Bernard Hill (1944-2024)
Sunday, May 5, 2024 at 8:00PM 
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003) Peter Jackson
Today, sad news comes from England. Actor Bernard Hill has passed away at the age of 79, comforted by his family to the end.
Among Oscar obsessives, Hill is best known for his appearances in Titanic and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. For James Cameron, he played the stalwart captain of the doomed ship, while Peter Jackson saw him embody Théoden, King of Rohan. Both roles share a touch of quiet authority, power laced with the deep sorrow of someone responsible for countless other lives. Hill's very presence seemed to project these qualities, making him a dream character actor, able to shape a movie's tonalities with little more than a glance, a shift of posture, a sigh. To this day, he's the only actor to star in two of the Academy's all-time champions, pictures with eleven Oscars each…
BOYS FROM BLACKSTUFF (1982) Philip Saville
Born December 17th, 1944, in Manchester, Bernard Hill grew up within a family of miners. Despite such humble origins, he didn't let class barriers stop him from pursuing studies in drama, taking strides into the acting business. Befitting such background, his screen debut came through Mike Leigh, who directed him in one episode of Plays for Today. The TV movie, titled Hard Labour, revolved around the plights of a house cleaner, contrasting her life with the woman for whom she works. It's considered one of Leigh's most personal works, set around the same places where the director's family lived and he grew up.
That was the first of many supporting roles for Bernard Hill, who spent much of the 1970s exploring the ever-growing world of British television. In 1976, he made his theatrical debut with Trial by Combat, a Kevin Connor adventure movie where he was little more than a bit player, simply credited as "Blind Freddie – beggar." Going through the actor's filmography, one finds many such roles, but his opportunities grew with time. By 1982, Hill was ready for his breakthrough and first iconic character – Yosser Hughes in Alan Bleasdale's BBC production of Boys from the Blackstuff.
As a working-class Liverpudlian neglected by the welfare system, Hill got the best reviews of his life and, for the first time, a sort of wide recognition that had always been out of reach. Through his performance, the chronically unemployed Yosser grew to become a symbol of Thatcher's England, his story like a rallying cry. Indeed, his catchphrase – "gizza job" – was repeated by protesters, a cheeky yet furious demand for paid labor. At the following year's BAFTAs, Hill was honored with his first nomination. Though he lost to Alec Guinness in Smiley's People, it still meant a lot. In fact, one can see the effects it had on his career.
DROWNING BY NUMBERS (1988) Peter Greenaway
A bit player no more, Bernard Hill started appearing in larger roles, some supporting work in prestige movies and lofty TV productions, too. For example, in 1984, he joined Anthony Hopkins in another big screen dramatization of the HMS Bounty mutiny, and, by 1988, he was starring in Peter Greenaway's Baroque nightmares. I'd go so far as to describe his part in Drowning by Numbers as some of the best stuff Hill ever did, tapping into the material's nastiness while preserving its humor, the detachment of a mathematical presentation. It's a treacherous balancing act, but Hill aces it as if it were nothing, taking to Greenaway's stylized registers as a duck to water.
Other notable projects of this period in the actor's career included Shirley Valentine, Mountains of the Moon, Madagascar Skin, First Knight, and The Ghost and the Darkness. That was on the big screen, of course. On stage, Hill grew into his leading man potential, playing Shakespeare's Macbeth and Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, with Miller's A View from the Bridge thrown in for good measure. But of course, in retrospect, it feels as if it was all leading to that legendary ship whose tragedy fascinated James Cameron.
TITANIC (1997) James Cameron
Titanic's success allowed Hill to become a regular presence in Hollywood blockbusters, though they seldom allowed him to show his range. Nevertheless, he continued to thrive and, in 2002, appeared in the second chapter of Peter Jackson's Tolkien adaptation. He enters The Two Towers in spellbound catatonia, a decrepit puppet that's more ghost than man. Still, as the supernatural powers controlling him slip away, Hill's Théoden rises to the occasion, rising again as the glorious leader he always was beneath the curse. Between that and The Return of the King, Hill delivers a magnificent turn, kingly in all regards.
Though he never found a more iconic film role, Bernard Hill kept working to the end. In 2006, he was nominated for both the BAFTAs and International Emmys for playing the lead in A Very Social Secretary, a political satire on the incestuous relationship between politics and the media. Only two years ago, he won a Best Supporting Actor prize from a Horror Film Festival for his late-career work in The Moor. His last film is Henk Pretorious' Forever Young since, while he was attached to Grahame Wood's The Pub, that project remains in pre-production.
THE MOOR (2022) Chris Cronin
What about you, dear reader? What are your favorite Bernard Hill movies? And which performance will you treasure as we mourn the actor's passing?
Reader Comments (5)
As much as I love him for the LoTR stuff as well as his performance in Titanic, he is also great in Wimbledon as Paul Bettany's dad as someone who is forced to live in a tree house because he and the wife are going through a spat as he finds some newfound life when Bettany starts to win again. It's an underrated performance from a film that doesn't get much love.
Yes, he's good in Titanic, but now I'm feeling like an idiot. A long time ago I watched Drowning by Numbers several times (I was very much into Greenaway when I was in my 20s and that and A Zed & Two Noughts were my favorites) and I never put two and two together and thought about that actor being *that* Bernanrd Hill. He's great in Drowning by Numbers.
When I think of him i'm immediately reminded of his chauvanistic ultimately likeable husband to Shirley Valentine.
I always cry at Theoden’s speech on the hillside. I get such great satisfaction from his progression as the barnacled bleary king held in thrall, to the valiant warrior and king of the Rohan.
I also have affection for Hill’s role in “Wimbledon”, paired up with the wonderful Eleanor Bron as the eccentric idiosyncratic parents of the tennis champion Paul Bettany.
Oh, thevoid99! I see I agree with you, sorry I didn’t read your post right away.