Robert James-Collier (born 23 September 1976) (known professionally as Rob James-Collier) is a British actor. He is known for his roles as Thomas Barrow in ''

Downton Abbey ''Downton Abbey'' is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. The series first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States o ...

'' and as Liam Connor in ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Orig ...

''.

Early life

James-Collier was born in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

, as Robert Collier, but changed his name to Robert James-Collier to comply with the rules of

Equity Equity may refer to: Finance, accounting and ownership *Equity (finance), ownership of assets that have liabilities attached to them ** Stock, equity based on original contributions of cash or other value to a business ** Home equity, the diff ...

and avoid confusion with another actor of that earlier name. He was educated at

St Patrick's Roman Catholic High School St Patrick's RC High School is a coeducational Roman Catholic secondary school in the Peel Green area of Eccles, Greater Manchester, England. Established in 1957, St. Patrick's was re-organised as a comprehensive school in 1977. It is a vol ...

in Eccles, Greater Manchester. He studied business at the

University of Huddersfield , mottoeng = Thus not for you alone , established = 1825 – Huddersfield Science and Mechanics' Institute1992 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £2.47 million (2015) , chancellor = George W. Buckley , vice_chancell ...

for his bachelor’s degree, and later obtained a master's degree in marketing at the

University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research. On 1 Oct ...

Career

Acting

Having no experience as an actor, James-Collier auditioned for the series '' Down to Earth''. Stars

Ricky Tomlinson Eric "Ricky" Tomlinson (born 26 September 1939) is an English actor. He is best known for his television roles as Bobby Grant in '' Brookside'', DCI Charlie Wise in ''Cracker'' and Jim Royle in '' The Royle Family'', and playing the titular cha ...

and Denise Welch were convinced by his talent, and he got the part of the womanising pub landlord. In 2006, he appeared in '' New Street Law'' and played a small part as 'Stud' in '' Shameless'' series 3, episode 5 under the name of Rob Collier. In 2006, he joined ''Coronation Street'' as Liam Connor, buying a share of the Underworld factory with his brother Paul. He left the show in October 2008. In an interview in early-2008, he announced he would leave the soap but planned to return. However, in June 2008, it was reported that the character of Liam was set to be 'brutally' killed off as part of a murder-mystery plotline where three well-known residents fell under suspicion for the crime. After leaving ''Coronation Street'', he won a leading role as first footman (and later under-butler) Thomas Barrow in the historical drama series ''

'' (2010–2015), subsequently appearing in the franchise's two feature films, ''Downton Abbey'' (2019) and '' Downton Abbey: A New Era'' (2022). He also appeared in the West End stage version of '' Calendar Girls''. He played Kevin O'Dowd in ITV's 2016 crime drama, ''The Level''. In 2017, he starred in British horror film, '' The Ritual''; ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' described his performance as "a fierce screen presence." He had a principal role in the "Cold River" episode of ''Vera'', aired in 2018. In 2019, it was announced that he was cast in the third series of

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

school-drama ''

Ackley Bridge ''Ackley Bridge'' is a British comedy-drama series set in a multicultural academy school of the same name. The series is filmed in Halifax, West Yorkshire and it began broadcasting on Channel 4 on 7 June 2017. In the fourth series, ''Ackley B ...

'' as Martin Evershed.

Modelling

James-Collier modelled for Argos, where he appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2007 and Spring/Summer 2008 catalogues. He won the Sexiest Male award at the 2007 and 2008 British Soap Awards in addition to "Best Exit" at the 2009 British Soap Awards. He won Sexiest Male and Best Newcomer at the 2007 ''Inside Soap'' Awards.

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:James-Collier, Robert 1976 births 21st-century English male actors Alumni of the University of Salford Alumni of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology English male models English male soap opera actors English male stage actors Living people Actors from Stockport Alumni of the University of Huddersfield Male actors from Salford