With his rippling biceps and toned pecs, Hollywood star Colin Farrell used to look as though he was ready to burst out of his clothes.

These days, the Irish actor is in danger of disappearing inside of them after losing massive amounts of weight.

The emaciated 32-year-old was snapped during a night out in Spain at the weekend.

It was impossible to miss his hollow cheeks, sunken chest and stick-thin legs as he puffed away on a cigarette.

Onlookers wondered if he was slowly transforming into fellow Irishman, fallen snooker star Alex "Hurricane" Higgins.

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Spanish steps: A gaunt-looking Colin Farrell is the spit of snooker player Alex Higgins

Higgins shot to fame in 1972 when he became the youngest ever world snooker champion at the age of 23 - a feat he repeated 10 years later.

Like Farrell, the Hurricane has a legendary capacity for booze, cigarettes and womanising. He battled back from throat cancer in 1998, but all that fast living now looks to have caught up with the 59-year-old.

There was speculation that Farrell had shed weight because of the demands of the film he is currently shooting in the southern Spanish city of Alicante.

He is starring alongside Spanish actress Paz Vega and British film veteran Christopher Lee in a thriller entitled Triage.

It tells the story of a war photographer who loses his best friend during a harrowing assignment in war-torn Bosnia during the early 1990s.

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Fit: Farrell hung on to his muscles when he starred in a film version of the cop show Miami Vice

Farrell is renowned for throwing himself into his movie roles - he worked out for months to improve his physique before taking the role of Alexander in the 2004 Oliver Stone flop.

And he hung on to his buff look to take the part of Sonny Crocket two years later in Miami Vice.

Buff: Colin as Alexander the Great

Friends will be hoping he hasn't returned to his hell-raising ways of old. In December 2005, Farrell voluntarily checked into a rehabilitation treatment center for addictions to recreational drugs and painkillers.

The star has a son, James, with American model Kim Bordenave, who was born in 2003. Last year, Farrell revealed that James has Angelman Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterised by intellectual and developmental delay, speech impediment, sleep disturbance and seizures.

The Irishman moved back to Los Angeles from his home in Dublin to be nearer the youngster.

Farrell recently revealed how fatherhood had changed him. He told a reporter: "I think it only changes you if you want it to change you, it didn't change me for about two years until I curbed a certain way I was living."