Coltranes

Upon hearing the sad news that Robbie Coltrane passed away, many actors who have worked closely with him have reached out to give their condolences and tell stories about the beloved actor. Now, House star Hugh Laurie has shared a super sweet story about spending time with the late actor. While Robbie Coltrane is best known for his role as Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies and his time as Valentin Zukovsky in the James Bond movies, he also starred in a lot of other smaller movies and shows. In two of these cases, he…

Ian Gavan/Getty Images Barely hours after the news broke that beloved Harry Potter actor Robbie Coltrane, who portrayed the gentle giant Hogwarts groundkeeper in the series, has passed away at the age of 72, online tributes began to pour out for the legendary character actor. The grief of Potter fans has inspired hundreds of social media posts remembering the Scottish actor but some of the most poignant posts are by Coltrane’s fellow Potter stars as well as the many other actors and comedians who worked with,…

Music as Data SeriesThe distribution of interval-related data in Coltrane’s famous solo is a wonderful example of a power-law in actionA frame from an animation of Giant Steps (Image by author)“When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hang-ups.”— John Coltrane (1926–1967)John Coltrane's improvisation on his composition Giant Steps, first recorded in 1959, stands out as one of the seminal recordings in jazz history. There are 26…