Jim Broadbent has enjoyed a career that has almost spanned forty years, kicking off in 1972, and he is back on the big screen this week with his new movie Another Year.
Also starring Lesley Manville and Ruth Sheen the movie sees Broadbent reunites with filmmaker Mike Leigh after they worked together on Vera Drake.
Broadbent graduated the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972 and kicked off his acting career in the theatre, working at The National Theatre of Brent with Patrick Barlow.
He appeared in productions such as The Messiah and The Greatest Story Ever Told before working with Mike Leigh on the likes of Ecstasy and Goosepimples in the eighties.
Broadbent made his big screen debut in 1978 in The Shout, which was directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, before moving into television as well twelve months later.
The movie work began to pour in as he appeared in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits and Brazil before landing a bigger role in Mike Newell's The Good Father in 1985.
But it wasn't until the early nineties when he finally began to shine as he reunited with Leigh for their first big screen outing together - Life Is Sweet, which was the most commercially successful film for Leigh at the time.
He continued to turn in great performances through the nineties with roles in The Crying Game, Enchanted April and Little Voice.
However he would have to wait until 1999 and Topsy Turvy, which was another Leigh movie, to gain some award attention.
The movie was a musical drama film about the creation of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado and saw Broadbent take on the role of W.S. Gilbert while Allan Corduner played Arthur Sullivan.
For his performance in the movie Broadbent picked up the Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor, London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and the Volpi Cup for Best actor as well as picking up a Bafta nomination.
After starring in Bridget Jones' Diary in 2001 he finally did get his hands on a Bafta as he won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Moulin Rouge.
But it was with Iris, which also starred Judi Dench and Kate Winslet that he received the greatest critical acclaim and his performance brought him an Oscar.
Iris followed the real-life story of the enduring love between author Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, which lasts throughout her struggles against Alzheimer's disease.
The movie was a critical hit and Broadbent went on to claim the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Golden Globe.
Over the next few years he mixed and matched his roles as he went on to star in Gangs of New York, Bridget Jones: The Edge of reason and The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe before returning to TV.
First he took on the role of Stan McDermott in The Street, which won him an International Emmy for Best Performance by an Actor, before moving onto Longford.
He took on the role of Lord Longford as he campaigned for the parole of Myra Hindley, played by Samantha Morton, and won a Bafta and a Golden Globe for his central performance.
After starring in The Young Victoria, The Damned United and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince it's been a fairly quiet 2010 for the actor.
But he is back on the big screen this week with Another Year. The film follows a married couple who have managed to remain blissfully happy into their autumn years, are surrounded over the course of the four seasons of one average year by friends, colleagues, and family who all seem to suffer some degree of unhappiness.
And Broadbent will return to the role of Horace Slughorn in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 next summer.
Another Year is released 5th November.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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