Steve Coogan

Steve Coogan
Holding a producer credit for The 1 Second Film in January 2005
Born	Stephen John Coogan (1965-10-14) 14 October 1965 (age 47) Middleton, Lancashire, England
Occupation	Actor, comedian, writer, producer
Years active	1989–present
Spouse(s)	Caroline Hickman (m. 2002–2005; divorced)
Relatives	Brendan Coogan, Martin Coogan (brothers)

Stephen John "Steve" Coogan (born 14 October 1965) is an English actor, comedian, writer, impressionist and producer. Born in Middleton, Greater Manchester, he began his career as a comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early 1990s, Coogan began creating original comic characters, which he presented in stage shows; this led to him winning the 1992 Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe for his show with long-time collaborator John Thomson. The most prominent characters he developed at this time were Paul Calf, a stereotypical lower class Mancunian, and his sister the promiscuous Pauline (played by Coogan in drag).

Working with Chris Morris, Patrick Marber and Armando Iannucci for On the Hour and The Day Today, Coogan created his most popular and most developed character; Alan Partridge, a socially awkward and politically incorrect regional media personality, who would feature in two eponymous television series, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge and I'm Alan Partridge, which were well received and nominated for five BAFTAs in total. Outside the UK, Coogan is better known for his roles in films including 24 Hour Party People, The Wind in the Willows, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Night at the Museum, Tropic Thunder, Hamlet 2, A Cock and Bull Story, The Trip and The Other Guys.

On 22 November 2011, Coogan, along with Hugh Grant, gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry on phone hacking, favouring regulation of the press.

[edit] Early life

Coogan is one of seven children born to Kathleen (née Coonan), a housewife, and Anthony Coogan, an IBM engineer.^[1][2][3] He was born in his parents' house and brought up in Alkrington,^[4][5] an area of Middleton, in an Irish working-class family.^[6] Coogan was brought up as a Roman Catholic.^[7][8][9] He went to school at Cardinal Langley Roman Catholic High School, the same as Manchester United footballer Paul Scholes. He had a happy childhood growing up with four brothers and two sisters, and in addition his parents fostered children on a short-term basis, sometimes accommodating two or three foster children at a time.^[4] Coogan had a talent for impersonation, and wanted to go to drama school, despite being advised by a teacher that it could lead to a precarious profession.^[4]

He went to five interviews for drama school in London, and then – after gaining confidence by joining a theatre company in Manchester called New Music – gained a place at the Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre.^[4] Coogan's brother Martin was the vocalist and wrote the music for The Mock Turtles,^[4] a successful indie rock band in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

[edit] Career

Coogan started out as a comic and mimic in Ipswich, as well as doing voice-over work for adverts and impressions on Spitting Image. In 1988, he did impressions of Prince Charles which featured on the Urban label release "Don't Believe the Hype" by acid house artist Mista E. The impressions were also used as jingles in 1988–89 on the BBC Radio 1 FM Friday night dance music show Jeff Young's Big Beat. In 1993 Coogan starred alongside Caroline Aherne and John Thomson in a one-off Granada TV sketch show The Dead Good Show.

[edit] Alan Partridge

Coogan collaborated with Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci, amongst others, on the Radio 4 comedy show On the Hour, where he helped give birth to his most famous creation, Alan Partridge. Alan went on to have his own radio show, as well as appearing on TV in The Day Today and his own chat show, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge. In 1997, he returned with the sitcom I'm Alan Partridge, which was followed by a second series in 2002. Partridge was part of Coogan's 2008 stand-up tour, and an Alan Partridge film is in production and will be released in 2013.^[10]

[edit] Other TV roles

Paul Calf first began as a character named 'Duncan Disorderly' in Coogan's early stand-up routines. Calf first came to wider public notice in 1993, with several appearances on Saturday Zoo, a late-night variety show presented by Jonathan Ross on Channel 4. Paul has appeared in two video diaries, an episode of Coogan's Run, and in various stand-up performances. He is an unemployed Mancunian wastrel with a particular hatred of students. His catchphrase is "Bag o' shite". Paul lives in a council house in the fictional town of Ottle with his mother and his sister, Pauline Calf (also played by Coogan). His father died some time before the first video diary was made. For a long time he was obsessed with getting back together with his ex-girlfriend, Julie. Paul's best friend is "Fat" Bob (played by John Thomson), a car mechanic who eventually married Pauline. Paul supports Manchester City and is very partial to Wagon Wheels. He wears Burton suits, sports a bleached mullet and drives a Ford Cortina.

Other Coogan creations include Tommy Saxondale, Duncan Thicket and Portuguese Eurovision winner Tony Ferrino. Duncan Thicket has appeared in a tour of live shows. Other TV shows he has starred in include Coogan's Run, Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible, Monkey Trousers and Saxondale. Coogan has provided voices for the animated series I Am Not an Animal and Bob and Margaret, two Christmas specials starring Robbie the Reindeer, and an episode of the BBC Radio Four spoof sci-fi series Nebulous.

He starred in BBC2's The Private Life of Samuel Pepys in 2003, and Cruise of the Gods in 2002. In 2006, he had a cameo in the Little Britain Christmas special as a pilot taking Lou and Andy to Disneyland. In 2007, Coogan played a psychiatrist on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, and in 2008, starred in the BBC1 drama Sunshine.

In 2010, he reunited with actor Rob Brydon and director Michael Winterbottom (both of whom he had worked with on the 2006 film A Cock and Bull Story (see Film Roles below)), for the partially improvised BBC2 sitcom The Trip, in which he and Brydon do a tour of northern restaurants, which he is writing up for the Observer. The Trip was nominated for a 2011 Television BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy, and Coogan won Best Male Performance in a Comedy Role.^[11]

He provided the voices of Philip Masterson-Bowie (a horse) and Mark Andrews (a sparrow) for animated comedy series I Am Not an Animal.^[12] He was also the voice of Satan on Neighbors from Hell.In December 2011, Coogan voiced Roger Mellie and Tracey Tunstall of the Fat Slags in three Viz Comedy Blaps for Channel 4.^[13] He voiced a cruise-ship director in The Simpsons A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again.^[14]

Coogan is set to co-star in Moone Boy, along with Johnny Vegas and Chris O'Dowd, who also wrote the show. The series is a co-production between Sprout Pictures, who produced the original Little Crackers short, Baby Cow Productions, Hod Cod Productions and Grand Pictures, and began filming in early 2012 on location in Boyle, Ireland and Dublin, Ireland. He also returned with his character Alan Partridge, in Alan Partridge – Welcome to the Places of My Life, which aired on Sky Atlantic. It was stated, by several critics and news papers, that the show has been highly anticipated, and was generally well received.^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]}

[edit] Film roles

Michael Winterbottom, Steve Coogan, and Rob Brydon at the Ryerson Theatre in Toronto for the screening of Tristram Shandy (14 September 2005)

Notable film roles include Factory Records boss Tony Wilson in the film 24 Hour Party People, Mole in Terry Jones' The Wind in the Willows, Phileas Fogg in a comical version of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days from Disney, with Jackie Chan, Ambassador Mercy in Marie Antoinette, Bruce Tick in Sweet Revenge, and Octavius in Night at the Museum. He has also played himself three times on screen. First, in one of the vignettes of Jim Jarmusch's 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes, alongside Alfred Molina. Second, in 2006 Coogan starred with Rob Brydon in Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story, a self-referential film of the "unfilmable" self-referential novel Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. In the film, Coogan plays a fictional, womanising version of himself. Thirdly he played himself in the 2010 film The Trip. He worked again with director Winterbottom in King of Soho, about '50s porn-king Paul Raymond.

The first film, which he co-wrote with Henry Normal, was The Parole Officer. He also acted in this alongside Ben Miller and Lena Headey. Coogan has an uncredited cameo in Hot Fuzz, scripted by Shaun of the Dead writers Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. He stars as a failed actor turned high school drama teacher in the 2008 film Hamlet 2 and had a role in Tropic Thunder, playing the inexperienced director. In 2009, he also starred as a lying reporter in What Goes Up with Olivia Thirlby, Molly Shannon and Hilary Duff. Also recently, he appeared in Finding Amanda alongside Brittany Snow and Matthew Broderick, returned as Octavius in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, and played Hades in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

[edit] Achievements

Coogan's show Steve Coogan in character with John Thomson was winner of the Perrier Award for best show at the 1992 Edinburgh Fringe. He has won numerous awards for his work in TV including British Comedy Awards, BAFTAs and The South Bank Show award for comedy. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In 2005, a poll to find the Comedians' Comedian saw him being voted amongst the top 20 greatest comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. In June 2012 Coogan was placed second in a list of the Top 100 People In Comedy.

[edit] Stand-up comedy comeback tour

In March 2008, it was confirmed that Coogan would return to doing stand-up comedy as part of his first stand-up tour in ten years. The tour, named "Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge and other less successful characters", saw the return of some of his old characters including Paul Calf and Alan Partridge.^[24] Reviews of the opening night were mixed.^[25] and such reviews continued as the tour progressed.^[26][27] Much of the criticism focused on the apparent unrehearsed quality and nervous stage presence of Coogan's performance. Chortle comedy guide wrote "Steve Coogan’s stage comeback after ten years is most definitely a show of two halves: the superlative Alan Partridge plus a collection of characters that are not only less successful, but woefully less funny."^[28]

[edit] Production work

Coogan, along with writing partner Henry Normal, founded Baby Cow Productions in 1999. Together they are the executive producers for such shows as The Mighty Boosh, starring Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, Nighty Night, starring Julia Davis, Marion and Geoff, starring Rob Brydon, "Gavin and Stacey" starring Ruth Jones, James Corden, Joanna Page, Mathew Horne and Rob Brydon, and Human Remains, starring Davis and Brydon. Baby Cow Productions' latest^[when?] venture is Where Are the Joneses, an online sitcom which uses wiki technology to allow the audience to upload scripts and storyline ideas.^[29]

[edit] In the media

Coogan said he "liked to keep himself private", adding; "I have never wanted to be famous, as such – fame is a by-product,"^[30] He has been a popular target of the British tabloid press since 1996, who he stated have subjected him to entrapment and blackmail, printed obvious falsehoods about him,^[31][32] also targeting his family and friends in attempts to extract stories from them.^[33] Coogan in some cases gave a strong denial to allegations, but in others did not contest them because he wanted to shield vulnerable friends from adverse publicity.^[34] The tabloids also published intrusive information about his relationships and the schooling of his child. Coogan has also been critical of the broadsheet press, saying they have colluded with the tabloids in the interests of selling newspapers. In 2005 he said "The Guardian tends to have its cake and eat it. It waits for the tabloids to dish the dirt and then it talks about the tabloids dishing the dirt while enjoying it themselves."^[35] However Coogan later gave credit to the same newspaper for its investigation of the phone hacking scandal.^[36] Coogan said that because of the persistent intrusion into his private life, the press had effectively made him "immune" to further attack, as his "closet is empty of skeletons".^[37]

[edit] Phone hacking

Coogan became a prominent figure in the News International phone hacking scandal as one of the celebrities who took action against the British tabloids in light of these events. He was made aware by his phone service provider of "possible anomalies" on his phone around the time in 2005 and 2006^[38] In 2010 Coogan's legal firm obtained a partially redacted version of Glenn Mulcaire's hacking notebook by a court order which showed Coogan had been targeted and his personal information was in the possession of Mulcaire. Mulcaire was forced by the High Court of Justice to disclose to Coogan's legal team who amongst the staff at the News of the World ordered him to hack phones. This information was obtained by Coogan's lawyers on 26 August 2011.^[39] Interviewed on Newsnight on 8 July 2011, Coogan said he was "delighted" by the closure of the News of the World and said it was a "fantastic day for journalism". He said the idea of press freedom was used by the tabloids as a "smokescreen for selling papers with tittle-tattle" and said the argument against press regulation was "morally bankrupt"^[36] Coogan provided an 8-page witness statement to the Leveson Inquiry and appeared at the inquiry on 22 November 2011 to discuss the evidence.^[33] He said he was there reluctantly representing a lot of celebrities who felt they could not speak out for fear of reprisals from the tabloid press.^[40]

[edit] Personal life

One of Coogan's brothers, Brendan, is a former Top Gear presenter, and another, Martin, was the lead singer of the early 1990s band The Mock Turtles. All the brothers attended the Cardinal Langley RC High School.

Coogan married Caroline Hickman in 2002, the couple divorced in 2005.^[41] He lives in Brighton to be close to Clare, his daughter from his relationship with solicitor Anna Cole.^[42]

Coogan supports the Labour Party.^[43] He believes that Conservatives think "people are plebs" and that "they like to pat people on the head".^[44] In 2010, he reportedly made £5 million from his appearances in films and the US comedy Neighbors from Hell^[45]

A well noted car enthusiast, he has had a succession of Ferraris, but stopped buying them after realising that the depreciation and running costs were greater than hiring a private plane.^[46] He helped Jeremy Clarkson test a Ferrari 575M against an Aston Martin Vanquish S on the fifth series of Top Gear. Coogan drives one of the final air-cooled Porsche 911 Carrera 4s.^[42]

In 2011, Coogan purchased the eight bedroom manor Ovingdean Grange in Ovingdean for a reported £2.45 million.^[47][48]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Feature films

[edit] Television

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] Stand-up releases

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Steve Coogan

• Steve Coogan at the Internet Movie Database
• Steve Coogan collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Coming to a cinema near you... Alan Partridge as Our Man in Tashkent
• Steve Coogan: From a Partridge to 'Cock and Bull Fresh Air interview by Terry Gross
• Steve Coogan on BBC Radio Desert Island Discs
• Evidence to the Leveson Inquiry
• Profile on Chortle