Bernard Hill

Bernard Hill
Hill in 2004
Born	(1944-12-17)17 December 1944 Blackley, Manchester, England
Died	5 May 2024(2024-05-05) (aged 79) Reydon, Suffolk, England
Education	Xaverian College
Alma mater	Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1970–2024
Spouse	Marianna Hill
Children	2

Bernard Hill (17 December 1944 – 5 May 2024) was an English actor. He first came to prominence as troubled hard man Yosser Hughes in Alan Bleasdale's Play for Today drama The Black Stuff (1980) and its sequel serial Boys from the Blackstuff (1982), the latter earning him a nomination for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor. He received an additional nomination for his role as David Blunkett in the drama A Very Social Secretary (2005), for which he was also nominated for an International Emmy Award for Best Performance by an Actor. He also appeared on television in I, Claudius (1976), the BBC Television Shakespeare productions of Henry VI, Part 1, 2, and 3, and Richard III (all 1983), Great Expectations (1999), and Wolf Hall (2015).

Hill gained international recognition for his film roles as Captain Edward Smith in Titanic (1997) and Théoden, King of Rohan, in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2002-2003). He is the only actor to appear in both Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) which are two of only three films to receive 11 Academy Awards, making him the only actor to appear in more than one film which holds that record. His other film roles include Gandhi (1982), The Bounty (1984), Shirley Valentine (1989), The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), True Crime (1999), Valkyrie (2008), and ParaNorman (2012).