Famous actor and comedian Stephen John Coogan for his creative work has earned five BAFTA awards - the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, has been nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe many times. In addition to the acting profession, he is engaged in scripting and producing.
Biography
The future actor was born in the English city of Manchester in 1965. His parents were from Ireland. The head of the Kuganov family worked as an engineer at IBM, and my mother was a housewife - she looked after six children. There were few people in the family involved in the art world, although Steve's grandfather in the fifties created a dance hall for Irish immigrants, where they could meet, socialize and have fun.
Steve's family was religious, all of the children were raised Catholic, so they attended Cardinal Langley's Roman Catholic High School. However, with age, many of them became atheists.
From childhood, Coogan had a talent for acting, and he wanted to go to study at a drama school. Parents and teachers dissuaded him, saying that this is a very unstable profession, and that there is no way to make money there.
However, Steve was persistent: five times he applied to various theater schools in London, but all were unsuccessful. However, then he was accepted into the New Music theater company, where he began his career. And then he still managed to get an education at the Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama, where he met his future professional partner John Thompson.
After graduating from drama school, the young actor began his career as a pop comedian: he worked in comedy television and radio programs. For a long time, Steve could be seen in "Spitting Image" ("Replica") - a puppet television series, where famous politicians and public figures were parodied.
In 1989, he appeared in a specially filmed sketch project for the "Observation" series on the ITV game show The Krypton Factor, and received audience acclaim. In 1992, he received critical acclaim: the actor received the Perrier Award for the Steve Coogan and John Thompson program.
However, Coogan gained his greatest fame when he created the character of Alan Partridge and the series I Am Alan Partridge appeared on television (1997-2002). This is a story about an awkward and ridiculous radio host who was very popular with viewers.
This character was later used in the movie Alan Partridge: Alpha Father. Coogan himself participated in writing the script for this film and played the main role in it. In the year of its release, the picture instantly climbed to the first place at the box office, and all the sessions were sold out.
And according to opinion polls, Alan Partridge was in seventh place on the list of the 100 most famous television characters. In 2019, this character reappeared on television - he satirically talks about current events in the country and the world.
Film career
In the movie, Coogan made his debut in a small role in the film "Resurrected" (1989). This gave him his first experience on the set and the experience of interacting with filming partners. Then there was a short break in his film career, and in 1995 he was invited to the film "Indian in the closet", which gained immense popularity among viewers. Both adults and children liked the interesting story about the magic locker.
Coogan was constantly striving to develop in the profession: he starred in various television projects, in films, and in 2001 he co-founded Baby Cow Productions. And for the first film made by this company, he wrote the script himself. It was a story about a detective, in whose eyes a policeman killed a man. The hero Coogan is torn by doubts: will he be able to bring the villain to clean water?
And again the film was in luck, again this picture in the year of release became the highest grossing. It turned out that both as an actor and as a screenwriter Steve took place.
In total, his portfolio includes more than a hundred films where he acts as an actor, more than forty films in which he was a producer, he wrote about thirty scripts, and in two films he was a composer. This is not counting the work on radio, television and more than sixty films, where he played himself.
The best films with Coogan's participation are considered: "Philomena" (2013), "Divorce in a Big City" (2012), "Ruby Sparks" (2012). Best films he has produced: Dancer (2006), Snow Pie (2006). For Philomena, he was twice nominated for an Oscar, and it was especially gratifying, because here he acted not only as a producer, but also as a scriptwriter and actor - he played the main role. In the story, an elderly woman is looking for her son, who was taken from her when she was very young. The abbess of the monastery, where the young Philomena was, did not want to say where her boy was sent, and the journalist Martin Sixsmith undertakes to help her find her son. The duet of Coogan and the famous Judy Danch in this film turned out to be simply amazing, and the audience accepted the picture with delight.
Personal life
Coogan has a rather rich history of relationships with women: in 2002 he married Caroline Hickman, they lived together for three years.
He then married lawyer Anna Cole, and in this marriage they had a daughter, Claire Coogan-Cole.
In 2012, he began dating model Loretta Basie, and this relationship lasted three years.
Coogan is an avid motorist and has a special love for Ferrari cars. He loves to drive fast, and has been detained by the police for speeding more than once. However, he gets away with everything, because all the police know this artist very well, and he says that he is in a hurry to shoot.
