Bernard Hill

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Bernard Hill
Bernard Hill, October 2004
Born	17 December 1944 (1944-12-17) (age 64) Manchester, England, UK
Occupation	actor
Years active	1975 - present

Bernard Hill (born 17 December 1944) is a British actor of film, stage and television. In a career spanning thirty years, he is best know for playing Captain Edward John Smith in Titanic, King Théoden in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, and as the Warden of San Quentin Prison in the Clint Eastwood film True Crime. Hill is the only actor to have appeared in more than one of the three films awarded 11 Oscars, and in more than one film grossing more than $1 billion USD, namely: Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Career 1.3 Personal life 2 Selected stage and screen credits 2.1 Theatre 2.2 Filmography 2.3 Television 3 References and notes 4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Hill was born in Manchester, England. He attended Xaverian College although at the time it was known as "Xaverian School", and then Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama at the same time as Richard Griffiths. He graduated with a diploma in theatre in 1970.^[1]

[edit] Career

Hill first came to prominence in Britain through his portrayal of Yosser Hughes, a working-class man ultimately driven to the edge by an uncaring system, in Alan Bleasdale's BBC Play for Today The Black Stuff and its more famous series sequel (also by Bleasdale), Boys from the Blackstuff.^[2] His character's much-repeated phrase "Gizza job" ("Give us a job")^[3] became popular with protesters against Margaret Thatcher's government, because of the high unemployment of the time.^[4]

He had previously taken smaller parts in a number of British television dramas, notably appearing as the no-nonsense Roman soldier Gratus in I, Claudius, and as Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York in the BBC's 1982 productions of Shakespeare's Henry VI plays. In addition to TV roles, Hill appeared on stage in The Cherry Orchard, and the title roles in Macbeth and A View from the Bridge.

Hill became known to a worldwide audience when he was cast in the role of King Théoden of Rohan in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy based on Tolkien's novel trilogy of the same name. Before casting him as King Théoden, director Peter Jackson considered Hill for the part of Gandalf. When he was due to leave the set at the end of production, Peter Jackson gave Hill two gifts, Théoden's helmet and sword Herugrim.

At the 2006 BAFTA Television Awards, Hill was nominated for the 'Best Actor' award for his portrayal of David Blunkett in the one-off satirical drama A Very Social Secretary/

[edit] Personal life

Hill currently lives in Suffolk. He is married, and has a son called Gabriel.^[5]

[edit] Selected stage and screen credits

[edit] Theatre

Year	Play	Role	Theatre
1974	John, Paul, George, Ringo... and Bert	John Lennon	Lyric Theatre, London
1978	Twelfth Night	Toby Belch	Young Vic, London
1983	Short List	Howard	Hampstead Theatre, London
1986	Macbeth	Macbeth	Haymarket Theatre, Leicester
1989	The Cherry Orchard	Lopakhin	Aldwych Theatre, London
1990	Gasping	Sir Chiffley Lockheart	Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London
1995	A View from the Bridge	Eddie Carbone	Strand Theatre, London

Information taken from filmreference.com^[6]

[edit] Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1975	It Could Happen to You	Syph
1976	A Choice of Weapons	Blind Freddie	Film also known as Dirty Knight's Work, A Choice of Arms, and Trial by Combat
1978	The Sailor's Return	Carter
1982	Ghandi	Sergeant Putnam
1983	Squaring the Circle	Narrator	Documentary
1983	Runners	Trevor Field
1984	The Bounty	Cole
1985	Restless Natives	Will's father
1985	The Chain	Nick
1985	Samson and Delilah	Willie Naknervis
1986	Milwr Bychan	Officer	Film also known as Boy Soldier
1986	New World	John Billington
1986	No Surrender	Bernard
1987	Bellman and True	Hiller
1988	Drowning by Numbers	Henry Madgett
1989	Shirley Valentine	Joe Bradshaw
1990	Mountains of the Moon	Dr. David Livingston
1991	The Law Lord	Martin Allport
1992	The Name of the Game	Ignatius "Iggy" Smith	Film also known as Run Rabbit Run and Double X
1993	Shepherd on the Rock	Tam Ferrier
1994	Skallagrigg	John
1994	Drug Taking and the Arts	Presenter and narrator	Documentary
1995	Madagascar Skin	Flint
1996	The Ghost and the Darkness	Dr. Hawthorne
1997	The Wind in the Willows	Engine driver	Film also known as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
1997	Titanic	Captain E. J. Smith	One of two films in which Hill stars, that have won 11 Oscars.
1997	The Mill on the Floss	Edwards Tulliver
1999	The Titanic Chronicles	Captain S. Lord
1999	The Criminal	Walker
1999	True Crime	Lunther Plunkitt
1999	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Egeus	Film also known as Sogno di una notte di mezza estate
1999	The Loss of Sexual Innocence	Susan's father
2000	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	King Theoden
2000	Blessed Art Thou	Frederick
2000	Einstein	Voice of Stalin	Film also known as The Furnace
2000	Going Off Big Time	Murray
2002	The Scorpion King	Philos
2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	King Theoden
2003	The Boys from County Clare	John Joe
2003	Gothika	Phil Parsons
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	King Theoden	The second film in which Hill stared, that won 11 Oscars
2004	Wimbledon	Edward Colt
2004	The Deal	Victor	Short film
2005	The League of Gentleman:The Apocalypse	King William
2006	Joy Division	Dennis
2006	Save Angel Hope	Oscar Kurz
2007	Exodus	N/A	Film made for television. Broadcast on Channel 4
2008	Valkyrie	Unnamed role as German Officer

Information taken from filmreference.com^[7], netglisme.com^[8], and The Internet Movie Database^[9]

[edit] Television

Year	Programme	Role	Episodes	Broadcasting Network
1973	Hard Labour	N/A	N/A	BBC
1976	I, Claudius	Gratus	1	BBC
1978	Pickersgill People	N/A	1	BBC
1979	Telford's Change	Jack Burton	1	BBC
1980	Fox	Vin Fox	11	ITV
1979	The Black Stuff	Yosser Hughes	5	BBC
1982	Boys from the Black Stuff	Yosser Hughes	5	BBC
1982	Henry VI	Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York	1	BBC
1985	The Burston Rebellion	Tom Higdon	1	BBC
1993	Olly's Prison	Mike	1	BBC
1994	Once Upon a Time in the North	Len Tollit	N/A	BBC
2001	Horizon	Narrator	9	BBC
2002	Timewatch	Narrator	1	BBC
2004	Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief	Himself	1	BBC
2005	A Very Social Secretary	David Blunkett	1	BBC
2008	Sunshine	Granddad Crosby	3	BBC

Information taken from The Internet Movie Database^[10]

[edit] References and notes

[edit] External links

• Bernard Hill at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with BBC Suffolk