Rickie Joseph Grover (born 24th December 1961 in West Ham, Essex) is an English actor and comedian who portrayed Andrew Cotton in EastEnders from August 2011 to August 2012.
His stepfather was an armed robber and his mother a hairdresser. His first cousin is Jimmy Doherty. Grover became a ladies' hairdresser and a champion boxer, with the nickname Ricky 'Goodnight' Grover due to his big punching power. He then became a stand-up comedian, actor and occasional television presenter. He is best known for his role as Andrew Cotton in EastEnders. Grover is dyslexic and could not read or write until his early thirties.
Early life[]
Grover was born in West Ham, Essex. He started boxing at the age of 6 and started boxing professionally at the age of 22. He finished his career at the age of 36 with a record of 89-3 with 75 knockouts.
Acting career[]
Grover has appeared in television programmes including Red Dwarf,The 11 O'Clock Show, Honky Sausages and Black Books. He also provided the voice acting for the character of Yangus in the English language version of the portraystation 2 game Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King|Dragon Quest VIII.
His 1996 short subject|short film Punch won the Silver Bear Award.
In 1998 he featured in the music video for the England song Vindaloo (song)|Vindaloo by "Fat Les".
In 2000, he won the Best Actor award at the Brest European Short Film Festival for his performance in Hungry (1998) One of his most regular characters is "Bulla", a violent offender who originally featured on The 11 O'Clock Show and was interviewed by Michael Parkinson. He had a guest appearance in Top Buzzer. In 2011 he starred and co-wrote the feature-length film Big Fat Gypsy Gangster with his wife, Maria Grover.
He has appeared in adverts for Virgin Mobile and Beagle Street Insurance.
Since July 2009 he has portrayed the part of Matron Hilary Loftus in the BAFTA award-winning BBC Four medical 'docu-sitcom' Getting On (UK TV series)|Getting On, directed by Peter Capaldi. He had a role in the vampire film Dead Cert (2010 film)|Dead Certwhich was released in UK cinemas on 5 February 2010.
Ricky Grover also had a role in an episode of Not Going Out in 2011, playing a drug dealing butcher.
Grover reprised the role of Yangus in the 2015 videogame Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below.
Presenting career[]
In 2006, Grover presented the documentary F***Off I'm Fat as part of BBC Three's first "Body Image" season. In 2007 he presented a peak-time Tonight (1999 TV programme)|Tonight With Trevor McDonald report on obesity and a BBC Two episode of Grandad's Back in Business in which he mentored two stand-up comedians.
Writing[]
Since July 2003, Grover has written a column, "Raging Bulla", for the monthly magazine Loaded (magazine)|Loaded until it's final issue in 2015.
Filmography[]
- Fist of Fun (1995)
- Punch (1996)
- Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis (1997)
- Hungry (1998)
- Red Dwarf (1999) Baxter
- Love, Honour and Obey (2000)
- Black Books (2002) Danny Spudge
- Revolver (2005)
- Cargo (2006)
- Tony (2009)
- Getting On (2009–2012)
- Big Fat Gypsy Gangster (2010)
- EastEnders (2011–12)
- Being Human (UK TV series)|Being Human (2013)
- Zapped (2016–2017)
- Porridge (2016–2017)
Video game roles[]
- Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King – Yangus
- Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below - Yangus
Gallery[]
_1.jpg "Ricky Grover (17 March 1994) 1.jpg (223 KB)")
_2.jpg "Ricky Grover (17 March 1994) 2.jpg (206 KB)")
_3.jpg "Ricky Grover (17 March 1994) 3.jpg (174 KB)")