Harry Potter star Robbie Coltrane’s cause of death has been revealed, after it emerged that the British actor suffered from multiple painful health conditions prior to his death aged 72.
Coltrane died from several conditions including multiple organ failure, according to his death certificate, with The Sun reporting that he had been unwell for some time and had been battling diabetes and obesity.
According to The Mirror, Coltrane passed away on October 14 of sepsis – an extreme reaction to an infection – a lower respiratory tract infection and heart block – when electrical impulses that control your heart beating are disrupted.
The actor, who was born Anthony Robert McMillan and changed his name in the 1970s in tribute to jazz legend John Coltrane, had his death registered by his former wife Rhona Gemmell.
He was a veteran Scottish actor with a host of acting credits to his name, including his most well-known role as Hagrid in the Harry Potter films, the starring role as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in Golden Eye and The World Is Not Enough, and as Samuel Johnson in Blackadder the Third.
Coltrane was also a prominent face in the series Cracker, starring as Dr Eddie Fitzgerald during his airing between 1993 and 2006.
Once a heavy drinker and with a past that included drug use, his friend and late actor John Sessions said Coltrane had a “strong self-destructive streak” and a “deep, driving melancholy”.
“Booze is my undoing,” Coltrane once said. “I can drink a gallon of beer and not feel the least bit drunk.”
In his later years, the star suffered from osteoarthritis that left him wheelchair-bound and in “constant pain”.
“I was fighting pain 24 hours a day when I was in National Treasure and Great Expectations,” he told the Daily Express in 2020.
“I had no cartilage in my knee. It was bone on bone.”
Image: Getty Images
This article first appeared on OverSixty.