John Hannah (actor)

Early life

Hannah was born in East Kilbride in Lanarkshire, the youngest of three children: he has two older sisters. His mother, Susan, was a cleaner at Marks & Spencer, and his father, John, a toolmaker. He attended Heathery Knowe Primary School then Claremont High School in East Kilbride and went on to an apprenticeship as an electrician. In East Kilbride, he participated in the East Kilbride Rep Theatre Club. At the suggestion of a colleague, he completed his apprenticeship and then attended the highly prestigious Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

Career

After graduation, Hannah had parts in theatre productions, films and television, which included leading roles. He broke into the "big-time" with his appearance as Matthew in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). Since this breakthrough role, he has played a psychopathic killer alongside Helen Baxendale in Truth or Dare and a mystery-solving pathologist in McCallum. He played a karaoke-mad dead-beat dad in The James Gang, a drunken, thieving comic-relief character in The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001) and a Monty Python-quoting romantic comedy love interest in Sliding Doors (1998). He also starred in the axed U.S. series MDs (2002), as well as making guest appearances in Alias (2001), Carnivàle (2002) and Frasier (2003). In 2006 he starred in the drama series New Street Law. In 2007-08, he played a starring role in the ITV crime drama Cold Blood.

On 24 December 1997, Hannah and Scottish Films producer Murray Ferguson established a production company called Clerkenwell Films. Clerkenwell's first big production was the Rebus series, including Black And Blue and The Hanging Garden. However, Rebus was later taken in-house by STV Productions, and Hannah was replaced in the leading role in the series by Ken Stott. He is the voice of the Co-operative Group adverts in the UK. More recently he played the part of Quintus Lentulus Batiatus, the owner of a gladiator training house in Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and its prequel, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

Hannah played the recurring role of scientist Holden Radcliffe in season three of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 2016, and was promoted to series regular for the series' fourth season.

Personal life

Hannah married actress Joanna Roth on 20 January 1996. The pair met several years before during a studio production of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. In many of his interviews he mentions stories from their relationship, such as the visit to London's 'Sri Siam' restaurant where he proposed to her in writing on the tablecloth. They live in Richmond, London with their two children.

Soon after his role as the epileptic police officer Franky Drinkall in Out Of The Blue, he showed his support for the Epilepsy Association of Scotland. He was, for a long time, a spokesman for Oxfam's Cut Conflict Campaign.