If Tommy Flanagan had been told his face would become his fortune, he might have expected to be destined for a lifetime on the dole.
Yet the Glasgow-born actor's disfiguring scars, inflicted by a razor gang 28 years ago when he was working as a DJ, have not hindered his growing success in Hollywood.
Best known as a star of the hit Hell's Angels series Sons of Anarchy, he has been reunited with his old Gladiator pal Russell Crowe for the crime thriller Sleeping Dogs.
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The flick is being promoted at the Cannes film festival, where a first-look image of Crowe and Flanagan together has been released. Karen Gillan is also in the cast.
The plot: In the wake of a cutting-edge Alzheimer’s treatment, former homicide detective Roy Freeman (Crowe) is tasked with re-examining a brutal murder case from his past.
Intrigued and fighting to regain his memory, Roy enlists his former partner (Flanagan) to help him revive the investigation. This time though, things unfold very differently when they encounter a magnetic and mysterious woman (Gillan).
While Flanagan is perhaps best known for his role as Filip 'Chibs' Telford in the Emmy-nominated biker gang drama, his recent film credits include the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, in which he played bounty hunter Tullik.
But it’s having joined up with Crowe again - in Gladiator he played Cicero, servant and friend to Crowe’s powerful warrior Maximus - that has finally brought Flanagan’s Hollywood journey full circle.
He explained: "I didn’t have any training. As far as film went, I just sat there and watched. I asked questions. I was always thinking, okay, this is my last moment ever. I didn't have a clue."
Actually, he owes a debt of gratitude to Robert Carlyle and his then girlfriend, Caroline Paterson, key founders of Raindog, who invited him to join their theatre company.
Soon afterwards, Flanagan won the role of Scottish rebel Morrison in the Mel Gibson epic Braveheart, which ranks among his 78 screen credits.
While still sensitive about the scars on his face and how he got them, the Easterhouse-born actor happily adapted his old nickname of Tommy Two Chibs for his Sons of Anarchy character.
He says: "Chibs is personal to me, in some ways. I have to keep explaining to Americans that to chib means to cut someone. It intrigues them that I was involved in a knife fight."
Sleeping Dogs will be in cinemas in February 2024.
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