Who is this actor??

[Bramble25]

I’d say early 50s, male, probably from Greater Manchester, def northern, has a round face, straight slightly floppy light brown hair, I think he was in something like a Harlem Coben show where he had gambling problems and had murdered someone, he was maybe a football coach? Possibly was in a Ricky Gervais show. Helllllp!

Paul Kaye? Was in The Stranger and After Life with Ricky Gervais? Don't think he's Northern though!

Not Richard Armitage is it? i don't think he's northern though.

Chatgpt gave me this:
Nice description — good eye. Based on the Harlan Coben shows you mentioned, here are the most likely actors you might be thinking of (short id + where they appear):

1. Craige Els — plays Coach Phil Dawson in Fool Me Once (the youth/football coach in that series). (He’s a tall, stage-and-screen actor who shows up as the coach in the Coben adaptation.)
2. Clinton Blake — plays Bob Baime, a football coach / club figure in The Stranger. (He’s the coach who gets tangled in the show’s dirt-digging / embezzlement subplot.)
3. Shaun Dooley — plays Doug Tripp in The Stranger (Adam’s neighbour who’s involved with the local boys’ football club). He’s about early-50s, from the north, and matches the “northern, round-faced, early-50s” look you described.
4. Emmett J. Scanlan — appears in Coben adaptations (credits in Fool Me Once and also in Safe), often plays rougher, troubled characters — could be the “gambling / murder” vibe you remember if roles blurred together.

I’ve not heard of any of them!

Paul Kaye has a very slim long face though. And yeah he's not northern. I love him though!

What kind of hair does he have?

Don’t know if this is right but your post reminded me to look up the actor I couldn’t place from Saltburn (played Barry Keoghan’s dad) - who was Shaun Dooley, so I’ll throw his name in!

Shaun Dooley

Clinton Blake is black, is he black OP?

Tom Burke

Shaun Dooley

Very true actually. PP's could be right with Shaun Dooley but I can't remember him in anything with Ricky Gervais. Hmmm 🤔 the mystery continues....

(I love these kinds of threads!)

Mumsnet t its finest! It’s Shaun Dooley! Thanks guys!

I did a bloody long goggle search too!

He's from t'other side of the Pennines from Greater Manchester/Lancashire. He did train in Manchester but you can't take the Barnsley accent out of a lad.

I think it’s ChatGPT at its finest to be honest!

My first thought was Shaun Dooley! I could happily listen to his voice all day 😄

Richard Armitage? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Armitage_(actor)

Andrew Buchan? He was in Broadchurch.

I’d love it if it was Clinton Blake and the OP was trying to be politically correct and not mentioning race thus making the guessing game so much harder 🤣

Haha. You never know do you?!

Yes he murdered Dervla Kirwen!

There's one man who seems to be in every Harlan Coben and it's very off putting.