Rhys Ifans: from Notting Hill to The Boat That Rocked

Hard to believe it is now 10 years since Rhys Ifans's scene-stealing tour-de-force in Notting Hill. Here he is as slobbish Spike, wowing the paparazzi outside Hugh Grant's humble west London home. One might say he's been wowing them ever since Photograph: Kobal

Whoah, thought the world – surely that's not slobby old Spike in a smart shirt and tie? Incredibly, it was. Fresh from his success in Notting Hill, Ifans shows off his chameleon skills on the brilliant, lottery-funded office comedy Janice Beard 45 WPM Photograph: Kobal

Another one from the golden age of lottery funding. Rancid Aluminium was dismissed by Variety as 'misconceived on almost every level' – the exception presumably being Rhys Ifans's searing turn as mockney hero Pete. 'I could feel 'er breff across free fousand miles of night,' he intones in what may well be one of cinema's most quoted lines of dialogue Photograph: Kobal

In 2001's The Shipping News, Ifans co-starred as a plummy Brit who sails a home-made boat to the coast of Newfoundland. The locals wind up trashing his boat because they love him so much and never want him to leave. Ifans fans will know exactly how they felt Photograph: PR

And look, here's Rhys Ifans as Dek in Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, oozing star power from every pore of his being. Who cares that the film would later be slagged off by Shane Meadows (the very man who made it)? Just check out that hilarious gun-toting pose Photograph: PR

Never seen Danny Deckchair? Then you've missed out on another Rhys Ifans masterpiece (aka 'a pleasant enough time-waster,' according to the rave review in Variety). Our hero plays a bloke who ties helium balloons to his deckchair and floats off to find true love with a traffic cop Photograph: PR

But be warned: Rhys doesn't just do goofy, or naughty and goofy. He does dark as well, and in Enduring Love he was as dark as night and as black as pitch, playing the goofy loner who is quite naughty to Daniel Craig. 'Ifans simply looks stoned,' gushed the Village Voice Photograph: PR

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (or Liz 2: Electric Boogaloo as it was known in the trade) starred Cate Blanchett as Liz and Clive Owen. But the real star was sixth-billed Rhys in the pivotal role of Robert Reston – a man just crying out for his own spin-off blockbuster. Maybe cast as a Tudor-age Bond, with a magical horse or something Photograph: PR

Making an audacious, head-spinning move into animation, Ifans teamed up with the likes of Billy Connolly, Sharon Osbourne and Joe Pasquale in the beloved Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. His performance as McBunny is regarded by some as his most subtle and nuanced work to date Photograph: PR

First there was The Silence of the Lambs, then there was Hannibal, and then the remade Red Dragon ... and then there was Hannibal Rising, in which Rhys Ifans naturally stole the show in a supporting slot as a Lithuanian thug. Coincidentally, the film was released the same year in which Rhys received an honorary fellowship from Bangor University for 'services to the film industry' Photograph: PR

Oh. My. God. It can't be. But it is. Rhys Ifans is back as DJ Gavin in The Boat That Rocked, a film that reunites him with Notting Hill creator Richard Curtis. The wheel has come full circle, and the revolution has been one of tears, and laughter, and tears of laughter. Rhys Ifans, we salute you Photograph: PR