He has appeared in film and on television alongside such stars as Gwyneth Paltrow, Minnie Driver, Helen Mirren and James Nesbitt.

So it is hardly surprising he gets asked for his autograph in his home town.

But Trevor Blackman's celebrity status in Sussex is more baffling when you consider he has never been on the screen for more than a minute.

Trevor, known to his friends as Disco Dave, only embarked on his career as a prolific film extra three years ago but already enjoys cult status in Worthing.

Trevor, 42, of Victoria Road, Worthing, said: "People come up to me and ask me for my autograph. I've done a bit of film work but I'm not that famous.

"I'm always chatting to people anyway and after I did Calendar Girls people were coming up to me in the street and telling me they saw me in it."

Trevor's other notable work - for which he is typically paid £67 a day - includes several appearances on Five's soap Family Affairs, as a Press photographer in Footballers' Wives and sharing the limelight with 500 extras as an airport security guard in Mike Bassett, England Manager, which starred Ricky Tomlinson.

Trevor has also been in several adverts and BBC dramas and was in a Mike Leigh film - where he "spent three days doing nothing and I wasn't even seen on the screen" - appropriately called Money For Nothing.

Trevor, whose film hero is Robert de Niro, doesn't usually talk to the stars of his films but has had brushes with celebrity.

He said: "I did Ted And Sylvia with Gwyneth Paltrow. I didn't speak to her but I did see her on set.

"I was chatting to one of the extras and I kept getting in the way and she kept having to come up and say 'Excuse me'. She was so polite."

Although his roles are never speaking parts, Trevor's work can be physically demanding.

He was asked to come down a set of stairs 20 times for his role as a paramedic in the feature-length remake of Sixties cult puppet series Thunderbirds.

And he spent a chilly morning walking in and out of the sea in wartime drama D-Day, to be screened next June.

He said: "When I know I'm in a film I go to the Connaught and see it.

"I have spoken to the people next to me and said 'I'm in that scene'.

"But I don't ask for autographs of famous people on film sets.

"I never bother - I'm a professional. It's no big deal and they are just doing a job."

When Trevor is not acting, he travels around the country entering talent competitions with his disco dancing act - hence his nickname.

He said: "At the moment, I'm trying to fit in the acting with the competitions.

"I don't get paid for the competitions so sometimes I'm doing that but I'm missing out on the film work.

"With the talent shows, you are performing in front of a live audience so you get that adrenaline.

"My dream is to get a main part in a film or develop my disco dancing, just touring around."