Rest in Peace Robbie Coltrane, Who Loved Whisky and Played Rubeus Hagrid in ‘Harry Potter’
Actor Robbie Coltrane attends the New York premiere of “Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations” at AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13 theater on Nov. 5, 2013, in New York City. (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)
Robbie Coltrane, the Scottish actor best known for his role as Rubeus Hagrid in the “Harry Potter” series, died at age 72, his agent Belinda Wright revealed Friday, per several media outlets.
True to his Scottish heritage, Coltrane was known for his love of whisky.
A Twitter user named Tony Newquay posted a story about a time he met Coltrane, claiming he once served the actor at a lounge in Terminal 1 of Scotland’s Heathrow airport.
“[I] poured a double Glenmorangie to Robbie Coltrane,” Newquay wrote. “I asked him if he would like anything in it… he replied ‘Son!! The only thing you put in whisky is another’!!!”
In 2016, a custom whisky set was created by metalsmith and jeweler Grant McCaig specially for Coltrane, further showing the actor’s love of a good dram.
This beautifully sleek whisky set was created for Robbie Coltrane by @GrantMcCaig – learn more here https://t.co/Tr6uQ4B6CK pic.twitter.com/l6r6OPYzaf
— Elements Edinburgh (@ElementsEdin) October 6, 2016
In 2019, a Twitter user wrote that he once had seen Coltrane in a local shop, “buying a bottle of vodka and a black bottle of whisky.”
Unfortunately, Coltrane’s enjoyment of whisky wasn’t always for the best. It turns out the actor was capable of consuming quantities of booze fit for the half-giant he played in the “Harry Potter” franchise.
According to The Guardian, Coltrane once called himself a “bottle-of-whisky-a-day-or-nothing man” and on another occasion said “Booze is my undoing. I can drink a gallon of beer and not feel the least bit drunk.”
Coltrane reportedly had a troubled history with alcohol.
“I’d been broke for a long time and suddenly I had enough money in the bank not to worry if I could afford to eat out or drink a whole bottle of whisky and suddenly I was famous,” Coltrane once said, according to The Guardian. “It went to my head.”
A fellow actor and friend to Coltrane, John Sessions once described Coltrane as having a “strong self-destructive streak … a deep, driving melancholy.”
Despite his demons and struggles, the outpouring of positive memories of Coltrane has been tremendous in the wake of his death. One Twitter user shared a memory that encapsulates Coltrane wonderfully.
The Twitter user, Andrew Watson, claims to have met Coltrane in the early 1980s while waiting in line for a party. Watson described the actor as “warm, very funny, down to earth and shared his bottle of whisky with everyone around him. RIP Robbie Coltrane.”
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