Angela Landsbury and Robbie Coltrane: Two Crackers

The world lost two fabulous actors last week: Angela Landsbury and Robbie Coltrane.

At first glance the actors have little in common. However, they both hailed from the UK and they both dabbled in murder…

Landsbury was born in England in 1925 and went to America with her parents in 1940 to escape the London blitz. After studying acting in New York City, she moved to Hollywood in 1942 and was quickly signed up to Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Her first film roles were Gaslight (1944), National Velvet (1944), and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), earning her two Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

For most of us though, she is best known for her starring role in the TV series “Murder She Wrote”, which focuses on the life of Jessica Fletcher, a mystery writer and amateur detective, who finds herself becoming involved in solving a series of murders that take place in the fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine, as well as across the United States and abroad. The program ran for 12 seasons from September 30, 1984 to May 19, 1996, for a total of 264 episodes, becoming one of the longest-running and most popular detective drama series in television history.

Robbie Coltraine (whose real name was Anthony Robert McMillan), was born in 1950 in Rutherglen, Scotland. A proud Scottish actor, comedian, and writer, he is known by millions of young Harry Potter film fans as Rubeus Hagrid, a part he played in the film series from 2001 to 2011.

However, Coltrane first gained national prominence starring as criminal psychologist Dr. Eddie “Fitz” Fitzgerald who explored the warped criminal minds of murderers in the ITV television series “Cracker” (1993–2006). This role was critically acclaimed and saw Coltrane receive the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in three consecutive years (1994 to 1996). Roles in bigger films followed the James Bond films “Golden Eye” (1995) and “The World Is Not Enough” (1999), a supporting role in “From Hell” (2001).

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