Steve Coogan
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Middleton, Manchester, England, UK
Steve Coogan's inspired, off-the-cuff lead performance in 2002's Brit-rock biopic 24 Hour Party People had American critics heralding the arrival of a unique new talent -- but to U.K. audiences, his star turn was the next logical step for one of that country's most celebrated comics. Born into a working-class, Catholic family in Manchester, England, Coogan took to performance in his teens, and hit the standup scene soon thereafter. It was there that television casting agents took notice of his spot-on impersonations of world leaders, pop stars, and sundry celebrities, and they soon put him to work playing various comedic bit parts in network shows. One of his early breakthroughs came when he provided several recurring voices on the long-running puppet show Spitting Image, a weekly satirical review that took aim at Margaret Thatcher, Michael Jackson, and Ronald Reagan, among others.Coogan's talents led him away from the small screen to radio, where he made an even bigger splash with the comedy program On the Hour. The show gave the comedian free reign to try out a number of vocal characterizations, among them the arrogant, ignorant radio announcer Alan Partridge, whose hilariously lame puns and non-sequiturs quickly made him -- and, by proxy, Coogan -- an audience favorite. Coogan parlayed the Partridge character into a mini-empire, first with his own mock radio talk show -- cheekily titled Knowing Me, Knowing You...With Alan Partridge -- then in the flesh on 1994's BBC 2 news satire The Day Today, and finally with the wildly successful TV show Knowing Me, Knowing You...With Alan Partridge.Not content to rest on Partridge's laurels, Coogan developed many other characters through the '90s, taking them on the road for a wildly successful standup tour late in the decade. It was around this time that he was approached by iconoclastic director Michael Winterbottom to play the part of Tony Wilson, the charismatic Manchester TV personality who found himself the unlikely founder of one of the most influential record labels of the '80s. 24 Hour Party People charted the rise and fall of Factory Records, home to such bands as Joy Division, New Order, and the Happy Mondays, all of which were nurtured by the intuitive, unpredictable Wilson. In Coogan, Winterbottom saw a spiritual heir: Both men were born and raised in Manchester, and both had been impetuous on-air performers. The director wouldn't take "no" for an answer, and as the two forged ahead on the picture, Coogan began to develop his own slant on Wilson, improvising dialogue and talking directly to the camera. The unconventional biopic won raves at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, with Coogan in particular singled out for the wit and ingenuity of his freewheeling interpretation. Though touted in the press as British cinema's "next Trainspotting," 24 Hour Party People failed to perform at the U.K. box office, where it was effectively steamrolled by two other hit British comedies, Bend It Like Beckham and Ali G: Indahouse. 24 Hour's arthouse U.S. run later that year was solid, if unremarkable, as American audiences had less of a vested interest in the subject matter. Still, Hollywood casting agents were duly impressed with Coogan, and lured him to Tinseltown for the plum role of Phileas Fogg in the big-budget updating of Around the World in 80 Days, which was prepped for a high-profile summer 2004 release.Coogan would continue to enjoy his success on screen over the coming years in films like Hamlet 2 and The Trip.
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
48% | Greed |
|
— | 2020 |
87% | The Trip to Greece |
|
— | 2020 |
17% | Hot Air |
|
— | 2019 |
92% | Stan & Ollie |
|
— | 2019 |
67% | Ideal Home |
|
— | 2018 |
83% | The Trip to Spain |
|
$1.2M | 2017 |
58% | Despicable Me 3 |
|
$264.2M | 2017 |
46% | The Dinner |
|
— | 2017 |
82% | Dying Laughing |
|
— | 2017 |
55% | Rules Don't Apply |
|
$3.7M | 2016 |
88% | Dancer |
|
$63.1k | 2016 |
72% | The Secret Life of Pets |
|
$368.4M | 2016 |
No Score Yet | British Sitcom - 60 Years Of Laughing At Ourselves |
|
— | 2016 |
60% | Shepherds and Butchers |
|
— | 2016 |
76% | Northern Soul |
|
$7.3k | 2015 |
55% | Minions |
|
$278M | 2015 |
47% | Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb |
|
$81.6M | 2014 |
87% | The Trip To Italy |
|
— | 2014 |
36% | Misery Loves Comedy |
|
$5.8k | 2014 |
86% | Alan Partridge |
|
$0.2M | 2014 |
No Score Yet | One Rogue Reporter |
|
— | 2014 |
91% | Philomena |
|
— | 2013 |
54% | The Look of Love |
|
$0.3M | 2013 |
75% | Despicable Me 2 |
|
$368.1M | 2013 |
87% | What Maisie Knew |
|
$1.1M | 2013 |
79% | Ruby Sparks |
|
$2.6M | 2012 |
70% | Our Idiot Brother |
|
$24.6M | 2011 |
89% | The Trip |
|
$1.6M | 2011 |
78% | The Other Guys |
|
$119.3M | 2010 |
9% | Marmaduke |
|
$33.7M | 2010 |
49% | Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief |
|
$61.2M | 2010 |
94% | In the Loop |
|
$2.3M | 2009 |
16% | What Goes Up |
|
— | 2009 |
44% | Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian |
|
$177.2M | 2009 |
No Score Yet | Steve Coogan Live: As Alan Partridge And Other Less Successful Characters |
|
— | 2009 |
No Score Yet | Tales of the Riverbank |
|
— | 2008 |
62% | Hamlet 2 |
|
$4.8M | 2008 |
82% | Tropic Thunder |
|
$110.5M | 2008 |
No Score Yet | Rain of Madness |
|
— | 2008 |
40% | Finding Amanda |
|
$31.8k | 2008 |
91% | Hot Fuzz |
|
$23.7M | 2007 |
No Score Yet | Deeply Vale Festivals |
|
— | 2007 |
43% | Night at the Museum |
|
$249.3M | 2006 |
57% | Marie Antoinette |
|
$16M | 2006 |
64% | Snow Cake |
|
— | 2006 |
57% | Lies & Alibis |
|
— | 2006 |
88% | Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story |
|
$1.2M | 2005 |
55% | Happy Endings |
|
$1.2M | 2005 |
No Score Yet | AD/BC: A Rock Opera |
|
— | 2004 |
32% | Around the World in 80 Days |
|
— | 2004 |
64% | Coffee and Cigarettes |
|
$2M | 2004 |
50% | Ella Enchanted |
|
$22.9M | 2004 |
No Score Yet | Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire and the Legend of the Lost Tribe |
|
— | 2002 |
86% | 24 Hour Party People |
|
$1.1M | 2002 |
57% | The Parole Officer |
|
— | 2001 |
No Score Yet | The Revengers' Comedies (Sweet Revenge) |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Alice Through the Looking Glass |
|
— | 1998 |
No Score Yet | Steve Coogan: The Man Who Thinks He's It |
|
— | 1998 |
75% | The Wind in the Willows |
|
— | 1996 |
73% | The Indian in the Cupboard |
|
— | 1995 |
No Score Yet | Resurrected |
|
— | 1988 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
76% |
This Time With Alan Partridge
2018-2019
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Late Late Show With James Corden
2015
|
|
|
30% |
Happyish
2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Late Night With Seth Meyers
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Real Time with Bill Maher
2003
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Sunday Morning
2011-2018
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Tavis Smiley
2013-2018
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
1999-2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The View
1997
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Conan
2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
2009-2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
2003
|
|
|
85% |
The Simpsons
1989
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Top Gear
2002
|
|
|
100% |
The Mighty Boosh
2004-2007
|
|
|
92% |
Curb Your Enthusiasm
2000-2020
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Lass es, Larry!
2000-2017
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
I'm Alan Partridge
1997-2002
|
|
|
82% |
Tales from the Crypt
1989-1996
|
|
|
100% |
The Day Today
1994
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Alan Partridge's Mid-Morning Matters
2010-2016
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Moone Boy
2012-2015
|
|
|
75% |
The Trip to Greece
2020
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Trip to Italy
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Trip to Spain
2017
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Us & Them
2013-2014
|
|
|
Quotes from Steve Coogan's Characters
Mr. Banks: | Sit down, now! |
Professor Flux / Tower Guard: | You came for the crown, did you? Well you'll have to go through me! |
Octavius: | We may be small, but our hearts are large! |
Dana Marschz: | Any creative person will tell you, you gotta go a little crazy to make great fucking art. |
Heston: | Stinking Grimm Brothers! |
Philomena Lee: | We come full circle. |
Martin Sixsmith: | Yes ... the end of all our exploring, Will be to arrive where we started, And know the place for the first time. |
Philomena Lee: | Ah, that's lovely Martin. Did you just think of that? |
Martin Sixsmith: | No, it's T.S. Eliot. |
Philomena Lee: | Oh well never mind. It's still very nice. |
Sister Hildegarde: | The Lord Jesus Christ will be my judge - not the likes of you. |
Martin Sixsmith: | Really? Because I think if Jesus was here right now he'd tip you out of that fucking wheelchair - and you wouldn't get up and walk. |
Philomena Lee: | And after I had the sex, I thought anything that feels so lovely must be wrong. |
Martin Sixsmith: | Fucking Catholics. |
Alan Patridge: | Just sack Pat. |
Alan Patridge: | I am siege face |
Alan Patridge: | I am siege face. |
Alan Patridge: | He's gotta shooter! |
Alan Patridge: | Time for big school |
Alan Patridge: | Time for big school. |
Alan Partridge: | Welcome to big school. |
Gru: | Ok, I see where this is going now with all the mission impossible stuff. I’m a father now. Good day Mr. Sheep’s Butt. |
Gru: | Ok, I see where this is going now with all the mission impossible stuff. I'm a father now. Good day Mr. Sheep's Butt. |
Silas: | Ramsbottom. |
Gru: | Oh yeah, like that’s any better. |
Gru: | Oh yeah, like that's any better. |
Gru: | Oh, and here's a tip. Instead of tazing people and kidnapping them, MAYBE you should just give them a call! Good day, Mister Sheep's Butt! |
Gru: | Oh, and here's a tip. Instead of tazing people and kidnapping them, maybe you should just give them a call! Good day, Mister Sheep's Butt! |
Silas: | Ramsbottom. |
Gru: | (Sarcastically) Oh-ho, yeah, like that's any better! |
Gru: | Oh-ho, yeah, like that's any better! |
Silas: | I'm the league's director, Silas Ramsbottom. |
Additional Minions: | (laughing) Bottom! |
Additional Minions: | Bottom! |
Silas: | hilarious. |
Silas: | Hilarious. |
Silas Ramsbottom: | My name's Silas, Silas Ramsbottom |
Silas Ramsbottom: | My name's Silas, Silas Ramsbottom. |
Kevin the Minion: | He said bottom |
Kevin the Minion: | He said bottom. |
Paul Michaelson: | She's got a watering can! |
Paul Michaelson: | She doesn't have a hose, she's got a watering can. |
Tony Wilson: | martin what you doing.? |
Tony Wilson: | Martin what you doing.? |
Martin Hannett: | recording silence. |
Martin Hannett: | Recording silence. |
Tony Wilson: | [shouts] your recording silence. |
Tony Wilson: | [shouts] Your recording silence? |
Martin Hannett: | no im recording tony fucking wilson. |
Martin Hannett: | No I'm recording Tony fucking Wilson. |
Damien Cockburn: | This walkie talkie goes to the helicopter, and the helicopter is God. And I am Jesus Christ. And you are my chosen disciples. |
Tony Wilson: | And tonight something equally epoch-making is taking place. See? They're applauding the DJ. Not the music, not the musician, not the creator, but the medium. This is it. The birth of rave culture. The beatification of the beat. The dance age. This is the moment when even the white man starts dancing. Welcome to Manchester. |
Tony Wilson: | Jazz is the last refuge of the untalented. Jazz musicians enjoy themselves more than anyone listening to them does. |
Dana Marschz: | It feels like I've been raped, in the face. |
Dana Marschz: | I feel like I've been raped. In the face! |
Octavius: | (War) It's something we do to pass the time. |
Jedediah: | Look, we're men. We fight, okay? That's what we do! |
Octavius: | It's kinda how we pass the time. |
Steve: | Don't you find it exhausting running around, chasing girls? |
Steve: | Gentlemen to bed, for tomorrow we leave at 9:30! |
Steve: | Was there a lot of alcohol in your garden as a child? I'm sorry, Rob |
Steve: | Was there a lot of alcohol in your garden as a child? I'm sorry, Rob. |
David Ershon: | there gonna kill me and then they will kill you. |
David Ershon: | There gonna kill me and then they will kill you. |
Det. Terry Hoitz: | well i'm gonna kill you first! |
Det. Terry Hoitz: | Well I'm gonna kill you first! |
David Ershon: | and then they will kill me |
David Ershon: | And then they will kill me. |
Steve: | I don't chase them. |
Steve: | I've, uh, asked other people but they're all too busy, so you know, do you wanna come? |
Paul Michaelson: | Am I calm? I'm fucking ZEN! |