He developed the most unusual hairstyle for Jaggers: pomaded, meringue-shaped and dyed shiny black He was very sweet to the Harry Potter children, just one of the things that was so dear to him. You have to remember that those kids started Potter at nine and 10, they were very young and would have been very confused by the whole process. He took that to heart and actually made taking their performances part of his job, because of how kind he was to them, and how he showed them how to look this way and not that way, and so on. Of course, being a god-sent comedian, the scenes he did for me with Frankie de la Tour were just fantastic. They had a great time with him, he had to react against her character’s disapproval and distrust all the time, and once he had that kind of opposition, his comics were just coming out. My favorite scene I think was the one where Hagrid looks at Madame Maxime and she gets more and more upset. Robbie was a great blunderbuss. Robbie Coltrane and Mike Newell at the premiere of Great Expectations in New York. Photo: Mediapunch/Shutterstock And then it came down to a version of Great Expectations that I did where Mr. Jaggers, a powerful manipulative lawyer who will do anything for you as long as you know what you want, is willing to tell him what it is and can pay. He developed the most unusual hairstyle for the part: it was pomaded, fashioned into a sort of meringue on the top of his head, and dyed a particularly shiny black. I believe his thinking was: I believe the character is vain and I want to show my vanity in some way. I hadn’t asked him to do it, he just came out of makeup on the first day with it. My initial reaction was, “What’s on your head, Robbie?” At first I thought it might be a wig, but then I shut up: one of the things about him was that he was a wonderfully authoritative actor, and in the end he knew what he wore and how he looked was right for what he intended. From Fitz to Hagrid: Robbie Coltrane’s Most Memorable Roles – Video Obituary For Jaggers’ character to work, you have to believe in his bottomless cynicism and his secret delight in doing the misguided bidding of his clientele. Robbie played the character with a penetrating knowledge of the foibles of the customers who heaped their twisted needs on his thick shoulders. “You know what I am, don’t you Pip?” he says, as he washes his latest betrayal from his hands. And we know – he’s the worst of us. “What’s that sitting on your head, Robbie?” Coltrane as Jaggers in Great Expectations. Photo: TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy So two sides: the best and the worst. And in his greatest roles a combination of both of these qualities: Cracker, National Treasure, light and dark fighting for supremacy. As a person he was adorable. when you were with him you wanted time to last. He was like no other. A true eccentric with a range of unexpected interests and talents. Who else did we know who could take the engine out of a Trabant in 23 minutes?
