Bernard Hill, the actor best known for his roles as doomed leaders, playing the captain of the Titanic in James Cameron’s epic romance and the King of Rohan in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, died on Sunday. He was 79.
Hill’s death was confirmed by his agent to the BBC. Lou Coulson added that Hill’s fiancée and son had been at his side.
The British actor had been set to appear at Comic Con Liverpool over the weekend, but had been forced to cancel at the last moment, organizers said. “We’re heartbroken to hear the news of Bernard Hill’s passing,” the conversation tweeted. “A great loss.”
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Several of Hill’s Lord of the Rings co-stars paid tribute to his memory at Comic Con, the BBC reported. Sean Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee, called him “intrepid,” “irascible,” and “beautiful.”
“I don't think anyone spoke Tolkien’s words as great as Bernard did,” added Billy Boyd, who played Pippin Took. “He would break my heart. He will be sorely missed.”
Elijah Wood, who played protagonist Frodo Baggins, took to X to bid Hill a fond farewell. “So long to our friend, our king, Bernard Hill. We will never forget you,” he wrote over a photo of Hill he credited to co-star Viggo Mortensen. “‘For he was a gentle heart and a great king and kept his oaths; and he rose out of the shadows to a last fair morning.’”
Hill joined the Lord of the Rings universe in 2002, signing on to portray King Théoden in The Two Towers and Return of the King. Initially held in thrall to a scheming adviser, Hill’s grizzled ruler is freed from the spell by Ian McKellan’s Gandalf, and goes on to become an important ally to the trilogy’s heroes, leading an army into battle against the forces of evil.
“Tonight we remember those who gave their blood to defend this country,” Hill tells his soldiers in one of Return of the King’s many stirring speeches. “Hail the victorious dead!”
The trilogy’s third installment, released in 2003, would garner 11 Oscar nominations—and win them all. The distinctive honor of a clean sweep has only ever been replicated by a handful of other films, one of which was 1997’s Titanic.
In Cameron’s sweeping disaster flick, Hill portrays Captain Edward Smith, who stoically goes down with his ship after it strikes an iceberg.
Though the exact circumstances of the real-life Smith’s death remain unclear more than a century later, audiences would see Hill’s character make the decision to beat a fatal retreat to the bridge. There, the captain takes his final breath, clutching his ship’s wheel as the wheelhouse windows give way to the freezing waters of the Atlantic.
Born in Blackley, Manchester in 1944, Hill’s breakout role was in the 1982 BBC drama Boys from the Blackstuff, in which he played a mustachioed and unemployed Liverpudlian. His performance in the five-episode series was lauded, earning him a BAFTA nod. (While he would not win, the show itself won the award for best drama series that year.)
He also appeared in supporting roles in films like Gandhi (1982), Shirley Valentine (1989), Clint Eastwood’s True Crime (1992), and the Tom Cruise vehicle Valkyrie (2008). On television, he appeared in the 2015 BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall as the Duke of Norfolk.
Hours after his death early Sunday, Hill appeared on British television screens again, with the premiere of the second season of BBC One’s The Responder, starring The Hobbit alum Martin Freeman.
“Bernard Hill blazed a trail across the screen,” Lindsay Salt, the director of BBC Drama, said in a social media statement, “and his long-lasting career filled with iconic and remarkable roles is a testament to his incredible talent.”
