He played Gerald Arthur Cooper in the 1997 comedy about a group of redundant steelworkers from Sheffield who set up an all-male striptease act, receiving a Bafta for best supporting actor for his performance.
Wilkinson reprised the role of Gerald for a 2023 Disney+ series revisiting the characters 26 years on.
The actor had more than 130 film and TV credits including the 1998 romcom Shakespeare in Love, Christopher Nolan’s 2005 superhero film Batman Begins, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Girl with a Pearl Earring.
As a god on this earth, his monologue that starts Michael Clayton is the stuff of dreams.
This?
“I Am Shiva, the God of Death”