Robbie Coltrane, a mainstay actor of the Harry Potter and James Bond franchises, has died. He was 72. Coltrane’s agent told Deadline he died in a hospital in Scotland after being ill for the past two years. Coltrane — who took his stage name after the jazz great John Coltrane — got his start in alternative and sketch comedy in his native U.K. in the 1980s. His first film role was in Flash Gordon, and a number of small parts followed, including as Falstaff in Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V film adaptation. In 1993, he began starring as Fitz in the British crime series Cracker, for which he won a then-record three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actor. Shortly after, he began his stint in the James Bond series, playing Russian Mafioso Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough. Coltrane then starred as Rubeus Hagrid, a father figure to Harry, in all eight Harry Potter films. His caring portrayal of Hagrid became his best-known work outside the U.K., which he reflected on for HBO Max’s Return to Hogwarts special, his last onscreen appearance. “The legacy of the movies is that my children’s generation will show them to their children,” he said. “So you could be watching them in 50 years’ time, easy. I’ll not be here, sadly, but Hagrid will.”
