Jim Broadbent

Born: 24th May 1949
Where: Lincolnshire, England

The Oscar-winning character actor has worked across the board with roles ranging from Bridget Jones' dad to the husband of ailing writer Iris Murdoch.

He has also enjoyed fruitful working relationships with writers and directors including Victoria Wood, Mike Newell, Stephen Frears, Terry Gilliam and Woody Allen.

Born the youngest son of a furniture maker and sculptress, his twin sister died at birth.

Broadbent attended a Quaker boarding school in Reading before successfully applying for a place at an art school.

(His acting debut was at five-years-old in A Dolls House on the rural anti-war commune where his parents lived as conscientious objectors).

He won a place at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and began his professional career on the stage, performing with the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Together with Patrick Barlow, he also formed the National Theatre of Brent, a two-man troupe specialising in reduced history.

After early TV work with directors including Newell and Frears, Broadbent made his big screen debut in 1978 in Jerzy Skolimowski's The Shout.

Subsequent roles included the compere Kenny Lange in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits and a barrister in Frears' The Hit.

At the same time, he attracted attention on the small screen as DCI Roy "The Slag" Slater in Only Fools and Horses.

Reteaming with Gilliam, he impressed in the Orwellesque Brazil and went on to appear in Vroom, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace as well as Blackadder's Christmas Carol for TV and Eric the Viking on the big screen.

He also starred in Victoria Wood's pseudo repertory group along with Celia Imrie and Julie Walters in Victoria Wood on TV.

In 1990, he began his rewarding film relationship with Mike Leigh as Andy in Life Is Sweet as a good-natured cook who dreams of running his own business.

(Broadbent had previously appeared in Leigh's stage plays Ecstasy and Goosepimples).

Subsequent appearances included Enchanted April, The Crying Game and memorably as Warner Purcell in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway.

In 1995, he played the Duke of Buckingham in the modern take on Richard III and went on to play Chief Inspector Heat in Christopher Hampton's The Secret Agent.

Broadbent would now embark on an almost unbroken period of big screen work including Smilla's Feeling For Snow, The Borrowers, The Avengers and Little Voice.

In 1999, he won plaudits and a BAFTA nomination for his portrayal of William Gilbert (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame) in Leigh's Topsy Turvy.

Next was the role of Bridget Jones' long-suffering dad in Bridget Jones's Diary and MC Harold Zidler in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge (for which he won a best supporting actor BAFTA).

In 2001, he won the best supporting actor for the role of John Bayley opposite Judi Dench in Iris, the biopic of writer Iris Murdoch.

The role was particularly poignant for Broadbent because his own mother died of Alzheimer's - the illness that afflicted Murdoch.

Martin Scorcese cast him as William "Boss" Tweed in Gangs Of New York and he also cameoed a drunk major in Stephen Fry's directorial debut Bright Young Things.

In 2004, he starred alongside Steve Coogan in Around The World in Eighty Days and reprised his role as Bridget's dad in The Edge Of Reason.

Recent work includes the voice of Sarge in the British animated adventure Valiant and Madame Gasket in Robots.