British actor Bernard Hill, known primarily for his role as Captain Edward Smith in “Titanic” and King of Rohan Theoden in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, has died – his agent announced on Sunday. The actor was 79 years old.
Thanks to his appearances in “Titanic” (1997) and the third part of the trilogy “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003), he became the only actor in history to play in two films that won a record 11 Oscars.
“Bernard was a true gentleman and an extremely talented artist. He was an amazing man and we are saddened by the news of his death. We express our sincerest condolences to his family. We will miss him very much,” his acting agency wrote in a statement.
Bernard Hill died at the age of 79Shutterstock
Hill was born in 1944 in Manchester, where he graduated in acting in 1970. He was a film, theater and television actor. His first major role was as Yosser Hughes, a Liverpool resident who struggled and often failed to cope with unemployment, in the early 1980s BBC television drama “Boys from the Blackstuff.” For this role he was nominated for a British Film Industry BAFTA Award.
Another significant role was as Luther Plunkitt, the warden of San Quentin Prison in Clint Eastwood's 1999 film “True Crime.” In 2015, he also played the role of Thomas Howard in the BBC's six-part adaptation of Hilary Mantel's novel “In the Chambers of Wolf Hall”.
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