Pete Postlethwaite

Pete Postlethwaite had the great virtue of turning his characters into people of flesh and blood. He endows them with a humanity that shudders as he amply demonstrated in the wonderful  In the name of the father . This brilliant impostor created the perfect common man.

Pete Postlethwaite is a run-of-the-mill guy. A disadvantage if you want to be a “celebrity” like  Megan Fox. But interpretively speaking, it is an advantage, to which Pete has made the most of it. Seeing him on stage transmits that vulnerability typical of the human being that seems alien to all the characters in a film. The barrier of the screen makes what is seen on it a world apart, alien to our reality. This doesn’t happen with Pete. Each of his characters looks like the first. He looks like he’s pulled straight off the street, picked at random. And nothing is further from the truth because the aforementioned accumulates almost a hundred titles not to mention his experience on stage. With him, that identification with the character is a reality. The viewer has the feeling that he knows someone like him, that he has just come across someone like him on the street, that he is a neighbor of a similar guy. Quite an achievement to which to take off your hat. And this is acting, “at the end of the day, acting is all about telling lies. We are professional impostors and the audience accepts it. We have made this deal whereby we tell you a story and a lot of lies, but there is a truth in them. You have to have a good time, or feel restless in some way.”

Who could be considered one of the biggest “imposters” on the planet was born on February 16, 1946 in Warrington (England). The youngest of three brothers, he immediately showed an interest in the theater, where over the years he has developed an extensive career. He is a family man and the father of two children along with his wife Jacqueline Morrish, with whom he began a relationship in 1987. His life has been marked by work, something that to date seems to be going nowhere. to change. After many years on stage, he made his screen debut in the short film  The Racer in 1975. Two years later he landed the small role of the barber in  The Duelists . These types of roles have been very frequent in his career. His first character with a certain entity was in the family drama Distant Voices  (1988). Shortly thereafter, Pete was diagnosed with testicular cancer, but even the disease didn’t keep him from working.

In the nineties came his first participation in major productions such as  Alien 3  (1992) and  The Last of the Mohicans  (1992). It seemed evident that his were the secondary ones with more or less presence. Something that does not have to have any negative connotation, as demonstrated in  Jim Sheridan ‘s film  In the Name of the Father  (1993). His excellent work as Guiseppe Conlon helped him qualify for an Oscar. He was working with the magnificent  Daniel Day-Lewis again  after  The Last of the Mohicans ., but this time to be his father. Considering how brilliant Day-Lewis is, it can be said that there were times when Pete overshadowed him. His superb portrayal of the poor father who has been sent to jail along with his son, both of whom are innocent, continues to make your hair stand on end even though the film has been watched twenty times. This interpretive catharsis revealed his good work as an “impostor”, his vulnerability on stage, his ability to be that ordinary guy that Hitchcock would surely have been fascinated by.

This very defining connotation of his work is not to say that he has always made vulnerable or hapless characters, as was made clear in his work on  The Usual Suspects  (1994) or his two films with  Steven Spielberg ,  The Lost World: Jurassic Park 2  (1997) . and  Friendship  (1997). Although it is true, that torment fits Pete like a glove, something that became clear again with his stupendous bandleader in  Touching the Wind  (1996) or with his misunderstood priests in  Romeo and Juliet, by  William Shakespeare  ( 1996) and  The Prophecy  (2006).

A 10 for the tormented Pete, no fuss, no exaggeration. Like any guy who passes by on the street and lives his pain without thinking that there might be someone watching him. The directors came to him knowing that no role could resist him, he was not a handsome man to use, but he had the great advantage of not being pigeonholed, something proven by titles as varied as  Animal Farm  (1999),  Tying the Dots  (2001) ,  The Constant Gardener  (2005), Origin  (2010) and  The Town, City of Thieves  (2010). Leave Killing Bono pending release  .