Rab Affleck began his film career in a rather unusual way. In his younger days, he earned his living as a tradesman (time-served), but also fought as a semi-professional boxer. So good was he, he even fought for the British Heavyweight title. However, it was his experience of bare knuckle fighting that brought him to the attention of the producers of The Big Man (1990) starring the pre-Schindler's List (1993) Liam Neeson. He was initially asked to advise on the 'sport' but after several meetings it was decided to cast him in a prominent role, as Cutty Dawson. Since then, he has generally typecast as the archetypal Scottish hard man, but has also done comedy in BBC's Screen One production, Screen One: Down Among the Big Boys (1993), where he played a character with the name of Bungalow!