Bruce Jones (British Character Actor)

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Bruce Jones (born 24 January 1948, Collyhurst, Manchester, United Kingdom) is a British actor best known for his role as cab driver Les Battersby-Brown in Coronation Street. His real name is Ian Roy Jones, but took the name of his father. He was the oldest of six children, his father a steel erector and his mother Irene a factory worker. During his school life he appeared in plays from the age of five.

At sixteen Jones gained an apprenticeship as a pipefitter, but later became a pipefitter then a fireman and a dairy worker. He later trained at the Manchester School of Theatre and went on to become a successful compere on the Northern club circuit, forming a double act with a friend to become "Clark and Jones". In 1977, Jones and a friend discovered the body of murdered prostitute Jean Jordan, a victim of the "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe in allotments in Manchester. In 1993, Jones gained his big break playing the lead role of Bob Williams in the Ken Loach film Raining Stones. In 1997, he had small parts in the hit film The Full Monty and in the Shane Meadows film Twenty Four Seven.