Actor Bernard Hill, known for his roles in “The Lord of the Rings” and “Titanic,” died Sunday, May 5, at the age of 79.
"We will never forget you". It is with these words that actor Elijah Wood, legendary interpreter of Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, paid tribute to Bernard Hill, who played the king of Rohan, Theoden, in Peter Jackson's adaptation. The British actor died this Sunday, May 5 at the age of 79, his agent announced, without giving further details on the causes of his death.
Elijah Wood is not the only one to have saluted the memory of "our friend, our king", who "had a gentle heart [...] and always remained true to himself". At Liverpool Comic Con this weekend, other actors from the Lord of the Rings trilogy paid a vibrant tribute to Bernard Hill: “We loved him: he was fearless, he was funny, he was gruff, he was angry, he was magnificent", commented Sean Astin (Sam) with humor, before Billy Boyd (Pippin) added: "we were watching the films and I told Dom (Merry) that no one played Tolkien's words as well as Bernard. He broke my heart and he will be greatly missed."
Born in 1944 in Manchester, Bernard Hill has played in the theater, on television and in the cinema. He was revealed in England in the 1970s, in the multi-award winning television series Boys from the Blackstuff, in which he played the unemployed Yosser Hughes.
It was on the big screen that he was best known internationally, playing memorable supporting roles in the seventh art: King Theoden of Rohan in The Lord of the Rings (the last two films from 2002 to 2003) therefore, but also Captain Edward Smith in Titanic (1997). Furthermore, Bernard Hill's face could be seen in other works, such as in At the Sources of the Nile by Rob Rafelson (1990) or Judged Guilty by Clint Eastwood (1999).
