Bernard Hill

Bernard Hill was born in Blackley, Manchester, on 17 December 1944. 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.

Hill first came to prominence in 1980 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.

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 in Shirley Valentine (1989), as Joe Bradshaw the husband of Liverpool housewife (Pauline Collins), a former anti-establishment rebel who 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. He then played Luther Plunkitt, the Warden of San Quentin Prison, in the Clint Eastwood film True Crime (1999).

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 second and third 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 was 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.

Hill had a daughter, Jay, from a relationship with Sue Allen. He married the American-born actress Marianna Hill (née Schwarzkopf), with whom he had a son named Gabriel; the couple later divorced. At the time of his death, he was engaged to Alison.

Hill was a longtime supporter of Manchester United.

In 2019 Hill received an honorary degree from the University of East Anglia.

Hill, who was living in Suffolk, died on 5 May 2024, at the age of 79. His Lord of the Rings trilogy co-stars, Boys from the Blackstuff writer Alan Beasdale, musician Barbara Dickson and BBC Drama director Lindsay Salt paid tribute to him.

Films

Television

Theatre

Video games

• Bernard Hill at IMDb
• Bernard Hill at the BFI's Screenonline
• Bernard Hill at AllMovie
• Bernard Hill discography at Discogs
• Interview with BBC Suffolk