Born in 1949 in Lincolnshire, England, Jim Broadbent was the son of
a furniture maker and keen amateur actor. He spent his early education
at a Quaker boarding school in Reading, after leaving school, he studied
art for a year before giving in to the lure of the stage, graduating
from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in 1972. At first
he played small roles in regional theatres, but after four years he
struck out on his own, and helped set up the National Theatre of Brent.
His career went on from strength to strength, and he got his big break
in 1976, when he appeared in Ken Campbell's 12-hour sci-fi play Illuminatus,
in which he played a dozen characters.
His stage, film and TV career began to take off, and he went on to
appear in Kafka's Dick by Alan Bennett, and The Government Inspector
at the Royal National Theatre. Broadbent made his film debut in with
a small part in Jerzy Skolimowski's The Shout (1978). He famously turned
down the role of Del Boy Trotter in the BBC series Only Fools and Horses;
yet he still managed to join the cast as Del Boy's arch-enemy Roy Slater.
His stage work with writer-director Mike
Leigh began a collaboration that encompassed such plays as Ecstasy
and Goosepimples and films including Life
Is Sweet (1990). He worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company for
Our Friends in the North, and made more associations while doing TV
work with young directors like Mike
Newell and Stephen Frears. He
also starred in BBC comedy series The Peter Principle, as an over-promoted
bank manager with little talent or brains, as well as the first series
of Blackadder with Rowan Atkinson.
Broadbent continued to play both large and smaller supporting roles
in The Borrowers (1997), Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997), and The Avengers
(1998). Then came Little
Voice (1998), starring as a seedy nightclub owner in opposite Jane
Horrocks and Michael Caine. Chiefly a character
actor until then, he finally took centre and won a Best Actor award
at the Venice Film Festival for his performance as the librettist W.S.
Gilbert in Mike Leigh's film, Topsy
Turvy (1999). He once again took on a supporting role as Renee Zellweger’s
father in Bridget
Jones' Diary (2001). He starred as Zidler in Baz Luhrmann's spectacular
Moulin Rouge (2001) opposite Ewan McGregor
and Nicole Kidman. Broadbent earned both an Oscar and a Golden Globe
for his portrayal of husband and biographer John Bayley in Iris
(2002).
