Colin Michael Maurice Cashman, Baron Cashman is a British actor, dancer, politician, and LGBT rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands from 1999 to 2014. He has been a member of the House of Lords since 2014. He is a patron of Humanists UK.
A former child actor, Cashman had a long career, principally on television in supporting roles. His first television appearance was in the 14th episode "The Tin God" of the ITC series Gideon's Way filmed in 1964 and aired in 1965. He appeared with the National Youth Theatre in Zigger Zagger at the Strand Theatre in the West End in March 1968. In 1980, Cashman was a regular in series two and three of ITV's The Sandbaggers as Sandbagger 2 (initially Sandbagger 3). He also played First Officer Bilton in the Doctor Who serial Time-Flight in March 1982.
Cashman had been in the business for more than 20 years when he landed the role of Colin Russell in the BBC's soap opera EastEnders in 1986. In 1989 the character had the first same-sex mouth-to-mouth kiss in a British soap, watched by an estimated 17 million people and leading to some MPs calling for EastEnders to be taken off-air. He remained a regular character in the series until 1989. He also appeared at the National Theatre in Martin Sherman's play Bent with Ian McKellen, where his understudy was Christopher Eccleston. It was announced on 25 August 2016 that Cashman would reprise his role as Colin Russell in EastEnders for two episodes in September. Cashman briefly reprised the role again in 2022 for the funeral of Dot Branning (June Brown).
