The Oscar-nominated actor Pete Postlethwaite has died at the age of sixty four.
He was in hospital in Shropshire, where he was being treated for cancer.
Friends have paid tribute to the actor, whose forty year career in film included roles in The Usual Suspects and Brassed Off. Last year alone, he featured in The Town, Inception and Clash of the Titans. He earned an Oscar nomination as the father of Gerry Conlon, one of the Guildford Four, in In The Name of the Father.
Bill Nighy, who worked with him at Liverpool’s Everyman theatre, described him as “irreplaceable”. Julie Walters said he had been “quite simply the most exciting, exhilarating actor of his generation”. Stephen Spielberg, who directed Postlethwaite in Amistad and The Lost World, once described him as one of the best actors in the world. Postlethwaite joked, in response, that someone had abbreviated the quote, which he suggested originally said “Pete Postlethwait thinks he’s one of the best actors in the world.”
The Guardian newspaper says he was a “true star of stage and screen — despite a face like a clenched fist”. Along similar lines, the Times jokes that “his face was indeed his fortune — but not in the George Clooney sense”. And the Daily Star suggests that “in a world obsessed with celebrity and fame, he was part of a rare breed who relied purely on talent.”
Pete Postlethwaite is survived by his wife, Jacqui, his twenty one year old son Will and his daughter, Lily, who’s fourteen.