Born in Salford, Manchester. At the age of nineteen Eccleston enrolled
at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. At the age of twenty-five,
he made his professional stage debut in the Bristol Old Vic's production
of A Streetcar Named Desire. He made his film debut with a memorable
portrayal of Derek Bentley in Peter
Medak’s fact-based Let
Him Have It (1991). A few years later he played the unhinged flatmate
David in Danny Boyle’s
darkly comic thriller Shallow
Grave (1994).
Eccleston co-starred alongside Kate Winslet
in Michael Winterbottom's adaptation
of Thomas Hardy's Jude
(1996). He later appeared in David Cronenberg's futuristic sci-fi thriller
eXistenZ (1999). Eccleston once again linked up with Danny Boyle to
portray unbalanced army officer Major West in Boyle’s apocalyptic
sci-fi homage 28
Days Later (2002). During his career Eccleston has become an increasingly
familiar face on television due to appearances in many excellent drama
productions, including Cracker, Our Friends in the North, Hillsborough
and The Second Coming.
