IF you’ve been reading my column over the past few weeks, you will have seen my indulgence in all things literary connected with Warrington.

This week I thought I would start to take a look at the acting talent that our town has produced.

I will begin with our greatest acting export - Pete Postlethwaite.

In coming weeks I will celebrate Sue Johnston, Tim Curry and Burt Kwouk – all Warringtonians.

So, without further ado, Pete Postlethwaite.

The borough council should install a plaque forthwith on the house where Pete was born, 101 Norris Street in Orford.

If you read his fascinating autobiography, A Spectacle of Dust, he talks about his time living in this house and growing up in Padgate.

The young Warrington lad who grew up to be declared by Steven Spielberg as the greatest actor in the world, first made his name as an actor at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre in the 1970s. He worked with people like Bill Nighy and Julie Walters.

He worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company before getting his break on television in 1981 in The Muscle Market, a play written by Alan Bleasdale as a piece linked to Boys From The Blackstuff.

To use a tired and overworked phrase, the rest is history. In Pete’s case, entertainment history. His roll-call of movie appearances include such greats as Brassed Off, In the Name of the Father, Lost World: Jurassic Park and The Usual Suspects. He made the moving real-life comedy drama Lost for Words with Thora Hird, and returned to stage work at the Everyman in Liverpool in King Lear in 2008.

My Warrington Guardian colleague, photographer Mike Boden, went along to photograph Pete, and returned with some great snaps and tales of how he was just as warm and unchanged as he’d always been.

Sadly, Pete, who had survived an earlier bout of testicular cancer, died of pancreatic cancer in 2011.

A regular visitor to his hometown, Pete never forgot his roots. And he ignored all advice to change his surname to something easier to pronounce in a bid for success.

It’s interesting to note that Pete wrote a lot about Warrington in his autobiography.

In one fascinating passage he reflects on how strange it felt to be celebrated back home by your local newspaper, the Warrington Guardian.

He wrote: “It was amusing, seeing myself in the local newspaper again. They seemed to be writing about the person I used to be, rather than the person I’d become: ‘Mr Postlethwaite, formerly of Gorsey Lane, Orford’... I’d come a long way.”

You certainly did, Pete. We’re proud of you and will never forget you.

Send me your best Pete Postlethwaite memories and stories please.