staff reporter. SUPPLIED

Robbie Coltrane, the comedian and character actor of the iconic gentle half-giant Hagrid in the "Harry Potter" films, has died at 72. Coltrane's agent, Belinda Wright, said he died Friday in a hospital in his native Scotland, but no other details were disclosed. In one of many tributes to him, she called him "forensically intelligent" and "brilliantly witty." The author of "Harry Potter," J.K. Rowling, said decades ago that Coltrane was her first choice to play Hagrid and tweeted on Friday that he was "an incredible talent, a complete one off." "I was beyond fortunate to know him, work with him and laugh my head off with him," she wrote. Coltrane, born Anthony Robert McMillan in Rutherglen, Scotland, was in his early twenties when he began pursuing an acting career and renamed himself after jazz musician John Coltrane. When he broke through as a hard-bitten detective in "Cracker," the 1990s TV series for which he won the best actor at the British Academy Television Awards three years in a row, he already had a notable screen career, with credits including "Mona Lisa," "Nuns on the Run," and Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of "Henry V." He went on to play the young wizard's mentor in all eight "Harry Potter" films, as well as a Russian crime boss in the James Bond thrillers "GoldenEye" and "The World is Not Enough," and Pip's guardian, Mr. Jaggers in a 2012 adaptation of Dickens' "Great Expectations." In the 2016 miniseries "National Treasure," he received rave reviews for his performance as a beloved TV star who may be hiding a dark secret. On Friday, his "Nuns on the Run" co-star Eric Idle tweeted that he had been talking about Coltrane, "wondering where he was," when he learned of his death. "Such a bright and brilliant man. A consummate actor, an extraordinarily funny comedian and an amazing actor. He was also a very good friend," Idle wrote. BKM/ Expat Media
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