I always got a kick seeing Bernard Hill on the screen. A late bloomer, he brought gravitas and pathos to his most iconic performances, as the shocked and dumbfounded Captain Smith of the doomed “Titanic,” and as brooding, manipulated King Theoden in the “Lord of the Rings” movies.
He broke out on Euro TV with “Boys from the Blackstuff” in the ’80s, acted for Clint Eastwood on “True Crime”and classed-up many a series and feature in his later years, “Forever Young” and “Wolf Hall” stand out.
He was a fun follow on Twitter, raging at Tory misdeeds and incompetence like Gandalf in a fury.
I got to interview Hill when The LOTR movies came out and remember him beaming with gratitude and pride at the big speeches slumbering, drugged Theoden makes to rally the troops, “Tolkien’s “Henry V” moment, he called it.
“That’s the stuff,” I remember him saying. Aye, it was. Well done. Rest in peace.
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