The name Andy Serkis may be a lot more familiar to movie audiences than the actor's face as he is responsible for bringing the character of Gollum to life.Serkis was born and raised in Ruislip in Middlesex studying visual art at Lancaster University.He launched his career in 1989 and worked on a string of television programmes including Pie in the Sky and The Pale Horse.But his breakthrough came when he was cast as Gollum, in what would become a critically acclaimed role, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.Set in the fictional world of Middle-earth, the three films follow the young hobbit Frodo Baggins as he and a Fellowship embark on a quest to destroy the One Ring, and thus ensure the destruction of its maker, the Dark Lord Sauron.Director Peter Jackson didn't want a completely CGI character so Serkis, using motion capture, provided the voice, movement, body language and facial expressions for the character. He did however appear as Smeagol before he became Gollum in the third film.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy were a massive box office success with The Return of the King the second largest grossing movie of all time behind Titanic.

Altogether the films won seventeen Academy Awards with Return of the King alone winning eleven.

Serkis worked with Peter Jackson again on 2005's King Kong. As well as appearing as Lumpy, the ship's cook, he also went through the motion capture process once again to bring the character of King Kong to the big screen.

The actor went to watch gorillas at London Zoo and in the wilds of Rwanda to get an understanding of their movements and behaviour.

Most recently Serkis has moved away from the motion capture roles appearing in Extraordinary Rendition, Jim Threapletin's film debut, The Prestige and voicing a character in Flushed Away.

In 2006 he returned to television to star alongside Jim Broadbent and Samantha Morton in Longford. the film centred around Labour Party peer Lord Longford who campaigned for Moors Murderer Myra Hindley to be granted parole.

Samantha Morton played the role of Hindley while Serkis took on the role as killer Ian Brady.

Despite it's delicate subject matter the film received the Official Selection for Best Dramatic Picture at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

More success followed as the film won Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television at the 2008 Golden Globes with Broadbent and Morton winning Best Actor and Actress and Serkis was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

2008 is set to be a busy year for the actor as he stars in British horror movie The Cottage with Jennifer Ellison and Reece Shearsmith.

David and his youngest brother Peter arrive at a desolate cottage in the middle of the night. When Peter goes out to the car and opens the trunk we see an unconscious Tracey bound and gagged inside.

Tracey is the daughter of underworld boss Arnie and they've kidnapped her for ransom. Not long afterwards a car appears at the cottage: it's Andrew, the black-sheep brother of Tracey who is hoping the money they extort will allow him to leave his domineering father's life for good.

What none of them realise is that two of Arnie's henchmen, the Oriental Thugs, have followed Andrew to the cottage. They are desperate to inflict pain on the kidnappers but Arnie tells them they have to wait patiently.

However, they never anticipated having to deal with somebody lurking in the darkness: The Farmer.

Who will survive and what will be left? And what are those scraping noises coming from under the trapdoor in the kitchen?!

He will also star in Inkheart, the big screen adaptation of the Cornelia Funke novel which also stars Brendan Fraser, Helen Mirren and Paul Bettany.

The Cottage is released 14th March.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

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