Paul Usher was born in Liverpool on the 20th of April 1961 and was educated at Wirral Grammar School for Boys. He made his television debut in an episode of 'Z-Cars' (1978) as a gang member, but as a young man, Paul originally planned a career in music. He says, "I was never interested in acting at school but had been in Z Cars when I was 16, playing a young gang member with just a couple of lines to say. I was the bass player in a band, working in local clubs. An American company hired us to play in schools over there, where we called ourselves The Union Jacks. When I came back to Britain after touring with the band for over a year, three shows a day, I didn’t want to pick up the guitar again. I’d had enough. Then a letter popped on the doorstep asking me to come to an audition for this new programme. Three auditions later, I’ve got the job and I’m on the telly in Brookside. It was just a pure accident.”
Actor Joe McGann was originally cast to play this part, but when Joe failed to gain an actors equity card, producers decided to recast the role to Paul. It was in 1982 that Paul began appearing in the Channel 4 soap opera as Barry Grant and became one of the most recognisable faces in the land, appearing in both the first and last episodes of 'Brookside' (1982-2003), with breaks in between. Barry was characterised as a 'hard man' and constant law breaker with the writers transforming Barry into Brookside's long-standing villainous character. In breaks from 'Brookside' he appeared in one episode of 'Harry Enfield's Television Programme' (1992) and in 1999, appeared in 'Swing' as Liam Luxford. His major role during this time was in 'Liverpool 1' (1998-99), a gritty police drama set in the heart of Liverpool's underworld. Playing John Sullivan, a local gangland criminal and drug dealer, Paul is the main antagonist of the series. The ongoing saga of the squad's pursuit of him over his dodgy business dealings made for a complex interweb of events which sees him turn from criminal mastermind to supergrass. He also played John Lennon's father Freddie Lennon in the TV movie 'In His Life: The John Lennon Story' (2000).
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| The Grant family |
In 2001, he began appearing in the ITV police drama 'The Bill', as PC Des Taviner and continued in the role until 2004, appearing in a total of 135 episodes, but then decided to seek a new life away from the cameras: "After finishing The Bill I did a job in the theatre which I didn’t enjoy at all and I became disillusioned with the whole thing. My brother Mark has lived in Greece for 20 years and my lady said she wanted to come. So we rented our house out and moved, for a total change of scenery. I help a mate out in a bar every now and again. I've had five years of anonymity now and I've loved every minute of it." In Rhodes Paul married his second wife Charlotte, or Charlie, who was an assistant director on 'The Bill' when he worked on the show, and they have a son called Lucas. Paul also had a son, James, 22, from his first marriage to Jane which ended in divorce 10 years earlier but tragically James passed away when he was only 24 in 2014 after being taken ill on a supply vessel in Aberdeen. Working as a trainee rigger on board the ship he was taken ill, and later died in hospital. His cause of death was reportedly as an undiagnosed heart condition.
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| In The Bill as PC Taviner |
Just before Christmas 2012 Paul got a call from LA Productions founder Colin McKeown,
who he had previously worked with on 'Brookside'. This resulted in him being one of the stars in the third series of the BBC1 daytime hit 'Moving
On', Jimmy McGovern’s drama produced by Kirkdale-based LA Productions. In the series he played a 'slightly dodgy' character called Dave alongside former 'Coronation Street' star Reece Dinsdale.
In March 2019, it was announced that Paul would join the cast of the BBC soap opera 'Eastenders' to portray the recurring role of Danny Hardcastle, a dodgy businessman and associate of Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) from his trips to Spain. He returned for a third time in 2020 looking for revenge on Phil and Ben Mitchell after a dodgy stolen car job went wrong earlier in the year. Then in May 2023, he appeared for the second time in an episode of the BBC soap opera 'Doctors' as Terry Exton having appeared in 2000 as D.S. Bailey.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/10/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-sarah.html
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