Keith Allen

Born: September 2 1953
Where: Swansea, Wales, UK

The Soho-based celebrity drinker has enjoyed a career on the periphery of the film industry when he isn't devoting himself to the life of a bon viveur.

Best buddy to artist Damien Hirst and a friend of the boys from Blur, his big screen appearances include Trainspotting, The Others and 24 Hours Party People.

The brother of film director Kevin Allen, the ex-public schoolboy had been expelled twice and run away from home to France by the age of 21.

Jobs included working as a ligger for Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band as well as Jimmy Jones and the Vagabonds.

Frequently in trouble with the police, he had a spell in Borstal and at one stage was earning £180 a week touting for fishing boats in Tenby.

Arriving in London after stints as a coalminer, butcher's assistant and lathe operator, he ran a children's home in Bethnal Green before going to drama school.

His career than changed course again when he was taken up as a apprentice footballer for Southampton for two years.

Back in London he became a stage manager at the ICA theatre and then trained as a printer, providing posters for punk bands such as The Clash and The Buzzcocks.

He made his big screen debut in the little seen Crystal Gazing in 1982 and starred alongside the Comic Strip troupe in Supergrass.

He played a newspaper reporter in Michael Caton-Jones' movie Scandal and minor roles followed in Kafka, Carry on Columbus and The Young Americans.

Parts followed in Second Best and the poor British horror film Beyond Bedlam before he attracted attention as the murdered flatmate Hugo in Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave.

Subsequent roles included Blue Juice with Catherine Zeta Jones and the woeful drama Loch Ness with Ted Danson before Boyle cast him as a drug dealer in Trainspotting.

TV work followed, including parts in Roger Roger and Jack of Hearts, before Allen landed a role in the mainstream movie Rancid Aluminium.

He appeared in the video for Blur's Country House and played Mr Marlish in the 2001 Nicole Kidman chiller The Others.

Subsequent roles included the art house film Ma femme est une actrice and Roger Ames in the excellent Madchester biopic 24 Hour Party People with Steve Coogan.

Recent work includes the sequel Agent Cody Banks 2: Desintation London and the role of Irving Berlin in De-Lovely.

Off screen, he had a number one hit with New Order with football hit World in Motion and also, as Fat Les, wrote the unofficial World Cup anthem Vindaloo.