Rosy-cheeked character actor Pete Postlethwaite, the tattooed priest in Romeo + Juliet, has died at age 64.
His name may not have been immediately recognizable, but his face certainly was. Actor Pete Postlethwaite has succumbed to cancer, and passed away in a Shropshire hospital at 64. In recent years, Postlethwaite appeared in The Town, Inception and Clash of the Titans, but his work in film and television goes back over 30 years.
This work includes appearances in Mel Gibson’s Hamlet, The Usual Suspects, DragonHeart, Romeo + Juliet, Brassed Off, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Amistad, Æon Flux, and The Omen. Postlethwaite was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in 1993’s In The Name of the Father, and was appointed to the Order of the British Empire in 2003.
Upon hearing of Postlethwaite’s passing, friend and colleague Bill Nighy mourned the passing of “a rare and remarkable man… he is irreplaceable,” reports the BBC. To me, Postlethwaite will always be the creepy old man in James and the Giant Peach, the one who gave James a bag of glowing green crocodile tongues.
Source: BBC News
Published: Jan 3, 2011 05:20 pm