AN UP-AND-COMING Bolton-le-Sands actor has made his big screen debut in the multi-million pound sword and sandals epic Alexander.

Hollywood movie director Oliver Stone handpicked 23-year-old actor Michael Dixon from hundreds of hopefuls for his latest £80 million movie.

The actor was still studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art when he auditioned for the role of Macedonian soldier Dimnus in the film chronicling the life of Alexander the Great.

"I was still at drama school when I auditioned and I was just using it as experience," explained Mr Dixon, who appeared alongside the likes of Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie in the film. "But then I got a message saying I had to meet Oliver Stone, so I just turned up and learnt my lines. I did a ten-minute stand-up routine which he seemed to like."

The actor, who was put through a three-week boot camp in the Moroccan desert to learn to live like Alexander's soldiers, appeared in frontline battle shots and shared a death scene with Colin Farrell.

"I had to prepare myself mentally for it. There were thousands of people everywhere on the set," he said. "It was good that my first scene was a battle scene because of the adrenalin. This was what I had been working for, for years, it was magical."

The actor also accused the British press of "jumping on the bandwagon" after they panned the film which made one American critic hiss: "Alexander is full of brilliant highlights, but they're all in Colin Farrell's hair."

Mr Dixon is now filming a LWT detective drama Vincent alongside actor Ray Winstone, that is due to be broadcast later this year.

Educated in both Bolton-le-Sands and Morecambe, the young actor has thespian blood coursing through his veins - his mother Marcelline, who still lives in Bolton-le-Sands, is an actress.

Mr Dixon's musician brother, Geoff, also lives in the village while his sister, Melanie, who is a nurse, lives in Arnside and his other brother is a dancer.

His late father, Geoff, created the famed Flying Dutchman at Milnthorpe in the late 1950s and later ran Pontin's holiday camp at Middleton.