Thanks, Wikipedia.
Pete Postlethwaite, who passed away after a long illness on January 2, 2011, will always be remembered as a fine British actor.
Born on February 7, 1945 in Warrington, Cheshire, the United Kingdom, he taught drama at Loreto College, Manchester before training as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Postlethwaite started his acting career at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre where his colleagues included Bill Nighy (Pirates Of The Caribbean), Jonathan Pryce (Tomorrow Never Dies) and Julie Walters (Mamma Mia).
Postlethwaite, who subsequently joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Walters had an intimate relationship during the latter half of the 1970s.
After routine appearances for television programmes such as The Professionals, Postlethwaite starred in the film Distant Voices, Still Lives in 1988.
He received an Academy Award nomination for his role in In The Name Of The Father in 1993.
Other major films he starred in were The Usual Suspects, Alien 3, Amistad, The Constant Gardener, Inception and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo And Juliet (with Leonardo Di Caprio and Claire Danes).
Steven Spielberg called Postlethwaite "the best actor in the world" after working with him in The Lost World.
To this Postlethwaite modestly replied: "I'm sure what Spielberg actually said was, Pete's the best actor in The Lost World."
Postlethwaite co-starred with Sean Bean of The Lord Of The Rings, Don't Say A Word and Goldeneye fame in the British television series Sharpe.
It was his most famous television series.
In 2004, he received the Order Of The British Empire (OBE) from Queen Elizabeth 2 of the United Kingdom.
His most recent film was Clash Of The Titans.
