25 Facts About Pete Postlethwaite

Peter William Postlethwaite was an English character actor.

Pete Postlethwaite had a breakthrough in Hollywood when he portrayed David in Alien 3, and his international reputation was further solidified when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Giuseppe Conlon, father of Gerry Conlon, in In the Name of the Father.

Pete Postlethwaite was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2004 New Year Honours list.

Peter William Postlethwaite was born into a working-class Catholic family at 101 Norris Street in Warrington, Lancashire on 7 February 1946, the son of Mary Geraldine and cooper, wood machinist, and school caretaker William Postlethwaite.

Pete Postlethwaite had an older brother named Michael and two older sisters named Patricia and Anne.

Pete Postlethwaite spent an extra year re-sitting some of his O-levels, and then took four A-levels in English, history, geography, and French.

Pete Postlethwaite initially trained to be a Catholic priest, but later settled on a career in acting.

Pete Postlethwaite trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 1970.

Pete Postlethwaite was a veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company and other acting companies.

Pete Postlethwaite received an Academy Award nomination for his role in In the Name of the Father in 1993.

Pete Postlethwaite is well known for his role as mysterious lawyer Mr Kobayashi in The Usual Suspects.

Pete Postlethwaite made appearances in several other successful films, including Alien 3, Amistad, Brassed Off, The Shipping News, The Constant Gardener, Inception, James and the Giant Peach and as Friar Lawrence in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet.

Early in his career, Pete Postlethwaite was advised to adopt a new surname for his acting work by his first agent and by peers who quipped that his name "would never be put up in lights outside theatres because they couldn't afford the electricity".

Pete Postlethwaite started his career at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, where his colleagues included Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Antony Sher, Matthew Kelly, and Julie Walters, having an intimate relationship with the last during the mid-to-late 1970s.

Pete Postlethwaite appeared in the climate change-themed film The Age of Stupid, which premiered in March 2009.

Terminally ill, Pete Postlethwaite made a return to Hollywood in three 2010 films, first as Spyros in Clash of the Titans.

Pete Postlethwaite next appeared in the blockbuster hit Inception as Maurice Fischer, an industrialist who is slowly dying.

Pete Postlethwaite was scheduled to be in the BBC series Exile, but had to pull out because of ill health and was replaced by Jim Broadbent.

Pete Postlethwaite appeared as a taxi driver in a political broadcast for the Labour Party during the 1997 general election, and marched in London against the Iraq War in 2003.

Pete Postlethwaite lived in West Itchenor before moving near Bishop's Castle.

Pete Postlethwaite began a relationship with former BBC producer Jacqueline Morrish in 1987, and they were married in 2003 at St Nicholas' Church in West Itchenor.

Pete Postlethwaite was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1990, and had his right testicle removed.

Pete Postlethwaite was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 2009, and continued acting for the next year and a half, showing clear signs of weight loss during his last performances.

Pete Postlethwaite was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2004 New Year Honours list and received an Honorary Fellowship in recognition of outstanding contribution to the dramatic arts by Liverpool John Moores University in 2005 and an honorary degree from the University of Liverpool in 2006.

Pete Postlethwaite received an Academy Award nomination for his role In the Name of the Father and was posthumously nominated for a BAFTA Award for his performance in The Town.