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Renowned Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane died at 72, his agent, Belinda Wright, confirmed to Popsugar on Oct. 14. The actor and comedian, best known for his iconic role as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter films, had been in poor health for the past two years. On Oct. 25, Deadline reported that Coltrane died following multiple organ failure. At the time of his death, the actor, who had also been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, had been suffering from sepsis, a lower respiratory tract infection, and heart block. Representatives for Coltrane did not immediately respond to Popsugar's request for comment.

As the half-giant, half-wizard, Coltrane won the hearts of millions of fans who remember him as the kind-hearted and lovable groundskeeper at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. "[Robbie] brought joy to children and adults alike all over the world, prompting a stream of fan letters every week for over 20 years," Wright said. "For me...

Robbie Coltrane, best known for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series, has died at age 72.

“For me personally I shall remember him as an abidingly loyal client,” Coltrane’s agent Belinda Wright said in statement. “As well as being a wonderful actor, he was forensically intelligent, brilliantly witty and after 40 years of being proud to be called his agent, I shall miss him.”

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Exclusive: The Good Doctor star Freddie Highmore will executive produce and join the cast of Frank Spotnitz and Steve Thompson’s Leonardo, a drama series that takes a fresh look at the life and legacy of the iconic artist Leonardo da Vinci, positing that he was a gay outsider who used his work as a way of hiding his true self. Each episode will examine one of da Vinci’s artworks for hidden clues about a tortured artist struggling for perfection.

Highmore will play Stefano Giraldi, a fictional police detective who frames the narrative, investigating da Vinci as the suspect in a murder case and digging into his past. Highmore’s Sony-aligned production company, Alfresco Pictures, will join Italy’s Luxe Vide and Spotnitz’s Big Light Productions to produce the show, with Alfresco’s Head of Development Claire Londy serving as co-ep. Backing the project is The Alliance,...

Exclusive: ABC has put in development Adversaries, a drama that centers on the female leader of the Navy’s Top Gun fighter pilot school in Key West. The series comes from the network’s The Good Doctor star/co-exec producer Freddie Highmore via his Alfresco Pictures and Sony Pictures TV where the company is based.

Written by Sean Finegan and Katie J. Stone & David Daitch (Shooter), Adversaries centers on Lara Bryer, a trailblazing fighter pilot who takes charge of the Navy’s most elite flight school in Key West. But training Top Gun pilots in supersonic aerial combat is nothing compared to the challenges she’ll face on the ground, from navigating life as a newly single working mom to breaking through the glass ceiling in a field so male-dominated that as of 2019, just 10% of all Naval pilots are women.

Highmore executive produces with Finegan, Stone and Daitch who is...

Before Bill Nighy confirmed he was going to be joining the cast of “Harry Potter,” he wasn’t being facetious when he complained that he was the last big British actor to not be involved in the series. With heavy hitters like the late Richard Harris, Kenneth Branagh and Ralph Fiennes weaving in and out of the series, who can blame him for feeling left out?

The professors at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in particular possess acting talent which comes from the upper echelons of British celeb royalty. Young Americans might not recognize all of their faces outside of "Potter," especially those who are masked behind beards and more extensive makeup. So we've decided to profile the top Hogwarts talents for you here; not their fictional professorships, but rather the reasons you should look for them in roles outside the "Harry Potter" universe.

Michael Gambon: Michael Gambon,...

"Stop fidgeting!" Emma Thompson chides Dustin Hoffman, who can't seem to sit still. The energetic 71-year-old actor is in constant motion, whether looking for a pen so he can write down movie recommendations, re-enacting a pivotal scene from The Graduate, or stealing soap from the hotel bathrooms (more on that later). Hoffman takes her good-natured scolding in stride and promptly sits down next to her on the couch and behaves. It would appear that in addition to her acting and writing skills, Thompson can also direct.The duo first met on the 2006 film Stranger Than Fiction, and Thompson reveals that when she first saw her co-star, her world came to a standstill: "I thought, 'There's Dustin Hoffman. And I'm going to be working with him. How extraordinary that is.' You didn't realize how much I loved you as an actor. Or maybe you did, maybe you assumed. And rightfully so.

While American stand-up comedy in the '70s and '80s was in "rock star" mode, dominated by outsized personalities, the British comedy clubs were following the leads of punk and new wave, emphasizing class-conscious character studies, sly put-ons, and surrealist goofery. One of masterminds of the "alternative comedy" scene was Ben Elton, who came out of Manchester alongside Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson to co-create the seminal series The Young Ones. Simultaneous to The Young Ones, Elton hooked up with a quartet of Cambridge Footlights alums—Paul Shearer, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and Emma Thompson—to develop the dry, subtle sketch comedy program Alfresco, which aired on ITV in 1983 and '84. Alfresco was nowhere near as riotous as The Young Ones, nor as mind-bendingly brilliant as alt-comedy forerunner Monty Python's Flying Circus. The show was, first and foremost, a performance showcase, giving a cast of talented young comic actors (including Robbie Coltrane.