Actor Bernard Hill, Who Was in Titanic & Lord of the Rings, Dies at 79

By
Kimi Tan
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Actor Bernard Hill, who is known for his roles in Titanic and Lord Of The Rings, has died.

According to his agent, Lou Coulson, the 79-year-old died on the morning of 5 May.

His fiancee Alison and his son Gabriel were with him when he passed.

On the day Hill died, the second series of the BBC drama The Responder (2024) – in which he played the father of the show’s star, Martin Freeman – aired.

Hill in Titanic

Hill played Captain Edward Smith in Titanic. The 1997 tragic romance, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, won 11 Academy Awards.

In the movie, Hill’s character doesn’t board the limited lifeboats leaving the sinking ship. Instead, he silently retreats and admires the interior of the ship for the last time.

As the cabin groans under the pressure of the waves, he takes a final breath and clutches the wheel as water bursts through the windows and the captain goes down with his ship.

Hill in Lord Of The Rings

Hill made his debut in the Lord Of The Rings franchise in the second film of the trilogy. He played Théoden, King of Rohan in Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002).

The next year, he reprised the role in Return Of The King, which won 11 Oscars.

In Return Of The King, Hill’s character delivered a battle cry on horseback and charged with his overmatched troops downhill towards the enemy and his own imminent death.

Hill’s Breakout Role

Hill’s breakout role was in the BBC TV drama Boys from the Blackstuff (1982), a miniseries about five unemployed men.

The following year, Hill was nominated for an award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for his role as Yosser Hughes in the miniseries, which won the BAFTA for best drama series.

The show also ranked seventh on a British Film Institute list of the best TV shows ever made.

Tributes

Hill was meant to be at Comic Con Liverpool (4 to 6 May 2024) on 4 May, but had to cancel at the last minute, the convention said in a post on X.

Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd, the actors who played the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, paid tribute to their co-star at Comic Con.

“We love him,” said Astin. “He was intrepid, he was funny, he was gruff, he was irascible, he was beautiful.”

“I don’t think anyone spoke Tolkien’s words as great as Bernard did. He would break my heart. He will be solely missed,” said Boyd.

Lindsay Salt, the director of BBC Drama, has also paid a tribute to Hill, saying: “Bernard Hill blazed a trail across the screen, and his long-lasting career filled with iconic and remarkable roles is a testament to his incredible talent.”

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Kimi Tan