Bye-bye Borat

Los Angeles - Sacha Baron Cohen has retired from playing his most popular characters Borat and Bruno.

The 44-year-old actor and screenwriter has revealed he will never again portray the controversial alter egos, because he fears for the safety of himself and his family - wife Isla Fisher, 39, and three children, daughters Olive and Elula and son Montgomery - as he made films and TV shows on the premise they were real people and hence put himself in several dangerous positions.

Speaking about his films Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and Bruno, Sacha revealed: "I miss those roles but cannot do them as I have responsibility for my family. Being in a wild situation when you're deep in character, and nobody realising you're not real - that's the ultimate adrenaline. But I'm too old for it - and you start feeling irresponsible when you have a family."

British actor Sacha - who first shot to fame portraying fake youth culture interviewer Ali G on TV - received numerous death threats for his America-mocking satire in those films and the threats on his life only increased after 2009's Bruno - in which he portrayed a gay Austrian fashion reporter of the same name trying to become famous in the States.

Speaking ahead of the Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night, he explained: "I always received death threats, but they increased after Bruno. You have to have the mindset that if something bad happens everyone is going to be fine."