Four stars of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy came together to pay tribute to their colleague Bernard Hill (1944-2024), who died yesterday (5 May), aged 79. The tribute came from the interpreters of the four hobbits protagonists of filmmaker Peter Jackson’s films: Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan and Sean Astin. The quartet made the tribute during their recent participation in the pop culture convention Liverpool Comic Con.
In the midst of a vast career, with several successful films and plays, Bernard Hill has the distinction of being the only actor present in two productions that won 11 Oscar statuettes: ‘Titanic’ (1997) and ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ (2003).
In ‘Titanic’ Hill played Captain Edward Smith, the ship’s driver. As Théoden, King of Rohan, he appeared in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ (2002) and in the 2003 film that closed the trilogy inspired by the books by JRR Tolkien (1892-1973).
The tribute from the four actors came from Sean Astin, interpreter of the hobbit Sam: “We lost a member of our family this morning. Bernard died, as did King Théoden. So we would like to take a moment to honor you before we leave the stage. He should have been here yesterday. We love him. He was intrepid, funny, grumpy, irascible and beautiful.”
Then, Billy Boyd (Pippin), said: “We were watching and talking about the films and I said to Dom [Monaghan], I don’t think anyone has spoken Tolkien’s words as well as Bernard. The way he grounded those words, he broke my heart on screen. He was a wonderful man and he will be greatly missed.”
Watch the tribute video below:
Hill’s death became public yesterday morning, through a statement released by a representative of his family. The causes of death were not revealed.
Born in Manchester and with a vast career on the British stage, Hill rose to fame after his work on the series ‘Boys from the Blackstuff’. Watch the trailers for ‘Titanic’ and the two ‘Lord of the Rings’ with the actor below:
