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Age: 41, Profession: Actor
Born in Stafford, Staffordshire, Neil Morrissey was the second youngest of four sons and his parents worked as psychiatric nurses. His family were poor, the children ran amok, he spent around seven years in care between the ages of 10 and 16 years old and he was prosecuted for burglary.
It is a past that still comes back to haunt him, even though he is now a household name. He was particularly upset when the decomposed body of his older brother Stephen, who was tormented by his childhood difficulties, was found in a Wolverhampton tower block in 1997.
As a child Morrissey lived a chaotic life, had his arms tattooed at 10 years old and lived in various care homes with other children. He had been playing truant from school and when his parents were out at night he would go out breaking into buildings.
He hated his time in care and was frequently in trouble with staff. Coming from an Irish Catholic background he bore some of the brunt of the anti-Irish feelings sweeping England in the 1970s.
His life changed in his late teens when he arranged for himself to be placed in a foster family so he could study. 'The family saved me,' he is quoted as saying. He got himself together and, always a bright child, he won a scholarship to Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Morrissey graduated in 1983 and was lucky enough to land as his first job – a part in Mutiny on the Bounty with Mel Gibson. He then acted in Boon in 1986 and within a few years he landed the part that made his name alongside Martin Clunes in Men Behaving Badly. He is still going strong.
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