Bernard Hill was an English actor known for roles in two films, both of which won 11 Oscars: He played King Theoden in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and Captain Edward Smith in “Titanic.”
- Died: May 5, 2024 (Who else died on May 5?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 79.
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Bernard Hill’s legacy
Hill went to Xaverian College and Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama, earning a degree in drama, and by the early 1970s was getting screen roles. His breakthrough came with the BBC series “The Black Stuff” and its sequel series, “Boys from the Black Stuff,” which explored the lives of the struggling working class. He had minor roles in “I, Claudius,” “Ghandi,” and others, before gaining mainstream recognition when he portrayed Captain Edward Smith in James Cameron’s epic “Titanic.” The film won 11 Oscars.
Hill was in another film that won 11 Academy Awards just a few years later, when he played King Theoden in the second and third films of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” The final film in the trilogy, “The Return of the King,” also earned 11 Oscars – winning in all the categories for which it was nominated – and features one of Hill’s most beloved moments: the iconic Ride of the Rohirrim.
Other key Hill roles include appearances in the Tom Cruise film “Valkyrie,” playing Philos in “The Scorpion King,” and a starring role alongside Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas in “The Ghost and the Darkness.”
On the unexpected success of Titanic
“People were really worried about it, and people were saying how do you know this is going to work? But I remember meeting up with some of the cast afterwards and discussed times people had seen it – 25, 40 times in the theatre and I met this one kid who had seen it 80 times.”— Interview with the Norwich Film Festival, 2011
Tributes to Bernard Hill
Full obituary: Deadline
