Sharjah24 – Reuters: Robbie Coltrane, the larger-than-life Scottish actor who played the beloved half-giant Hagrid in the Harry Potter films, died on Friday at the age of 72, his agent said.
Coltrane's more than four-decade-long career ranged from roles in the James Bond films "GoldenEye" and "The World Is Not Enough" to the lead in the 1990s British TV series "Cracker", as criminal psychologist Dr. Edward 'Fitz' Fitzgerald.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling led the tributes on Twitter, writing: "I'll never know anyone remotely like Robbie again.
In a statement, Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, 33, called Coltrane "one of the funniest people I've met."
"I've especially fond memories of him keeping our spirits up on 'Prisoner of Azkaban,' when we were all hiding from the torrential rain for hours in Hagrid's hut and he was telling stories and cracking jokes to keep morale up," he said of the film released in 2004.
Rubeus Hagrid is the Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts, the primary setting for the first Harry Potter novels.
Born March 30, 1950, in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, Anthony Robert McMillan changed his professional name as a homage to celebrated jazz musician John Coltrane.
He was a gifted comic actor and a star of Britain's 1980s alternative comedy boom, playing a string of television roles that included regular appearances in "The Comic Strip Presents ..." anthology series. In 1987, he rose to greater prominence starring alongside Emma Thompson in John Byrne's mini-series "Tutti Frutti" as doomed lead singer Big Jazza McGlone in a tale of fictional Scots rock 'n' roll band The Majestics.
Coltrane died in hospital near Falkirk in Scotland, Britain's PA Media reported.
He is survived by his sister Annie Rae, his children Spencer and Alice, and their mother Rhona Gemmell, his agent Wright said.
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