Timothy Spall

Born: 27th February 1957
Where: London

The actor is known primarily to British audiences as Barry in the TV series in Auf Wiedersehen Pet.

However, he has also enjoyed a flourishing film career starring opposite Tom Cruise, John Malkovich and Kenneth Branagh among others.

His career has been most enhanced through his work with director-writer Mike Leigh, who he first teamed on the TV drama Home Sweet Home.

Feature collaborations include Life Is Sweet in which Spall was an inept restaurateur and the acclaimed Secrets & Lies as Maurice, the gentle photographer.

Spall studied at RADA, where he earned the school's Bancroft Gold Medal, then headed for the stage.

Among his many successes were Bottom in Robert Lepage's controversial Royal National Theatre production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and as Wackford Squeers in Trevor Nunn's RSC production of Nicholas Nickleby.

After Auf Wiedersehen Pet, TV work included Outside Edge opposite Brenda Blethyn, who later played his sister in Secrets & Lies.

Spall's feature film appearances have usually been in supporting roles, but he has worked with some of the most prestigious directors of the past two decades.

One of his earliest film appearances was in the little-seen The Life Story of Baal and he appeared in a bit role as a projectionist in Franc Roddam's Quadraphenia.

Roles became larger in the mid-80s after Spall's TV exposure and Ken Russell cast him in Gothic as Dr John Polidori while Agnieszka Holland put him in To Kill a Priest.

In 1990, Spall was among the cast-within-a-cast of Clint Eastwood's White Hunter, Black Heart and also played John Malkovich's passport thief in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Sheltering Sky.

He could also be seen as the foppish yet evil Rosencrantz in Kenneth Branagh's all-star Hamlet and would reunite with the director in Love's Labour's Lost.

In the mid 90s he developed leukaemia, which forced him to take a break from acting, but he made a speedy recovery.

He became Timothy Spall OBE in the Millennium New Years Honours list.

Spall starred alongside Bill Nighy in the underrated rock band comedy Still Crazy and as David 'Beano' Baggot, in Leigh's Gilbert & Sullivan biopic Topsy-Turvy.

Subsequent roles included Peter Cattaneo's jailbreak comedy Lucky Break as well as in American films such as Rock Star and Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise.

In 2002 Spall enjoyed another outing with Leigh in the bleak but affecting All or Nothing and essayed the role of Charles Cheeryble Nicholas Nickleby.

His highest-profile role in a major American release came with The Last Samurai, in which Spall played the British diplomatic interpreter who befriends an alcoholic Army captain (Tom Cruise).

Spall joined the Brit acting elite when he was offered the role of Peter Pettigrew for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third movie in the film franchise.