Ex-Huddersfield Giants rugby league player, Keith Mason, appears to have got a “big break” in his bid to become an acting star.
Mason has revealed on Facebook that he has a part in the hit BBC drama Peaky Blinders.
Set in 1920s Birmingham, Peaky Blinders launched last year featuring Hollywood stars Cillian Murphy and Sam Neill in the lead roles.
Now Mason, who played for the Huddersfield Giants for seven years, has revealed he is currently on set filming.
He posted a picture on social media of himself having his hair cut for his part as a bodyguard in the show.
The inclusion of Mason in the cast gives the award winning drama even more links to Kirklees.
The Examiner revealed last year that many of the scenes were filmed around Armitage Bridge and former Huddersfield University students and entrepreneurs, Jeff and Matt Postlethwaite, had small parts in the first series.
The twins have been re-cast for the second series as shady characters, gang members Nipper and Henry.
Mason, 32 retired from rugby at the end of last season after his contract with Castleford Tigers ended.
He has been concentrating on landing a career in Hollywood with the help of close pal Mickey Rourke, 61, who he met in a London strip club Stringfellows following the 2009 Challenge Cup final, which the Giants lost to Warrington.
The drinking session famously got him and teammate Scott Moore in trouble with the Giants after they missed training following partying with the Hollywood hellraiser, star of Oscar winning movie The Wrestler.
But the link-up with Rourke has also landed him with a new circle of friends, including boxing legend Joe Calzaghe and actor Jason Statham, and promises that he could make it in the movies.
In 2012 the Giants sacked Mason for an alleged infraction on Twitter but he successfully sued them for unfair dismissal, winning £146,000 in damages in the process.
After a one season stint at Castleford Mason revealed earlier this year that he was now “100% retired” and said he would love to be in a Bond film.
He has already completed filming of blockbuster crime drama Skin Traffik, with Rourke and Kill Bill star Daryl Hannah, 53, set for release this summer.
Watch part of the film's trailer below
Plans for a biopic of gay rugby player Gareth Thomas, dubbed The Welshman, are also in the pipeline.
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