Brian McCardie, the Scottish actor who portrayed the younger brother of Liam Neeson’s titular hero in Michael Caton-Jones’ historical drama Rob Roy, has died. He was 59.
McCardie died “suddenly at home” on Sunday, his sister Sarah announced on X. “A wonderful and passionate actor on stage and screen, Brian loved his work and touched many lives, and is gone much too soon,” she wrote.
Born on Jan. 22, 1965, and raised near Glasgow, McCardie appeared on the BBC soap opera EastEnders in one of his earlier roles.
He went on to play gang lord turned police informant Tommy Hunter on the first two seasons of the BBC drama Line of Duty (2012-14) and more recently showed up on such other British series as Time, Crime, The Tower and Domina and the miniseries Rebellion.
In the U.S., he was seen on episodes of Shameless and Outlander, and he had a role in the upcoming Outlander prequel, Blood of My Blood.
McCardie scored high marks for his emotional performance as Alasdair MacGregor in Rob Roy (1995), also starring Jessica Lange.
His film résumé also included a turn as Scottish soccer legend Dave Mackay in The Damned United (2009), starring Michael Sheen as Leeds United coach Brian Clough, and work in Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), 200 Cigarettes (1999), Low Winter Sun (2006), Filth (2013), Ghosts (2014), Caton-Jones’ Our Ladies (2019) and Damaged (2024).
