Godspeed Pete Postlethwaite

Actor Pete Postlethwaite passed on 2 January 2011 at the age of 64. The cause was cancer.

Peter Postlethwaite was born on 7 February 1946 in Warrington, England, which is near Liverpool. As a teenager he actually booked The Beatles to appear at one of the village's halls. Mr. Postlethwaite trained to be a teacher at St. Mary's College, Strawberry Hill. Before going into acting, he taught drama at Loreto College, Manchester. He gave up teaching for acting, training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre. He began acting professionally at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. There he worked with Bill Nighy and Jonathan Pryce.

It was in 1975 that Pete Postlethwaite made his film debut in The Racer (1976). Over the next few years he appeared frequently on television, in the series Second City Firsts, Last of the Summer Wine, Going Straight, and Horse in the House. He appeared in the film The Duellists. In the Eighties he appeared in such shows as Coronation Street, Crown Court, Mitch, Summer Season, Tales of Sherwood Forest. and Zorro. He appeared in the films Fords on Water (1983), A Private Function (1984), The Dressmaker (1988),To Kill a Priest (1988), Distant Voices Still Lives (1988), and Hamlet (1990).

In the Nineties Mr. Postlethwaite appeared in such films as Split Second (1992)., Alien 3 (1992), Wateerland (1992), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Anchoress (1993), In the Name of the Father (1993), The Usual Suspects (1995), When Saturday Comes (1996), James and the Giant Peach (1996), Brassed Off (1996), Romeo +Juliet (1996), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Amistad (1997), When the Sky Falls (2000), and Rat (2000). He appeared on television in such shows as Betweeen the Lines, Murder, Lovejoy, Causality, Screen Two, The Sins, and Sharpe. In the Naughts he appeared in such  movies as Cowboy Up (2001), The Shipping News (2001), Triggermen (2003), The Limit, (2004), Strange Bedfellows (2004), Red Mercury (2005), The Constant Gardner (2005), AEon Flux (2005), Solomon Kane (2009), The Omen (2006), Clash of the Titans (2010), Inception (2010), and The Town (2010). His last film appearance will be released this year, Killing Bono.

Throughout his career Mr. Postlethwaite continued to appear on stage.

When it came to acting roles Pete Postlethwaite was a very talented actor, a chameleon who adapt to any role. In Brassed Off he played Danny, the committed band leader trying to hold the town of Grimley's band together. In Romeo + Juliet he was a very convincing Father Laurence. In Distant Voices, Still Lives he played a drunk and a wife beater. In the TV series Sharpe he played Richard Sharpe's archenemy  for a time, Obadiah Hakeswell, one of the most vile, most evil characters ever created in literature or on television. Mr. Postlethwaite could play anything, from the gentlest of people to the cruellest of villains. Although never a leading man, he will be remembered as one of the best actors from the Eighties to the Naughts.