Worrying pics of Peaky Blinders star show contrasting fortunes to on-screen brothers & it could spell trouble for movie

IN Peaky Blinders, Tommy and Arthur Shelby are the notorious crime lords wreaking murder and mayhem across the city of Birmingham.

The BBC period drama became a hit the world over, but the fate of the actors who played the two brothers could not have been more different.

In two weeks, successful Cillian Murphy — who starred as Tommy — is tipped to win the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of J Robert Oppenheimer in the movie biopic.

Yet Paul Anderson — who appeared as elder sibling Arthur Jr — was up in court last month for possessing crack cocaine.

Emerging from his home in North London on Wednesday, Paul looked nothing like a star of film and TV.

Dishevelled and gaunt, he appeared to have aged at least a decade in the past year.

There are suggestions that the 46-year-old actor might have immersed himself too much in the role of hellraiser Arthur, who took coke and boozed heavily in the fictional TV show.

Paul — who has also appeared in Guy Ritchie’s 2011 Sherlock Holmes movie Game Of Shadows and the 2015 Golden Globe-winning The Revenant — was reportedly found with the Class A drug after emerging from a disabled toilet in his local pub in Hampstead, North London, on Boxing Day.

His lawyer told a court: “He is often recognised and does his best to please fans of the show by slipping into character.

“He was recognised that Boxing Day and tried to play up for these people.

"And because of the lifestyle he leads, people often give him inducements.”

On the other hand Cillian, 47, has steered well clear of fame’s damaging temptations.

The bright lights of Hollywood, parties and fast living hold no allure for the Irish actor.

The married father of two children — Malachy, 17, and Aran, 16 — has said: “I haven’t created any controversy, I don’t sleep around, I don’t go and fall down drunk.”

That is certainly not like his character Tommy Shelby, the opium-smoking gangster at the heart of Peaky Blinders, whose propensity for violence and desire to get rich means trouble is never far away.

But he generally thinks with his head, while Arthur acts according to his rash temper.

The Shelby brothers were both forged in a harsh world, but in real life it is only Paul who seems to have had a tough start.

Brought up on a council estate in South London, his father left home when Paul was just 11.

He said: “Like Arthur, I was starved of affection.

"All I wanted was his love, so even if I got negative attention from him it was still attention.”

Like Arthur, I was starved of affection

Paul Anderson

Paul’s mum worked as a barmaid and his path crossed with Shelby-type criminals.

The actor said: “Having grown up in a council estate myself, I’d seen a lot of those characters.

“My mum worked in a pub, she was a barmaid, so I knew a lot of those gangster sort of characters.”

Paul, who left school at 15, did not have many good career prospects, but wanted to avoid following a criminal path.

Instead he chose to be a ticket tout — buying and selling tickets for events to make a profit — like his older brother, which is not illegal.

Paul recalled: “I had the choice. I could do crime — sell drugs. Or I could sell tickets and become a tout.”

Cillian, on the other hand, enjoyed a far more comfortable, middle-class upbringing in Cork, in the south of Ireland.

His dad, Brendan, worked for the department of education and his mum, Jane, taught French.

They sent him to one of Ireland’s top private schools, the Catholic Presentation Brothers College in Cork.

Cillian, who has two sisters and a brother, went to study law at university but dropped out after the first year because he realised he wanted to be up on stage.

And in his youth, he was just as keen to be a musician as an actor.

That is one thing that links him with Paul, who once admitted: “I always wanted to be a frontman in a band.”

Instead, Paul also decided to try his hand at acting, signing up for Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and then going into theatre.

The occasional TV and stage roles, however, were not enough to make ends meet, so Paul kept up his ticket scalping.

His big break came along by chance.

Paul was selling tickets for Chelsea’s Champions League match against Spanish giants Barcelona in May 2009 when film director Nick Love bought some from him.

I always wanted to be a frontman in a band

Paul Anderson

Nick thought this unknown would be perfect for the lead role of West Ham football hooligan Bex in his upcoming movie The Firm.

From there, Paul’s career really kicked off, as he starred in Love’s cinema version of The Sweeney, Brian De Palma’s Passion and TV shows such as Top Boy.

Cillian took a more conventional route to the top, pursuing his acting dream on the stage and appearing in small-budget films.

It wasn’t until he moved to London in 2001 that the Irishman started to become a household name.

He won fans thanks to eye-catching performances in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later in 2002, as villain The Scarecrow in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins in 2005 and as the lead in The Wind That Shakes The Barley which, in 2006, scooped the Palme d’Or, the top award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Paul had hoped to secure the part of Tommy when Peaky Blinders was being cast more than a decade ago.

But he was happy to land the role of Arthur when Cillian signed up.

Fans of the surprise BBC hit, which included gritty storylines and violence not normally associated with the public broadcaster, were just as fascinated by Arthur as they were by Tommy.

The sibling tension, which saw the pair arguing about various danger-ous schemes, is central to the drama’s success.

During its nine-year run it moved from BBC Two to BBC One, saw Tom Hardy and Anya Taylor-Joy join the cast and attracted celeb fans, including Hollywood icon Tom Cruise.

Suddenly, it was both Paul and Cillian who were international names, yet neither actor has been comfortable with the attention.

Cillian has found it “offensive” when fans take photographs of him in public and opts not to post images on social media.

The private actor moved back to Ireland in 2015 with his artist wife Yvonne McGuinness, who he has been married to for some 20 years, and their children.

He chooses to work only six months a year to spend more time with his family.

Cillian, who met Yvonne in 1996, said: “I make sure that I try not to go from job to job to job, because that means you live in a bubble of set, hotel, set, hotel, plane, film festivals, which, to me, is not reality

"So I just check out from that for six months a year.”

That approach has certainly not harmed Cillian’s career, because he has already won a Bafta and a Golden Globe this year for his performance in Nolan’s Oppenheimer, a dramatisation of the creation of the first nuclear weapon.

Paul hasn’t spoken about his romantic relationships, as he tends to keep a low profile, though he was linked with jewellery designer Stephy Clark for some time.

He does post on Instagram, and also hangs out with fellow stars such as Tom Hardy and Guy Ritchie.

At what point his social life took a dark turn is unclear.

It was certainly a shock when Paul turned up at Highbury Corner magistrates court in North London towards the end of January accused of possessing crack cocaine, amphetamines and two prescription drugs.

I feel like an impostor a lot of the time in my life

Paul Anderson

His solicitor denied he had smoked the highly addictive, banned substance, but Paul pleaded guilty to possession and was given a fine of £1,345.

The Sun also revealed last month that a colleague on Peaky Blinders had complained about Paul’s behaviour, but he denied any wrongdoing.

There are concerns that if the actor is going through a personal crisis it could upset plans for the forthcoming Peaky Blinders movie, which is in the pipeline.

He has hinted in the past that handling his success has not been easy.

Five years ago, Paul said: “I feel like an impostor a lot of the time in my life.

“I still look at myself sometimes and think, ‘I can’t do this’.

“I have this tremendous self-belief and ego and drive, but I also have this low self-worth and crippling self-doubt.”

Fans will be hoping this brilliant actor can overcome those fears.