Bernard Hill

Bernard Hill (17 December 1944 – 5 May 2024) was an English actor. He was known for playing Théoden, King of Rohan, in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Captain Edward Smith in Titanic, and Luther Plunkitt, the Warden of San Quentin Prison in the Clint Eastwood film True Crime. Hill was also known for playing roles in television dramas, including Yosser Hughes, the troubled "hard man" whose life is falling apart in Alan Bleasdale's Boys from the Blackstuff in the 1980s, and more recently, as the Duke of Norfolk in the BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.

Hill was born in Blackley, Manchester. He was brought up in a Catholic family of miners. Hill attended Xaverian College, and then Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama at the same time as Richard Griffiths. He graduated with a diploma in theatre in 1970.

In 1976, Hill was seen as Police Constable Cluff in the Granada Television series Crown Court, the episode entitled "The Jolly Swagmen".

Hill first came to prominence as Yosser Hughes, a working-class Liverpudlian man ultimately driven to the edge by an uncaring welfare system, in Alan Bleasdale's BBC Play for Today programme, The Black Stuff, and its series sequel, Boys from the Blackstuff.His character's much-repeated phrase Gizza job ("Give us a job")became popular with protesters against Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, because of the high unemployment of the time.

Hill then appeared as Sergeant Putnam in Gandhi (1982), directed by Richard Attenborough. Next for him was Roger Donaldson's The Bounty (1984), a fourth dramatisation of the mutiny on HMS Bounty.He had previously taken smaller parts in a number of British television dramas, appearing in I, Claudius in 1976 as the character Gratus.

Hill at a Lord of the Rings convention in Bonn, Germany, October 2004
In 1985, he played the lead role in a TV dramatisation of John Lennon's life, A Journey in the Life. 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 appeared as Joe Bradshaw in Shirley Valentine (1989),about a Liverpool housewife (Pauline Collins) who was a former anti-establishment rebel and engages in an extramarital affair. Hill added more prominent films to his resume, including Mountains of the Moon (1990), Skallagrigg (1994) and Madagascar Skin (1995).
In the mid-1990s, Hill began appearing in films more regularly. His first major role came in The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), starring Val Kilmer and (Michael Douglas). Hill then portrayed Captain Edward J. Smith in Titanic (1997), by James Cameron.

Hill played Philos in The Scorpion King (2002), starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Michael Clarke Duncan and Kelly Hu.

In 2002 and 2003, Hill played King Théoden of Rohan in the 2nd and 3rd films of Peter Jackson's epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings.

He held a minor role in the 2008 film Valkyrie, as the commanding general of the 10th Panzer Division of the German Afrika Korps and as a voice actor for Sir Walter Beck in Fable III (2010).

Hill was the voice of The Judge in the American stop-motion animated comedy horror film ParaNorman in 2012. He played Samuel Cotton, who ran a sweet factory with his son in the 2014 three-part BBC drama series about Manchester From There To Here.

He appeared as Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk in the 2015 six-part BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel's novels, Wolf Hall. Later in 2015, he starred as John Claridge in the British gangster movie North v South.