Bernard Hill

Bernard Hill (17 December 1944 – 5 May 2024) was an English actor. He was known for his versatile roles on stage and screen in a career spanning over fifty years. He earned an Actor Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA TV Awards and an International Emmy Award.

Hill first gained prominence as the 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 second and third films of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2002–2003). His other film credits include Gandhi (1982), The Bounty (1984), Restless Natives (1985), Shirley Valentine (1989), The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), True Crime (1999), Valkyrie (2008), and ParaNorman (2012).