Sponsored by
Golden Globe for Jim Broadbent
ACTOR Jim Broadbent has won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a TV Mini Series of Film Made for TV for his role in the television drama 'Longford', which also won the top prize in that category.
The Channel 4 programme, which explored the relationship between Moors murderer Myra Hindley and prisons' campaigner Lord Longford, was the night's biggest winner as British actress Samantha Morton, who played Myra Hindley, took the best supporting TV actress prize.
The winners were announced in a press conference instead of at the usual glittering awards ceremony, because of a strike by the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since November 5. Actors said they would not cross picket lines, in support of writers.
Although the Golden Globes are viewed as a form guide for the Oscars, in recent years the awards have thrown up false leads.
For the past three years, none of the Golden Globes' best movie drama winners has gone on to win the best picture Oscar but, as a television drama, 'Longford' would not qualify in the Oscars in any event.
Jim, who was born in 1949 and brought up in the Rasen area, inherited his family's desire to act. His dad Roy was a maker of furniture, while his sculptress mum Dee looked after the kids, of which Jim was the youngest.
Both parents were keen amateur dramatists and founder members of the Lindsey Rural Players, a troupe which sprang from the Holton Players, an acting group set up during WW2 by a community of conscientious objectors in Wickenby.
He made his stage debut at aged four, in his parents' production of 'A Doll's House' and he won a place at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, from where he graduated in 1972.
His first professional job was as Acting Assistant Stage Manager at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park and from here he moved into regional theatre.
In 1976 he made his stage breakthrough playing 12 separate characters in Ken Campbell's 12 hour science fiction epic 'Illuminatus'. He also began his career-long association with fellow actor Patrick Barlow and they formed the two-man National Theatre of Brent, performing hilarious 'reduced histories'.
He played in 'Kafka's Dick' and 'The Government Inspector' at the Royal National Theatre, both of them directed by Richard Eyre who, a quarter of a century later, would hire Broadbent to play Iris Murdoch's husband, John Bayley, and thus contribute to his breakthrough onto the world stage.
He made his cinema debut in 'The Shout', following this with, amongst others, 'The Passage', 'The Dogs Of War', 'Breaking Glass' and 'Time Bandits'.
In television, he appeared in 'Blackadder', 'The Comic Strip' and with Victoria Wood, culminating in 'Only Foos and Horses', although he turned down the role of Del Boy!
In 1987, he married Anastasia Lewis, a costume designer he'd met four years earlier, and he became step-father to her two sons, Tom and Paul.
His film and television career blossomed and he appeared in many films, including 'Little Voice', 'Enchanted April', 'The Crying Game', 'The Borrowers', 'Bullets Over Broadway' with Woody Allen, 'Rough Magic' with Russell Crowe and Bridget Fonda, 'Bridget's Jones Diary' with Renee Zellweger and, notably, 'Moulin Rouge' with Ewan MacGregor and Nicole Kidman.
He won the Best Actor award for 'Topsy Turvy' at the Venice Film Festival and a BAFTA for 'Moulin Rouge and Golden Globe and Oscar for 'Iris'.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Market Rasen
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -0 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -0 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North west
