JOHN HANNAH

The old saying 'better late than never' fits perfectly when applied to the career of John Hannah (above). Thrust into the spotlight thanks to his charming performance in 1994's smash hit Four Weddings And A Funeral, he has continued to win over audiences ever since - most recently in another box-office belter, The Mummy Returns, which opens locally today.

Born on April 23, 1962, in East Kilbride, Scotland, Hannah - the youngest of three children from a working-class family - attended Claremont High School in East Kilbride. But he left school at 16 and spent the next four years working as an apprentice electrician. It was one of his fellow sparkies who had the bright idea that Hannah enter acting; which he did, first treading the boards with the East Kilbride Rep Theatre Club. It was a late start but Hannah more than made up for it, quickly sending off a successful application to the Royal Scottish Academy of Drama (he says he chose them 'because you didn't need qualifications').

After training in Glasgow, he decided to try his luck in London, where he found work in theatre, film and television before fame came knocking when he landed the role of Matthew in Mike Newell's Four Weddings. He's never looked back.

Hannah has appeared in The Final Cut (1995), Sliding Doors (1998), The Mummy (1999) and The Hurricane (1999), and in British TV series such as McCallum. Along the way he has married actress Joanna Roth - they met while working together on a stage production of Shakespeare's Measure For Measure - and started a production company with producer Murray Ferguson called Clerkenwell Films where, he says, he mainly 'makes the teas and get the buns'.