Biographie

Was offered the role of Jimmy McNulty in Sur écoute (2002), which he turned down because he didn't want to move to Baltimore, away from his family. The role instead went to Dominic West.

Was the leading actor in the directorial debuts of two Brit actors: in The War Zone (1999) directed by Tim Roth and in Ne pas avaler (1997), directed by Gary Oldman. All three are known for playing villains in many films.

Has three children: Lois Winstone (born 1982), a singer with the London-based hip-hop group "Crack Village" who also played his on-screen daughter in Last Orders (2001) and got a part in four episodes of The Bill (1984), Jaime Winstone (born 1985) also an actress with ambitions to be a director, and Ellie Rae Winstone (born 2001).

Supports West Ham United Football Club

Starred in the short lived TV series Ghostbusters of East Finchley (1995). Although this series was completely unrelated to S.O.S. fantômes (1984), the original Ghostbusters had characters named Ray and Winston.

All the great Shakespeare plays are about killing. Alas, poor Yorick, that's about death. And in Romeo and Juliet everyone up ends up dying. The greatest dramas in the world are all about sex, violence and death.

I'm not a successful Hollywood actor. The Hollywood stuff hasn't come out yet. It might come out and I might be shit.

Hollywood don't always pay a lot of money. Because we're English they think we're cheap! And you haven't got to be the greediest man in the world. If you want to do something, you go and do it. What's the point of you being paid a lot of money if you haven't got the quality of the film? In the long run you're not doing yourself any favors because you're going to end up in a piece of shit.

On every job you do, you've got to raise your game. My ambition is to just get better and better every job you do - you should never stop trying to get better. You have to teach yourself new things - I don't think you necessarily learn them from other people because you have your own style of doing things, but hopefully you get better.

Unless it's your business or something, bankrupt just means you can't have a bank account.