Paul Barber (actor)

Barber was taken into care at the age of seven, following the death of his mother, Margret, from tuberculosis.[3] His mother was from Middlesbrough. His father, a Sierra Leone Creole, died when Paul (or Paddy as he was then known) and his brothers Brian, Paul, Mike and sisters Claudette and Lorraine were very young.[3] Whilst he was in care, he was abused both physically and mentally.[3] He notes that he has suffered like others, but channelled his emotions into acting.[4]

Barber began on the stage in the musical Hair.[2] 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.[5] He then played the flamboyant but vicious gang boss Malleson in the off-beat BBC Birmingham-based series Gangsters from 1975 to 1978.[6] He played Louis St John in four episodes of I Didn't Know You Cared from 1976 to 1978. A later starring role was alongside Philip Whitchurch in the mid-1980s ITV comedy series The Brothers McGregor.[6]

Barber has worked extensively in British TV, such as in To the Manor Born (1979) as a Jamaican steel band musician;[6] Minder (1980) as Willie Reynolds in episode Don't Tell Them Willie Boy was Here; Only Fools and Horses (1981–2003);[7] Boys from the Blackstuff (1982); and as Malcolm in The Front Line;[6]

In 1991, he played Earl Preston, a football coach, in the BBC Screen One television play, Alive and Kicking.[6] Three years later, he appeared as ill-fated social worker Ian McVerry in an episode of Cracker opposite Robbie Coltrane and Liam Cunningham, and he played Greg Salter in Brookside (1994).[6]

Barber made a guest appearance in the first episode of The Green Green Grass— a spin-off from Only Fools and Horses.[8] He was best known for his role in Only Fools and Horses, and still attends fan conventions for the show.

In 2008, he had a small part in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street playing a club owner, Nelson, an acquaintance of Vernon Tomlin.[6]

In Terry Pratchett's Going Postal (2010) he played a pin-fanatic shop owner.[5] He also starred in White Van Man as Hooky Pete in February 2012.[9]

In 2012, Barber played the role of Captain in Sky 1's Sinbad.[6] In 2014, He appeared as Captain Jack Parrot in Death in Paradise on 18 February 2014.[10]

Barber also appeared as Fieldhouse in Home from Home in the 2016 pilot episode, and he appeared again in the 2018 series.[11] In 2017, Barber guest-starred in two episodes of the CBBC Tracy Beaker spin-off series The Dumping Ground as a homeless man, George.[6]

The following year, Barber appeared in two episodes of Casualty as Ernest Maxwell, reprising the role in 2019. He had previously appeared in Casualty a number of times as other characters.[6]

He had small roles in the big-screen version of Porridge (1979) and The Long Good Friday (1980).[12]

Barber's best known role was playing one of the stripping steelworkers in the 1997 film The Full Monty.[13] He reunited with Full Monty co-star Robert Carlyle and Samuel L. Jackson in the Liverpool-based crime film The 51st State (2001).[14]

In 2002, He played the role of Luther in the drama The Hidden City.[6] In 2006, he starred in the feature film Dead Man's Cards, Barber again returned to Merseyside, playing the part of Paul, the head doorman at a Liverpool club.[5]

In the 2014 film One Night in Istanbul, Barber plays a cabbie who is down on his luck and with his friend, Tommy, strikes a deal with a local gangster that allows them to take their young sons to watch Liverpool Football Club play in Turkey.[15]

Paul Barber was cast alongside fellow UK comedy stars Alexei Sayle and Ricky Tomlinson in 2017's Gloves off.[6] He also appears in the 2022 crime action thriller film Renegades.[16]

Barber was awarded an honorary doctorate from Liverpool John Moores University in July 2011 for 'outstanding contribution to the performing arts'.[17][18] He lives in Clacton, Essex.[18]

• Paul Barber at IMDb
• Rare British Television Reviews – The Front Line
• BBC article