Robbie Coltrane's Daughter Breaks Silence on Hagrid Actor's Death

By Michael Hein

Robbie Coltrane's daughter, Alice McMillan, made a heartbreaking statement on her father's death with an Instagram post on Saturday. It showed a photo of her standing behind her father while hew as seating, affectionately kissing the crown of his head. She added a black heart emoji to the picture, but did not need any other words to express her grief.

McMillan is relatively scarce on social media, and she made no other posts or commentary about her father's passing. Coltrane reportedly died on Friday in a hospital near his home in Scotland. He was 72 years old, and was suffering from a handful of overlapping illnesses and ailments. His exact cause of death has not been made public.

McMillan is the younger of Coltrane's two children, both from his marriage to sculptor Rhona Gemmel. Coltrane and Gemmel had their son Spencer in 1992 and McMillan in 1998, but they didn't officially marry until 1999. They separated in 2003 and then divorced.

In a 2016 interview with The Guardian, Coltrane reflected on how his relationship with Gemmell tempered some of his self-destructive tendencies, which were part of his public image at the time. He said: "Booze is my undoing. I can drink a gallon of beer and not feel the least bit drunk." He also said that the 1980s were a time of drunken fights, "smoking dope" and binge-eating.

With Gemmell, Coltrane moved to a quiet farmhouse near Loch Lomond and abstained from these vices. He said: "You can't live the life of an existential hero and be a good father." However, after his divorce, he checked into an unspecified treatment program for a time.

Still, much of the work Coltrane will be best remembered for came after this period. He appeared as Rubeus Hagrid in all eight Harry Potter films, and it's clear that he was a sort of parental figure on that set as well. Many of the show's younger cast members have made posts memorializing Coltrane and all he did for them in those years. Coltrane himself reflected on his legacy as Hagrid in HBO Max's Harry Potter anniversary special last year.

"The legacy of the movies is that my children's generation will show them to their children," he said. "So you could be watching it in 50 years' time, easy. I'll not be here, sadly, but Hagrid will, yes."

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