Happy Birthday Scottish actor Rory McCann born 24th April 1969 in Glasgow.
Six foot six inches tall, with brown eyes and dark hair, Rory McCann began his working life at the top - as a painter on the Forth Bridge. He came to notice in a television commercial for Scotts' Porage Oats, in which he appeared as a scantily-clad hunk in a vest and kilt and little else wandering snowbound streets but warmed by the inner glow of the porage. He claims that as a consequence he was often approached by people demanding that he "lift his kilt", I can quite believe that as who out there among us has never had that asked of us?
In 2002 he was seen in the TV comedy-drama 'The Book Group' playing a wheelchair-bound lifeguard, a part for which he won a Scottish BAFTA award for the best television performance of 2002. Since then he has taken television roles as Peter the Great and a priest in 'Shameless'. He made his Hollywood debut in Oliver Stone's 'Alexander'. Rory has never been in Taggart but did appear in another well known Scottish show, Monarch of the Glen.
Of course the role he is most famous for is, apart from the porage ads,that of Sandor "The Hound" Clegane in the popular Game of Thrones.
Film role have included, Beowulf & Grendel, Hot Fuzz and xXx: Return of Xander Cage
Rory used to be the frontman of a defunct band called Thundersoup in the early 90s. In 2017 he made a musical appearance as the drummer of Texas, a Scottish rock band, in their music video of Tell That Girl. He also plays the piano, banjo, guitar, and Mandolin.
Rory divides his time between homes in London and Glencoe, eh hates technology and loves being cut off and is known for living a solitary, transient lifestyle, he describes himself as such "I'm a man's man. I go out climbing and live outdoors." He used to solo rock climb and broke multiple bones in a near-fatal rock climbing accident in Yorkshire when he was 21. And ladies he is single, he says "I don't have a mortgage, I don't have a wife and I don't have kids, so I'm quite happy bumbling along."
In 2019 Rory was seen in the Jumanji movie with fellow Scot Karen Gillan. In 2022 he became the narrator of the ITV1 series DNA Journey., last year he voiced a character in the animated show Knuckles, based on the video game Sonic the Hedgehog. He also appeared in a horror film called the damned and Gladiator II.
More recently in 2025 Rory was in the period drama Tornado, which gets a good score of 7.5 on IMDb, next up he is set to appear in season two of Ahsoka the a TV Series set in the Star Wars universe.
