Paul Barber (actor)

Early life

Barber was taken into care at the age of seven, following the death of his mother from tuberculosis. His mother was from Middlesbrough. His father, originally from Sierra Leone, died when Paul (or Paddy as he was then known) and his security guard brother Brian were very young.

Acting career

Barber began on the stage in the musical Hair. His first major TV role was as Sam "Lucky" Ubootu in the 1974 ITV Playhouse production Lucky, set in Liverpool and made by Granada TV. He then played the flamboyant but vicious gang boss Malleson in the off-beat BBC Birmingham-based series Gangsters from 1975 to 1978. He played Louis St John in 4 episodes of I Didn't Know You Cared, 1976-78. A later starring role was alongside Philip Whitchurch in the mid-1980s ITV comedy series The Brothers McGregor.

Barber has worked extensively in British TV, such as in To the Manor Born (1979) as a Jamaican steel band musician, Minder (1980) as Willie Reynolds in episode Don't Tell Them Willie Boy Was Here, Only Fools and Horses (1981–2003), Boys from the Blackstuff (1982), Malcolm in The Front Line, the ill-fated social worker Ian McVerry in one episode of Cracker, and played Greg Salter in Brookside (1994). He made a guest appearance in the first episode of The Green Green Grass - a spin-off from Only Fools and Horses. Paul was best known for his time on Only Fools and Horses and still attends conventions for the show.

In 2008 he had a small part in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street playing a club owner called Nelson, an acquaintance of Vernon Tomlin. He appeared in Casualty on 13 August 2011 playing a Police Officer and in White Van Man as Hooky Pete in February 2012.

From July 2012, Barber can be seen playing the Captain in Sky 1's Sinbad.

He appears as Captain Jack Parrot in 'Death in Paradise' broadcast on 18 February 2014.

Film work

He had small roles in the big-screen version of Porridge (1979) and The Long Good Friday (1980). In 1991, he plays a football coach in the 'Screen One' television play, Alive and Kicking.

However Barber's best known role was playing one of the stripping steelworkers in the popular 1997 film The Full Monty (1997) set in Sheffield. He reunited with Full Monty co-star Robert Carlyle and Samuel L. Jackson in the Liverpool-based crime film The 51st State (2001).

He played as "Luther" in the (2002) TV-Series "The Hidden City".

In the 2006 feature film Dead Man's Cards, Barber again returned to Merseyside playing the part of Paul, head doorman, at a Liverpool club. In Terry Pratchett's Going Postal (2010) he played a pin fanatic shop owner.

Personal life

Barber was awarded an honorary doctorate from Liverpool John Moores University in July 2011 for 'outstanding contribution to the performing arts'. He lives in Clacton, Essex.