Performed in the stage production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" as Stanley Kowalski, alongside Maxine Peake and Sharon Duncan-Brewster, at the Manchester Royal Exchange.
As a boy he was a talented rugby player, playing for Orrell, Lancashire and for England Schoolboys. However, at age seventeen he broke his leg in three places and turned to acting, having appeared in school plays. He enrolled at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama but left early when offered a part in the film 'The Edge of Love'.
