by Stephen Graham has said he shares his OBE with his “incredible warrior” mother after she recently passed away.
The 49-year-old Merseyside-born actor best known for television crime drama Line Of Duty has been nominated in the New Year Honors list for services to the drama.
On Saturday, the This Is England star told her Instagram followers: ‘A few days ago… this incredible, inspiring, female warrior With the purest heart… my mother passed away.
Speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Desert Island Discs in 2019, the mixed-race actor said his mother put an end to the racist abuse he experienced on the streets of Liverpool.
“Her words as a child ‘no one is above you and no one is below you…everyone is equal’ stayed with me for life.
“I feel so honored and proud to share this with her… An OBE for both of us mum.”
Graham also credited his This Is England and Boiling Point co-star and wife Hannah Walters and her family for helping him after a suicide attempt in his early 20s.
The actor said he and Walters moved to south London together after what was technically their first date after a bout of talking.
She added, “This is how Hannah came into my life properly.”
Walters — who executive produces with Graham on an upcoming five-part series based on the big-screen drama Boiling Point — also helps him choose his roles.
He told a Bafta session: “I’m dyslexic, so I struggle. My lady actually reads the script and says whether or not I’m doing it. She made some good choices.
Over the course of a 30-year career, Graham has achieved acclaim playing Irish, British and American criminals and police officers in blockbuster Hollywood films and successful television dramas.
He starred in the 2000 crime comedy Snatch opposite Brad Pitt and Jason Statham, and in the 2019 gangster epic The Irishman, in which he played real-life mobster Anthony Provenzano opposite Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
Graham also played criminals Stephen Shang in Gangs Of New York in 2002, Baby Face Nelson in Public Enemies in 2009 and Al Capone in the crime film Boardwalk Empire.
He is perhaps best known for his role as English nationalist Andrew “Combo” Gascoigne in the 2006 film This Is England.
Graham reprized the skinhead character in three Channel 4 series set in 1986, 1988 and 1990.
He also stunned viewers with the death of DS John Corbett in the fifth series of Line Of Duty.
Corbett was killed in the crime drama while trying to leave the group he was undercover with before having his throat slit.
This year Graham has starred in the ITV drama The Walk In, the musical film Matilda, the crime comedy series Code 404 and the BBC show Peaky Blinders.
He also starred opposite Jodie Comer in the Channel 4 film Help, set in a Liverpool nursing home, which won the International Emmy for television film/miniseries in November.
The tough prison drama Time, starring Sean Bean, also won Best Miniseries at this year’s Bafta TV Awards.
Graham also had roles in Sir Sam Mendes’ war film 1917, the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the crime film White House Farm and the spy film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
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