Veteran British actor Bernard Hill, best known for his roles in The Lord of the Rings and Titanic, passed away at the age of 79 on Sunday.
Actress-singer Barbara Dickson confirmed the news on X (formerly Twitter). “It’s with great sadness that I note the death of Bernard Hill. We worked together in John Paul George Ringo and Bert, Willy Russell marvellous show 1974-1975. A really marvellous actor. It was a privilege to have crossed paths with him. RIP Benny x,” she wrote on the microblogging platform alongside an old picture of her and Hill.
Hailing from Manchester, England, Hill gained fame through his portrayal of Yosser Hughes in the highly praised BBC TV series Boys from the Blackstuff. His portrayal of Hughes, a character confronting unemployment in Liverpool during the early 1980s, garnered him extensive acclaim and a nomination for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award in 1983, with the show clinching the BAFTA for best drama series.
Hill's notable contributions to cinema include his role as King Théoden in the second instalment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Two Towers in 2002. He reprised the role in the critically acclaimed Return of the King which clinched 11 Oscars.
In Titanic, Hill portrayed Captain Edward Smith, a character based on the reallife captain of the ship. The James Cameron-directed 1997 epic romance clinched 11 Academy Awards.
