Noel Appleby

Council drainlayer Noel Appleby first won fame after starring in an 80s Winstone commercial, pushing a wheelbarrow. After a bit part in Beyond Reasonable Doubt, he was picked to play one of the time-travellers in acclaimed Vincent Ward fantasy The Navigator, adding to the film’s impressive awards tally in the process. Later he hunted vampires in Moonrise, and was a taxi-driver in Old Bastards. Appleby died in May 2007.

I’m marketed as your run-of-the-mill, jovial, everyday, average sort of bloke. Okay, I carry a bit of weight, so they go for the beer gut, but in actual fact I’ve never been a drinker in my life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a wowzer, but I’ve never been a great drinker. Noel Appleby in The Listener, 16 July 1988