Actor Ray Stevenson has passed away aged 58.
The actor - raised in Newcastle and Northumberland - died on Sunday in Italy according to his representatives but the cause of death was not disclosed.
Ray starred in films like Punisher: War Zone, King Arthur, the Thor films and the upcoming Ahsoka series. He was also known for the TV drama Rome.
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The actor grew up in the North East, living in Lemington before moving to Cramlington.
Recalling his childhood in the region, Ray told ChronicleLive: "When we lived in Lemington me and my two brothers used to go to the old Odeon on Westgate Road on a Saturday morning.
"On the way home we used to all pretend to be the people we had seen, like a kind of alter-ego. I always liked the idea of acting but I didn't think I could do it.
"After one too many I told him I would really like to be an actor and he told me to just do it.
"It was a risk but when people have a vocation they have to do something and, two years later, I had enrolled in Old Vic Bristol Theatre school and graduated when I was 29.
"My first work was a Catherine Cookson, The Dwelling Place, which was brilliant for me because it meant going back up north and I thoroughly enjoyed myself."
He first went to art school in Newcastle and, at 25, began work in London as an interior designer.
He added: "I got into acting through an Australian actor I got drunk with one night when I was working down in London."
The much loved Hollywood actor began his career appearing on TV shows in the 1990s then began landing action roles in Hollywood films starting in the 2000s.
His first major film role came in Antoine Fuqua’s 2004’s adventure movie King Arthur, where he played Dagonet, one of the Knights of the Round Table.
Ray quickly became known to U.S. audiences as the charming soldier Titus Pullo on the big-budget 2005-2007 HBO series Rome.
A year after the series ended, he was on-screen in Punisher: War Zone (2008) as Marvel anti-hero Frank Castle.
He then returned to the Marvel well several more times with small roles in Thor (2011) as Volstagg, a member of Thor’s pals known as the Warriors Three.
He last played the part in Thor: Ragnarok (2017).
Ray was also one of the main antagonists in the upcoming Star Wars series Ahsoka. The star was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland on May 25, 1964.
While he originally pursued a career in interior design, he enrolled in the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and began his professional acting career after graduating at 29.
His other notable credits include parts in Dexter, Black Sails, and Medici, as well as The Spanish Princess and Vikings.
He also was a part of the RRR cast, playing Scott Buxton in the award-winning action drama.
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