets have moved their ongoing feud to the sweltering suburb of Verona Beach, where Romeo and Juliet fall in love and secretly wed. Though the film is visually modern, the bard's dialogue remains.
Crimetime
Sidney
The star of a TV crime reenactment show becomes caught up in the mind of the killer he is playing.
DragonHeart
Gilbert
In an ancient time when majestic fire-breathers soared through the skies, a knight named Bowen comes face to face and heart to heart with the last dragon on Earth, Draco. Taking up arms to suppress a tyrant king, Bowen soon realizes his task will be harder than he'd imagined: If he kills the king, Draco will die as well.
James and the Giant Peach
The Magic Man
When the young orphan boy James spills a magic bag of crocodile tongues, he finds himself in possession of a giant peach that flies him away to strange lands.
When Saturday Comes
Ken Jackson
Jimmy Muir comes from a typical gritty, northern town where there are only two options: working down the pit or in a factory. But Jimmy has other ideas - he dreams of becoming a professional footballer. Confronted by a bitter and unsupportive father, hard drinking friends and a lifetime of bad habits...has Jimmy the will to achieve his ultimate goal?
The Usual Suspects
Kobayashi
Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor – leaving few survivors. Verbal lures his interrogators with an incredible story of the crime lord's almost supernatural prowess.
Suite 16
Glover
After an argument and fight with a wealthy one night stand in a posh hotel, young hustler Chris finds himself trapped inside. With nowhere to go and the cops closing in on the hotel fast, he wanders into "Suite 16" in a fit of despair. Inside, a handicapped and wheelchair bound Glover is held captive for the evening once discovered by Chris. However, things change the next day when Glover informs Chris that the woman he slept with is now dead; and that he surely will be sought out for her murder. Lonely and bored, Glover offers to shelter Chris for awhile while the cuts and bruises from the previous nights escapades have time to heal.
Sharpe's Enemy
Hakeswill
Portugal 1813. A band of deserters, including Sharpe's old enemy, Obadiah Hakeswill, have captured two women, one the wife of a high-ranking English officer, and are holding them hostage for ransom. Sharpe is given the 60th Rifles and a Rocket troop, as well as his majority to rescue the women. But while Sharpe may be able to deal with his old enemy, he has yet to face a newer threat, the French Major Pierre Ducos.
Sharpe's Company
Hakeswill
Spain 1812 The Duke of Wellington plans to lay siege to Badajoz. A murderous figure from Sharpe's past uses a beautiful woman revenge himself on Sharpe, now the father of her child. Sharpe has reason to be happy, he holds his daughter for the first time and is given command of the Light Company again, together with his captaincy. But will his happiness be short lived?
Sin Bin
Mitch
A male nurse in a mental hospital witnesses one patient killing another, but struggles with his loyalties and his conscience to come forward.
In the Name of the Father
Giuseppe Conlon
A small time thief from Belfast, Gerry Conlon, is falsely implicated in the IRA bombing of a pub that kills several people while he is in London. He and his four friends are coerced by British police into confessing their guilt. Gerry's father and other relatives in London are also implicated in the crime. He spends fifteen years in prison with his father trying to prove his innocence.
Anchoress
William Carpenter
Enter the medieval world of Christine Carpenter, a visionary girl who is to become an Anchoress (walled-in recluse) so that she can "live in the Virgin's house forever." Based on actual letters that were written about such an Anchoress in 1325, the film follows Christine as she awakens to her own sensuality and explores her own female, earth-based spirituality.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Quince
Mistaken identity, unrequited love, and the supernatural are combined in Shakespeare's classic set in the woods of Greece on a moonlit night.
The Last of the Mohicans
Captain Beams
In war-torn colonial America, in the midst of a bloody battle between British, the French and Native American allies, the aristocratic daughter of a British Colonel and her party are captured by a group of Huron warriors. Fortunately, a group of three Mohican trappers comes to their rescue.
Waterland
Henry Crick
The story of a mentally anguished high school history teacher going through a complete reassessment of his life. His method for reassessing his life is to narrate it to his class and interweave in it three generations of his family's history.
Alien³
David Postlethwaite
After escaping with Newt and Hicks from the alien planet, Ripley crash lands on Fiorina 161, a prison planet and host to a correctional facility. Unfortunately, although Newt and Hicks do not survive the crash, a more unwelcome visitor does. The prison does not allow weapons of any kind, and with aid being a long time away, the prisoners must simply survive in any way they can.
Split Second
Paulsen
In a flooded future London, Detective Harley Stone hunts a serial killer who murdered his partner and has haunted him ever since — but he soon discovers what he is hunting might not be human.
The Grass Arena
The Dipper
The Grass Arena is based on the autobiography of John Healy. Raised in an strongly religious family, with an abusive father, John soon learns that he has to defend himself. Growing into adulthood he takes up boxing, but soon falls victim to alcoholism. His boxing career over, John takes to the Grass Arena (the park) where he lives with other alcoholics. Prison time introduces him to a new and unexpected path.
They Never Slept
Panter
When plucky Corporal Pru Merriman reports to her superiors Monk and Bob for driving duty, she finds herself catapulted into the murky world of the French Resistance.
Hamlet
Player King
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, finds out that his uncle Claudius killed his father to obtain the throne, and plans revenge.
Needle
Paula's Father
Needle paints a harrowing picture of a Liverpool overrun by drugs, charting a young man's nightmarish descent into intravenous heroin use and AIDS and a police and political leadership incapable of the imagination or courage necessary to respond to the drug problem.
Treasure Island
George Merry
Young Jim Hawkins, while running the Benbow Inn with his mother, meets Captain Billy Bones, who dies at the inn while it is beseiged by buccaneers led by Blind Pew. Jim and his mother fight off the attackers and discover Billy Bones' treasure map for which the buccaneers had come. Jim agrees to sail on the S.S. Espaniola with Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey to find the treasure on a mysterious isiand. Upon arriving at the island, ship's cook and scaliwag Long John Silver leads a mutiny of crew members who want the treasure for themselves. Jim helps the Squire and Espaniola officers to survive the mutiny and fight back against Silver's men, who have taken over the Espaniola.
The Dressmaker
Jack
In England during World War II, a repressed dressmaker and her sister struggle looking after their 17-year-old niece, who is having a delusional affair with an American soldier.
Distant Voices, Still Lives
Father
The second film in Terence Davies's autobiographical series (along with "Trilogy" and "The Long Day Closes") is an impressionistic view of a working-class family in 1940s and 1950s Liverpool, based on Davies's own family. Through a series of exquisite tableaux Davies creates a deeply affecting photo album of a troubled family wrestling with the complexity of love.
Tumbledown
Major (Rehabilitation Centre)
The film centres on the experiences of Robert Lawrence MC (played by Colin Firth), an officer of the Scots Guards during the Falklands War of 1982. While fighting at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown, Lawrence is shot in the head by an Argentine sniper, and left paralysed on his left side. He then must learn to adjust to his new disability.
To Kill a Priest
Josef
A young priest speaks out against the Communist regime in Poland and is killed for it.
Coast to Coast
Kecks McGuinness
Two guys meet, one American, a deserter from the US army, one Brit, and they are drawn together by their mutual love of Soul music. Neither being gainfully employed they decide to start a mobile disco service for fellow soul lovers, which leads them to buy an ice cream van, and the adventure begins. Before long they find themselves on the run from the bad guys and the police.
Cyrano de Bergerac
Ragueneau
As incomparable in swordplay and wordplay as he is, the gallant soldier, philosopher, and poet Cyrano de Bergerac is as timid as a schoolboy before the fair Roxanne. Derek Jacobi delivers an electrifying award-winning portrayal of Rostand's legendary log-nosed swordsman in this highly acclaimed production from the world's premier theatre troupe, The Royal Shakespeare Company. The bold Cyrano boasts he can defeat a hundred men in a swordfight, but because of his grotesque nose lacks the confidence to court the woman he loves. Yet so entranced with Roxanne is Cyrano that he uses the eloquence of his poetry to woo her for a rival.
A Private Function
Nuttol
In the summer of 1947, Britain prepares to commemorate the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. To get around food-rationing laws, Dr. Charles Swaby, accountant Henry Allardyce and solicitor Frank Lockwood are fattening a black-market pig for the big day. Egged on by his wife, meek Gilbert Chilvers steals the swine, but the couple must conceal it from inspector Morris Wormold.
Fords on Water
Winston's Boss
Influential, cult classic, UK buddy road movie about two friends, one white and one black, who bond over their desire to escape from boredom and unemployment in Thatcher's Britain.
The Muscle Market
Danny Duggan
Danny Duggan runs a failing building contractors, and resorts to sub-gangster thuggery to keep the business afloat. However, with the bottom falling out of the building game, Duggan finds that playing at gangster is only fun when you're on the winning side.
Afternoon Off
Attendant in Art Gallery
Lee, a Chinese man, works as a waiter in a hotel in England, despite speaking very little English. Told that a girl called Iris might be interested in him, on his afternoon off work he buys a box of chocolates and sets off to find her.
Doris and Doreen
Mr. Lomax
A series of pink forms has Doris and Doreen fearing for their cushy jobs.
The Duellists
Orderly shaving Gen. Treillard
In 1800, as Napoleon Bonaparte rises to power in France, a rivalry erupts between Armand and Gabriel, two lieutenants in the French Army, over a perceived insult. For over a decade, they engage in a series of duels amidst larger conflicts, including the failed French invasion of Russia in 1812, and shifts in the political and social systems of Europe.
The Paradise Run
Soldier
Johnny has joined the army because he likes canoeing, but ends up in a war-torn city and is compromised into helping the enemy. However, desertion will not be a solution, and he finds himself more distressed than ever.
Occupy!
Player in Everyman Theatre Company, Liverpool
Bill Nighy, Pete Postlewaite and (briefly) Julie Walters, then all of the Everyman Theatre Company, feature in this potent reportage/dramatisation hybrid about the occupation of the Fisher-Bendix Factory in Kirkby. Dohany uses a variety of imaginative techniques to explore the longstanding dispute, and a pronounced sense of urgency pervades this act of solidarity.
Thwum
Duffy
Presumed lost after its initial broadcast in 1975, Thwum features a young Pete Postlethwaite in his earliest television appearance. This sci-fi themed play sees UFO fanatic Bernard (Paul Moriarty) trying to convince skeptical reporter Duffy (Pete Postlethwaite) to report on the imminent landing of an alien craft. An almost complete copy – two minutes are missing – was recovered from a domestic video recording kept by director Pedr James. [adapted from wearecult.rocks] Part of the anthology series Second City Firsts.