6 Actors Quietly Enjoying A Career Renaissance While Everybody's Been Watching McConaughey
3. Steve Coogan
One of the best TV comedy actors there is, Steve Coogan has always struggled to break into movies. Supporting roles in successful movies like Tropic Thunder and Night at the Museum have given Coogan little to do, while his own star vehicles like Hamlet 2 or The Parole Officer sunk without trace. The only movie success he had enjoyed under his own steam until last year was a couple of well regarded but cult-ish collaborations with Michael Winterbottom: 24 Hour Party People and A Cock and Bull Story. With his signature character, Alan Partridge, off even the small screen for ten years, it seemed like we might have seen the height of Coogan's career already. Then Partridge returned in Mid Morning Matters, a series of web shorts as a tie-in with Fosters, and rarely has an online ad for a low rent lager precipitated such a career boost. Mid Morning Matters provided the stimulus finally to bring Partridge to the big screen, courtesy of the web series' writers Neil and Rob Gibbons. Slightly surprisingly, this was a rare case of a British sitcom that transferred to the big screen with little loss of quality. Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa was one of the funniest movies of 2013 and showed that both Coogan and Partridge have still got it. It is Coogan's move towards more dramatic film, though, that has really seen him make it on the big screen at last. Henry James adaptation What Maisie Knew and another Winterbottom collaboration on swinging London biopic The Look of Love showed a greater range from Coogan than we had seen in some time, all leading up to the movie that saw the former Paul Calf pick up an Oscar nomination. With Philomena, Coogan not only demonstrated a good piece of dramatic acting and unselfishly allowed co-star Judi Dench the real chance to shine, but also his writing on the screenplay showed a greater level of maturity in bringing this true life story to light with the appropriate level of charm and sentiment without becoming mawkish.
