Like many of his famous protagonists, Tom Courtenay came from a working class northern background. Growing up around the docks in Hull, he was encouraged to take up acting at senior school. He read English at University College London and then went to RADA. Within three years he was appearing at the Edinburgh Festival in an acclaimed Old Vic production of The Seagull. He then replaced Albert Finney in the West End stage version of Billy Liar.

He made his screen debut in 1962, as borstal boy Colin Smith in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, for which he won a BAFTA. Courtenay went on to star in many of the most influential films of the past 30 years, including the title role the film version of Billy Liar and Pasha in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago. Doctor Zhivago earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. Eighteen years later he recreated a role he made famous on stage in The Dresser, securing a second Oscar nomination.

His career has spanned 40 years, encompassing both stage and film. As one of Britain's most respected actors, he received a knighthood in 2000 for a long-running and significant contribution to his art. Many of his best roles have been alongside friend and 'angry young man' contemporary, Albert Finney. The two have starred together in The Dresser, in the made-for-TV drama A Rather English Marriage in 1998 and in the original West End cast of hit play Art.

In recent years, Sir Tom Courtenay has largely been involved with the stage.

He lives in South London with his second wife, Isabel. Recently he published a tribute to his mother Annie in the acclaimed book 'Dear Tom'.

His latest screen role was in an ensemble of British acting talent, playing an undertaker in Last Orders with Sir Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, David Hemmings, Ray Winstone and Helen Mirren.

Source: bfi.org.uk