While Ian McShane may be best known for his television roles in Lovejoy and Deadwood the British actor is back on the big screen this week, well his voice is anyway, in new stop motion animation picture Coraline.
The Lancashire born McShane studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) until 1962 when he left before graduating to appear in his first movie The Wild and the Willing.
While the movie was a commercial or a critical hit it did kick off the young actor's career and over the next few years he worked in both film and television.
Movies followed as he appeared in the likes of Gypsy Girl, The Battle of Britain before moving onto the stage in Loot and then Broadway in The Promise.
Throughout the eighties he worked on a string of high-profile miniseries including Roots and Marco Polo before he took on the role that made him a household name... Lovejoy.
Lovejoy was a TV series about the adventures of Lovejoy, a British antiques dealer set in East Anglia and based on a series of novels by John Grant.
The show ran for six series between 1986 - 1994
But since 2000 he has found more success on the big screen with roles in Sexy Beast, Agent Cody Banks and Shrek 2.
But he returned to TV in 2004 for American western drama television series Deadwood in which he played Albert Swearengen, businessman and owner of The Gem Saloon.
For his performance McShane won the 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Drama and was also nominated for similar awards at the 2005 Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
But after three series the show was cancelled in 2006.
And it was back on the big screen for the actor with Shrek the Third, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising and Kung Fu Panda.
His last movie came last year when he teamed up with Jason Statham for Death Race, a remake of the 1975 film Death Race 2000.
This week sees the release of Coraline, a big screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman's 2002 novel. McShane voices the character Mister Bobinsky, one of Coraline's neighbours.
He has two further film releases this year with Case 39, which also stars Reese Witherspoon, and British gangster film 44 Inch Chest with Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Tom Wilkinson.
Coraline is released 8th May
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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