NEWPORT-BORN Hollywood star Michael Sheen has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award - for a thoroughly unusual reason.

The Good Omens star has been handed the accolade for "positive promotion of facial hair in the public arena over a sustained period".

The prestigious award is handed out by the Beard Liberation Front, which last year named Mr Sheen, alongside children's author and poet Michael Rosen, as winners of its Joint Beard of the Year 2020 title.

The organisation said the star of HBO's Masters of Sex was not eligible for this year's title - which was awarded again to Michael Rosen - as he had shaved his impressive facial hair earlier in the year, and appeared clean-shaven in new film Last Train to Christmas, which premiered earlier this month.

The campaigners say that Mr Sheen’s bearded image had become "iconic", and his announcement earlier this year that he would become a "not for profit actor", "underlined the positive impact of his beard power".

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said: "The annual Beard of the Year Award is given to someone who has consistently worn a beard during the calendar year.

"For professional reasons Michael Sheen hasn’t been able to do that. However with the Lifetime Achievement Award we have resolved to recognise the significant positive impact his beard has had on the appreciation that facial hair can be a force for progress in society."