Christopher Quinten (born Christopher Bell; 12 July 1957) is a British actor, best known for his role as
Brian Tilsley
1978 saw several characters making their debuts on the British Soap Opera '' Coronation Street'', including Ed Jackson, Ida Clough and Brian Tilsley, among others.
Ed Jackson
Thomas Edward "Ed" Jackson was one of two robbers who staged a robb ...
on ''
Coronation Street'', which he played from 1978 to 1989.
Career
Quinten started his career as a dancer in West End productions, including the Victoria Palace with
Cilla Black and
Jimmy Tarbuck
James Joseph Tarbuck (born 6 February 1940) is an English comedian, singer, actor, entertainer and game show host.
He was a host of ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' in the mid-1960s, and hosted numerous game shows and quiz shows on ITV ...
.
He turned to acting and had his first role in the 1978 film ''
International Velvet'', starring
Tatum O'Neal
Tatum Beatrice O'Neal (born November 5, 1963) is an American actress. She is the youngest person ever to win an Academy Award, winning at age 10 for her performance as Addie Loggins in '' Paper Moon'' (1973) opposite her father, Ryan O'Neal. S ...
. This appearance led to small parts in television series including ''
Quatermass
Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional scientist, originally created by the writer Nigel Kneale for BBC Television. An intelligent and highly moral British scientist, Quatermass is a pioneer of the British space programme, heading the Brit ...
'' and ''
Hazell'', and was also noticed by the ''Coronation Street'' casting offices, who gave Ivy Tilsley, the oft-seen Baldwin's worker, a son. Quinten was then signed to the programme, for which he worked for over a decade. His pairing with Gail Potter (played by
Helen Worth
Helen Worth (born Cathryn Helen Wigglesworth; 7 January 1951) is an English actress. She is best known for portraying the role of Gail Platt in the ITV soap opera, '' Coronation Street'', a role that she has played since 1974. In 2014, she r ...
) proved very popular for the serial in the 1980s.
In 1989, Quinten told the casting office that he was going to move to the United States to marry his then-fiancée, American
talk show
A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sh ...
host
Leeza Gibbons
Leeza Kim Gibbons (born March 26, 1957) is an American talk show host. She is best known as a correspondent and co-host for ''Entertainment Tonight'' (1984–2000) as well as for having her own syndicated daytime talk show, ''Leeza'' (1993–20 ...
. The couple had met in 1988 in New Zealand while appearing on a
Telethon
A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other purportedly worthy cause.
Most telethons f ...
, and Quinten had been hoping to stay in ''Coronation Street'' as a part-time character, but the producers rejected his offer to stay on part-time, and at the end of 1988 the decision was made to kill the character off. His final episode was aired on 15 February 1989, when Brian Tilsley was stabbed to death by a gang of teenagers outside a nightclub.
Once settled in the United States, Quinten and Gibbons worked together on the film ''
RoboCop 2
''RoboCop 2'' is a 1990 American science fiction action film directed by Irvin Kershner and written by Frank Miller and Walon Green. It stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Belinda Bauer, Tom Noonan and Gabriel Damon. It is the ...
'' (in which he played a reporter), and had one daughter, Lexi Quinten. The couple divorced in 1991. Quinten married Paula Holmes in 1992, but they later separated.
Quinten returned to
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
and appeared on various chat shows. In 1994, he played Mr. Barraclough in an episode of the
ITV comedy series ''
Surgical Spirit''. In 1998, it was reported that he was now touring the country with a one-man comedy rock act, and was also working as an
after-dinner speaker
Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking (formally and informally) to an audience, including pre-recorded speech delive ...
. In 2000, he briefly returned to television acting with a guest role in the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
''.
Quinten has had a long career in pantomimes. In 2010 he played Abanazar in the
Empire's production of ''Aladdin'', and Ramsbottom in ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' at Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre in 2011.
He appeared in
. In 2016 it was reported that Quinten now works at
from 1989–1991. They had a daughter together in 1989.
dancer), he has a daughter Sydney (b. 2005).
In August 2005, Quinten was charged with rape. Following a trial in June 2006, he was found not guilty.
On 10 June 2019, Quinten became engaged to his lap dancer girlfriend, Robyn Delabarre, on her twenty-first birthday.