CORONATION Street hunk Sam Retford has been involved in some dramatic storylines so far in the ITV soap – but what else do we know about the star?
Sam, who portrays Curtis Delamere, recently revealed to fiancée Emma that he had a heart condition – but his confession wasn’t all it seemed.
However, after a shocking incident on the cobbles this week, Emma soon discovered that Curtis has been lying to her.
Viewers were shocked when the revelation was made by Curtis’ doctor that there was nothing wrong with his heart.
Appearing on ITV‘s Lorraine earlier this week, Sam revealed: “Fictitious illness disorder is this psychosomatic disorder that kind of plays on past trauma and neglect, so it’s a really debilitating disorder.
“It’s very real and I’ve spoken to people who have it and I’ve spoken to a lot of psychologists and clinical psychiatrists about their views on it.”
Since Sam joined the soap in 2021 as Curtis, he has become one of the soap’s most recognisable faces.
Rival soap role
Before walking onto the Weatherfield cobbles, Sam starred in rival soap Hollyoaks.
At the age of 15 years old, he landed his first major television role as Nate in the Channel 4 spin-off series Tom’s Life.
Following on from that, viewers soon recognised Sam in another of his famous roles – Cory Wilson in the hit series Ackley Bridge.
He also starred in Death in Paradise and The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family, before he joined the cast of Coronation Street earlier this year.
Speaking of his involvement in Corrie, Sam told The Mirror that working on the soap is a “wicked new experience”.
He said: “Learning and unlearning things – on my first day I came in with a prerequisite of how I’ve worked before.
“You have to just throw that all in the bin – it’s totally different psychologically and it’s a good training ground.”
Film link
Away from the screen, Sam revealed to the Daily Star that he has a secret film role behind the scenes.
Last year, he worked on the short film S.A.M, about two people who meet in their local park one day and form a close bond.
Alongside fellow creatives Neil Ely and Lloyd Eyre-Morgan, Sam is also a co-founder of the film production company that made it.
Talking about the production company, he said: “We’re just a really creative bunch of people. We endeavour to make social commentary films, films that tell stories.
“We do everything. We build the sets, we write it, shoot it, grade it, all of the stuff.
“We’ve even got an original song in White Wedding by Eliot Kennedy, the guy who did the music for the Spice Girls, so that’s really exciting.”
Imposter hell
After rising to fame, Sam also revealed to the Daily Star that he found people impersonating him online.
After the shocking revelation, he deleted his Facebook and his Twitter accounts.
Despite not having much of a presence on social media, he does post photos of him outdoors on Instagram.
“It’s a place for me to post pictures of me – with trees,” he said.
“I got rid of Facebook and Twitter. It’s negative and takes a very strong-minded person to confront that every day.
“I had incidents of people organising to meet up with a fake me – that could be dangerous.”
The star added that he has been the victim of trolling via social media in the past, too.
He added: “Messages come in and go from being complimentary when they see you’re not engaging, then it becomes malicious.
“You can see it’s there to spark a reaction.”
Home Down Under
Despite being raised in Cheshire, Sam was actually born in Gosford, Australia on June 22, 1999.
However, despite having started life in Australia, he told the website Northern Soul that Manchester will always be his home.
“I’ve always called Manchester home,” said Sam, adding: “I love it over here and it’s where my family is.
“It all started for me at school. I was the loud kid, so teachers put me in the front for every assembly and school play.
“I just fell into it that way and started also doing plays outside of school.”
Before finding his feet in the acting world, Sam aspired to be a marine biologist due to his love of the outdoors.
