Robert Carlyle terrified his way into the limelight during the 1990s, reaching extreme prominence as deranged psychopath Begbie in Trainspotting. Since then he’s mortified the living daylights out of audiences all across the world, and today we wish to honour this with a selection of his scariest moments.

He’s not the only Scottish actor out there, of course. In fact Trainspotting launched the careers of Ewan McGregor, Kelly Macdonald, and Jonny Lee Miller. Robbie Coltrane was already pretty famous by then too, and the two Roberts even starred together in an iconic episode of Crackers (Carlyle was a slice of edam, Coltrane a wodge of brie).

There are plenty of famous non-actor Scots as well, such as Sir Jackie Stewart, David Coulthard, Billy Connolly, and Robert Carlyle. The latter two are actors, of course. Indeed, this entire blog post is about one of them!

Carlyle is famed for his intensity on the big and small screens, but to be fair he has proven his versatility through comedic roles. Today, though, we’re honouring the madness, so enjoy this trip down psychopath lane!

Trainspotting #1

This whole list could be occupied by Begbie, but we’ll only include a selection of moments from a three-minute segment. Here he is casually throwing his pint glass off a balcony into the busy pub below, like you do.

Trainspotting #2

Character flashbacks reveal Begbie assaulting a harmless dude in a pub with a pool cue. For no reason, although apparently the man was putting off Mr. Begbie by loudly eating a packet of crisps. We feel his pain. WHACK!

Trainspotting #3

When his friend Tommy attempts to stop the lunacy, everyone’s favourite Scottish madman starts waving a knife about the place. It’s all in a days work for Begbie!

Trainspotting #4

After his actions in Trainspotting #1, Begbie kicks off a full on pub brawl by kicking a man in the trouser department. Oh, how we chortled.

The Beach

Leo DiCaprio meets Scottish lunatic Daffy on holiday and ends up on an island with Tilda Swinton. Great stuff, until it turns out to be bad stuff.

The 51st State

Carlyle’s Felix DeSouza antagonises Manchester United football fans with a rather bright distress flare. Many football hooligans burst into tears at this scene, as it reminds them of many happy moments being thuggish morons.

Ravenous #1

Carlyle’s Colqhoun completely casts comparative craziness contemporarily (alliteration ahoy!) over the Ravenous cast. He really loses his mind and starts a primitive chant, scaring the bejeezus out of everyone.

Ravenous #2

Later on he has a cliff top standoff with Australia’s Guy Pearce, who pretends to be American in this cult classic. Good on him!

The World Is Not Enough

Trigger happy Bond villain Renard has lost his hair and is pretty miffed about it. The best option isn’t to wear a wig, he’s decided. No. It’s time to wipe out Pierce Brosnan. Why? As Dante’s Peak made him cry in front of his tough mates!

28 Weeks Later

Don Harris is a family man, until he gets infected and becomes an incredibly angry zombie. Not content with slobbering everywhere, he goes on a berserk rampage as well. Such is the nature of lunacy!

Hitler: The Rise of Evil

Excellent two-part TV series Hitler: The Rise of Evil sees Mr. Carlyle ramp it up as Hitler in the build up to WWII.

 Cracker

Albie Kinsella is crazy. He’s mad! He thinks he can take on police detective Robbie Coltrane, and by heck he’s going to be as mad as he wants in pursuit of his dream.

Trainspotting 2

The sequel is on the way, apparently (Indeed! T2 Trainspotting launched in early 2017 – Editor’s note). Oh my cripes, Begbie could well be back. Hold onto your butts! As you can see, he’s psychotically angry about the decision.