Sunday, January 20, 2013

Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight is an  English actor best known for his roles in Coronation Street and the original UK version of Queer as Folk. Today's Out Spotlight is Antony Cotton.

Antony Cotton was born Antony Dunn on August 5, 1975, in Bury, Greater Manchester, the second son of British actress Enid Dunn. He attended Woodhey High School at Holcombe Brook, Ramsbottom, and the Oldham Theatre Workshop.

He currently plays barman and factory worker Sean Tully in the long running and popular UK soap opera Coronation Street. Sean first appears in July 2003 at a hospital party. He is introduced as a friend of Martin Platt's fellow-nurse Karl Foster, who, unknown to Martin, is gay. The character is seen again in April 2004 when Karl and Todd Grimshaw have a night out on Manchester's Canal Street. In August, after Todd has left the Street, Sean comes to Coronation Street, desperate for somewhere to live. Sean Tully was the first openly gay character on Coronation Street.

Cotton said that playing Sean is easy because he just has to act like himself. Speaking to The People, Cotton said that Sean looks and he sounds like him. Cotton also explained that he received fan mail from one 79-year-old saying he's "ace" but said they miss the point. Cotton was also blamed Sarah Platt losing her baby when Sean was yet to be introduced. Cotton later admitted that not all of the reviews about him are positive. Some of the gay press have accused Cotton of making Sean a stereotype. Of this he said, "You've got people like Blanche Hunt, Emily Bishop and Norris Cole and there were the classic characters like Bet Lynch and Annie Walker. They're all more camp than Sean - I'm Grant Mitchell compared to them."

Cotton told the Lesbian and Gay Foundation (LGF)  "What's so nice about playing Sean, is that he makes no apologies for who he is. Here is a gay character living his life. This is refreshing and new."

Cotton also played "Alexander" in the original UK version of Queer as Folk and appeared in several episodes of Absolutely Fabulous. On January 13, 2007, Cotton won the second series of ITV's Soapstar Superstar. He donated his winning money, £200,000, to the Elton John Aids Foundation.

In July 2007, it was announced that Cotton would be fronting his own teatime chat show on ITV. The show, That Antony Cotton Show, was filmed with a live studio audience at Granada Television studios in Manchester, and combined celebrity chat with topical humor. It was first broadcast on  August 13 2007 at 5 pm; however, following the end of the first series, ITV announced that the show would not return for a second.

He had appeared on Family Fortunes in September 2008 winning £10,000 for his chosen charity. In December 2008, he appeared with co-star Suranne Jones on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?  Cotton also took part in the eleventh series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! which began airing in November 2011 leaving after 21 days. He  also starred in an episode of Mad Mad World on ITV1 in the Spring 2012.

He made his film debut opposite Daniel Craig and Derek Jacobi in the 1998 film Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon. and also appeared in the 1998 film, The Wisdom of Crocodiles.

Cotton has appeared in several stage performances at the Oldham Coliseum, including The Fifteen Streets and The Hobbit at Manchester's Palace Theatre and Opera House. And appeared in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the Middlesbrough Theatre.

In 2005, he won the Most Popular Newcomer category at the National Television Awards for his role in Coronation Street and won the 2005 Inside Soap Awards for Best Newcomer and Funniest Performance. In 2006 he won (again) the award for Funniest Performance. At the 2007 British Soap Awards, he was awarded the Best Actor award, which was voted for by the public. Also in 2007 he won Best Actor at the Inside Soap Awards.

Cotton supports the Terrence Higgins Trust and is a patron of the LGF, The Albert Kennedy Trust and the Queer Up North festival. In March 2010 the Daily Mirror reported that he had exchanged rings with his partner, Peter Eccleston. They met in the summer of  2005, on the set of Coronation Street  where Eccleston was an assistant props buyer.

In 2012, they were slate to go on the game show All Star Mr. & Mrs. with other celebrity couples.

In January 2012, footballer Michael Ball was fined by the Football Association for a homophobic rant on Twitter about Cotton.

21 comments:

the real m said...

It's been too many years since I saw the original Queer as Folk, so he does not look familiar at all. Though I can recall Charlie Hunnam like it was yesterday .

PG, I never have any luck with data lounge. It always seems to be busy or if I get in, it craps out. I think you have to be a member to really participate there.

Got to my hotel just in time to see the last 5 minutes of the game and to see the 49ers win the game. Very exciting!

Florida Tom said...

Yeah that bottom is a very nice thing Mr. Seaweed:-)

There has not been a lot of defense in the NFL playoffs but the games sure have been exciting.

I know what SK is watching. That QB sure is hot:-)

m your 49ers are so good. San Fran is really going through some good times sports wise the last few years.

Florida Tom said...

Sorry SK. My hometown boy is going to the Superbowl. Congrats Audubon High Joe Flacco.

prairiegirl said...

PG, I never have any luck with data lounge. It always seems to be busy or if I get in, it craps out. I think you have to be a member to really participate there.

m, I think you're missing my point.
; ) But that's all right.

I am a frequent lurker, not a participator on DL. I don't get to see it on a consistent basis but when I do go on to look, I will go back a ways and look at threads and threads. I think you do have to register or something in order to comment. I don't need to be commenting there or on other blogs, OMG is it with the exception of the times I have had to go next door and clarify my name and the false accusations/lies spread over there concerning myself.

I'm speaking strictly as an observer. All one has to do is read, that's it. Read and observe.

I don't anticipate a big discussion, I don't get my hopes up anymore for that on here.

I put things up for archiving purposes - OMG is a legitimate archive now. I put things up for alllll the other lurkers Oh My Godot has who never speak on here.

And there are plenty. There are plenty, plenty and Jake's people need to know that.

Jake and Austin need to know that.

That there are a slew of people very interested. I don't know how many are looking because they're interested, how many are looking for informational purposes, how many are looking from the professional industry. But they are.

They don't talk. They never are going to talk on here. It's basically just us few who get up on stage.

That's all right. (very frustrating, of course, to an engage'r like myself, but...grumble, grumble)

I put that up tonight (of course now it's not visible anymore because it's on yesterday's post) knowing that everyone's watching football. I can't participate hardly at all anymore during the day - that's a permanent change in my professional life. So I have to be on here when I can, whether or not there's anybody to talk to, doesn't matter. Y'all can talk about it tomorrow when I'm not around.

prairiegirl said...

Busy week coming up this week, too. This is my big buddy's last week at work and it's going to be very sad for me. But we've got goodbye lunches and Big Time Visitors coming. Serious, serious stuff. Gotta wear my company shirt, the whole bit. Clean, clean, clean. Behave, behave, behave. lol Work is pretty exciting, things happening all the way around and it's just going to be a pretty eventful year.

Start my new dogsitting gig later this week of 3 little shiatsu's, how do you spell that anyway? Ahhhh thank heavens for auto correct!

Not sure how that one's going to go, doing it for someone who got my name from Curley's mama. I've had two people ask me this past week if I minded having my name recommended out to others for dog sitting gigs. I've had to say no. I think I could make a business out of it if I wanted to but no thanks! I just don't have time and I need my personal life.

Anyway, that's all from my little corner. I have splashed and now time to go see if I can finish up my chapter.



Florida Tom said...

I wonder what Jake and Austin will be getting their girlfriends for Valentines Day? I am so happy those recent pics of Austin with his blonde honey finally proved to me he is str8. LMAO:-)

Special K said...

I've been watching the inauguration most of the day. I must say I missed Aretha's hat.

Special K said...

About Jake's comings and goings, if you were single why would you need to keep going home on the weekends. It seems like such a commuting family man kind of thing. Very atypical for a single unattached bachelor.

Special K said...

The Not Completely Straight Facts of Life

Mrs. Garrett finding out her husband of 25 years was gay.

Charlotte Rae, best known for playing Edna Garrett on “Diff’rent Strokes” and “The Facts of Life,” is shopping a memoir called “The Facts of My Life.” The book describes how she discovered her husband of 25 years, composer John Strauss, was gay. Rae and Strauss, who won a Grammy for the soundtrack to “Amadeus,” had just moved into a new house in LA when he confessed he was gay and had been unfaithful. “First came the shock of what he had done behind my back, then the sting of being deceived for years,” she writes. “All I could feel was the betrayal and, worse than that, my shame.” The pair, married in 1950, had two kids and divorced in 1975 after Strauss came out to her. Strauss died in 2011. “John’s secret confirmed my feelings of inferiority,” Rae writes. “That I was less than a woman . . . That I didn’t deserve to be loved and valued.” Rae also discusses her time on “Diff’rent Strokes” and “The Facts of Life” and the “strange experience” of “working in a job where all her peers are teenagers.” Her book is repped by Jennifer DeChiara’s Literary Agency.

Page Six

Please share your wisdom with the class said...

Very atypical for a single unattached bachelor.

How would you even know what's typical for a famous, single/unattached/bachelor?

Seaweed said...

I'm going to say that Special has every right to suggest Jake's behaviour is atypical for a single and unattached bachelor. It's her observation and her opinion.

For that matter I feel the same... and my views are as an aging and experienced male of the species.

Observation is a wonderul thing, it can give you a feeling for things, an ability to formulate based on a persons past behaviours and habits.

I'd take Special's frames of reference any day over yours! So "Please share your wisdom" on this matter... all you did was try and poke holes in someone eles views.... what are yours, and why would they be any more valid than Special's?

Just asking!

2cents said...

I lurk on Datalounge and love it - one of the most fun places on the internet. DL is a super popular website w/ lots of traffic and they have high page rank for internet searches - in other words DL threads place on page one or two for relevant searches on Google. Because of this I'd guess that PR reps for closeted celebs patrol the hell out of DL for new threads on their clients and jump right in when the opportunity presents itself to tweak the narrative.

Seaweed said...

Had a good look and read on the Datalounge thread that you pointed to PG. It was an interesting read for the most part, but must have been better as it was all unfolding...

It's easy to see how the haughty, the high, and the mighty descend on certain parts of the story. You know the ones, all full of acusations and dripping with a scent to get you running off in another direction. Not sure what to make of it all in the end so will always be happy for analysis from our more involved friends who study the contents and get the measure of the tone and substance.

prairiegirl said...

You never know what you're going to find on that DL. I only open certain threads, normally the ones that have to do with celebrities although Datalounge discusses everything, i.e. politics, food, storms, you name it. It's a place for people to gather and share.

But yeah, like you said, Seaweed, then you sometimes get the ill-intended. And I will say that it was kind of weird when the guy gave his play-by-play in the beginning. That would be terrible to be watched like that. My intent was not to bring that to attention, that wasn't the point at all.

My full intent was to show how that thread just deteriorated and you saw the bad element which swooped in and started distorting things until people became confused, unable to tell who was talking when and how many there were. Finally, someone figured out that it was basically one person doing all the talking, trying to make it sound like there were more.

And it's exactly the kind of thing that has happened to our neighbors down the road, combined with a leader at the helm who has lost their way.

Thank our heavens that Special has not allowed that to happen to her blog. Because they have tried, but she just won't tolerate it and has taken control of this site. They know that they cannot do that here. We are so lucky to have Special at the helm who allows us to have a voice.

Florida Tom said...

No matter where they are Jake and Austin always come home for the weekend. Pretty obvious NYC is now home.

Florida Tom said...

Great speech by the President today. It is a breath of fresh air having a President with such vision. I hope we as Americans never elect another man who doesn't have that same vision for all of us.

prairiegirl said...

Watching City Slickers right now. Funny to see tiny Jake in this - even then, he could express sensitivity really well. Not an easy and convincing thing to get from a child actor. There were some child actors out there who were not good at all.

Case in point? The little girl who played Tracy in The Partridge Family. She was a terrible little actress. Her stilted way of speaking just drove me crazy.

Anonymous said...

Kid Tile?

http://www.laineygossip.com/Jake-Gyllenhaal-shaves-for-Prisoners-End-Of-Watch-underrated/25754

Covering for Anonymous at 9:31 said...

Kid Tile?

Set Pics

Florida Tom said...

I love the pics.

Florida Tom said...

Should be an interesting debate on who the kid is.