Robin Laing

Hailing from the Central Lowlands of Scotland, the actor Robin Laing was a member of the Carnoustie Theatre Club, which produced several famous alumni, including the comedian Alan Cumming. After high school, Laing went on to study theater and drama at Fife College. He had a starring role in "The Slab Boys," playing a factory worker in the 1950s, and appeared on television in over a dozen episodes of the award-winning BBC drama "The Lakes." As Edward "Babe" Heffron, in the 10-part HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers," set in the European Theater of World War II, Laing was exposed to audiences on the other side of the Atlantic. Masking his brogue, he played an Irish-American soldier from Philadelphia, a real-life veteran of the war, and got the chance to work with such major film-industry figures as Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, who produced the ambitious show. Laing also saw action in the First World War, appearing in director Christian Carion's film "Joyeux Noel," which was set during the Christmas truce of 1914. On stage, he's performed in Euripides' "Medea" and in the play version of Danny Boyle's addiction-themed art-house hit, "Trainspotting," playing Renton--the role embodied by Ewan McGregor in the film.