One of Britain's finest and most well-respected character actors, Timothy Spall is also no stranger to studio blockbusters after appearing in the Harry Potter franchise, Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd and Alice In Wonderland, Enchanted and The Last Samurai, although these have all been relatively minor supporting parts, with his best work usually coming in character-centric dramas. During the casting process for The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, rumours became widespread that the actor had been cast as Gimli, although these were eventually debunked when John Rhys-Davies was officially announced to be playing the character in October 1999. While it turned out that he had auditioned for the role (and would have actually been quite a good fit for it), he was never actually offered the part.