[1] After minor television appearances including The Professionals, Postlethwaite's first major success arose through the British autobiographical film Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988).

He had a breakthrough in Hollywood when he portrayed David in Alien 3 (1992) and his international reputation was further solidified when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for In the Name of the Father.

On television, Postlethwaite played Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill in Sharpe (1994) and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for performances in Martin Chuzzlewit (1994), Lost for Words (1999) and The Sins (2000).

Less than one month after his death, he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as Fergie Colm in The Town (2010).

On 13 January 1981, he took the leading role in a BBC TV black comedy by Alan Bleasdale, The Muscle Market, which was a spin-off from Boys from the Blackstuff; it was part of the Play for Today series.

He made appearances in several other successful films, including Alien 3, Amistad, Brassed Off, The Shipping News, The Constant Gardener, Inception, James and the Giant Peach and as Friar Lawrence in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet.

[citation needed] Early in his career, Postlethwaite was advised to adopt a new surname for his acting work by his first agent and by peers who quipped that his name "would never be put up in lights outside theatres because they couldn't afford the electricity".

[13] He started his career at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, where his colleagues included Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Antony Sher, Matthew Kelly, and Julie Walters, having an intimate relationship with the last during the mid-to-late 1970s.

[14] In The Art of Discworld (2004), Terry Pratchett wrote that he had always imagined Sam Vimes as "a younger, slightly bulkier version of Pete Postlethwaite".

[23] Postlethwaite appeared as a taxi driver in a political broadcast for the Labour Party during the 1997 general election,[24] and marched in London against the Iraq War in 2003.

I'm sure that in 20 years' time the kids will say: 'Can you believe that people actually used to smoke – put these funny little things in their mouths, lit them and sucked all that crap into their lungs?

"[33] Postlethwaite was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 2009,[34] and continued acting for the next year and a half, showing clear signs of weight loss during his last performances.