Pete Postlethwaite, who died in January, aged 64, after suffering from cancer, was a regular on the stage in Manchester, a winner of the Manchester Evening News Theatre Award and a huge draw at the Royal Exchange.
But now it has emerged that the Oscar-nominated actor’s dramatic connections to the city were rooted in the time he spent teaching at Loreto College, Moss Side, then a Catholic school for girls.
In his autobiography, A Spectacle of Dust, the Warrington-born star describes how a running dispute with the head teacher proved to be the catalyst for him pursuing his dream of being an actor.
"There was a huge number of staff, led by a determined lady called Mother Victorine. She was made from steel," he wrote. Although initially employed as an English teacher, he went on to teach drama after running a series of successful productions, including The Pirates of Penzance.
"The unexpected success of Pirates and kudos that went with it gave me the chutzpah to create a drama of which, of course, I became the de facto head. So I sailed away from the English department, with their blessing, and plunged into teaching drama exclusively and full-time.
"I had begun to really enjoy teaching at Loreto: thoughts of a career as an actor had long faded into the past."
However, after being constantly challenged by Mother Victorine, who was unimpressed with his efforts he started to have second thoughts. On one occasion, she forbade him from casting a pupil in a production of A Man For All Seasons.
Later, Mother Victorine fell out with him because of his passion for drama. Their dispute came to a head one afternoon, prompting the future film star to walk out so that he could pursue his dream of becoming an actor.
Here he describes their final altercation: "Mother Victorine, I am due to take the fourth form for a double period this afternoon but you may wish to make alternative arrangements for I shan’t be there. I turned on my heels and left the office, the school, Manchester and the teaching profession. That weekend, I applied to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, asking to join the two-year course they offered there, with a clear and crystal ambition to become a professional actor.
"I suspect I should be grateful to Mother Victorine: had she not been here, I may never have been me. Maybe she was the catalyst for which I had been subliminally waiting. Peace, Mother Vic. RIP. Hey fiddly-dee, an actor’s life for me."
Pete returned to Manchester on numerous occasions, appearing with Helen Mirren and Bob Hoskins in The Duchess of Malfi during the 1970s. His mother went to see the production, but was unimpressed. "‘What did you think Mother, did you enjoy it?’ She paused, trying hard to find words that simultaneously conveyed an honest opinion without deflating her youngest son’s brio.
"‘Well to be honest, Pete, I didn’t understand a word that anyone said, but I knew what everyone meant.’" It was the best critique I’d ever had and I understood it implicitly."
The autobiography was written during the final months of the actor’s life. In it, he describes his great passion for the Royal Exchange, where he appeared on a number of occasions. Now his son, William Postlethwaite, is to follow in his father’s footsteps, making his professional debut in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, there, next week.
Pete is best known for his roles in films such as Brassed Off, The Usual Suspects, Jurassic Park: The Lost World and In The Name Of The Father, which earned him an Oscar nomination. Later in his career, following numerous successes in Hollywood with star directors such as Stephen Spielberg, who described him as the ‘best actor in the world’ after working with him on Jurassic Park: The Lost World, he was asked to return to the city.
"Greg Hersov wanted me to revisit the Royal Exchange. We’d first worked together many years earlier, on Duchess of Malfi." The pair created a production of Pinter’s The Homecoming.
"It was thrilling to be back at the Royal Exchange. I’d always enjoyed playing there, playing in the round. I thought it would be brilliantly risky."
He also returned again in 2007, playing Prospero in The Tempest. "I kept in regular contact with Greg and he suggested The Tempest. The Tempest is one of theatre’s great stories, it is an incredible play. Greg and I developed our ideas over six to eight months. We talked about how the work could be made relevant to modern society and came up with this idea that it should be set on a Roman Abramovich-style super yacht. Greg and I spent those months talking about the role and developing the ideas and imagery that we’d bring to the stage."
The actor credits those performances with boosting his confidence to such an extent that he was able to tackle ‘his Everest’, a production of King Lear, which played out in Liverpool and London.
The book also charts Pete’s private battle against cancer during the last two years of his life.
"The first session (of chemotherapy) hit me particularly hard and afterwards I experienced another long dark night of the soul; the physical reaction was frightening, truly horrific.
"For about 14 hours I felt as though I was apart from this world, as though the illness had punched me, knocked me to the ground and rendered me defenceless. Words don’t easily convey the desperation of trauma, the sheer terror of it. I felt as though I was in the shadows.
"Before my final round of chemotherapy, I returned to hospital for tests. The doctor looked at me, compassion writ large: ‘The tumour is growing, a further round of chemotherapy would not defeat it, it isinoperable.’ And that was it. I’d got a couple of months to live."
» A Spectacle Of Dust is published by Orion tomorrow, priced £20.