Actor Bernard Hill, best known for roles in Titanic and Lord of the Rings, has died aged 79.
He played Captain Edward Smith in the 1997 Oscar-winning film and King Théoden in the Lord of the Rings.
His breakout role was in 1982 BBC TV drama Boys from the Blackstuff, where he portrayed Yosser Hughes, a character who struggled – and often failed – to cope with unemployment in Liverpool.
He died early yesterday morning, his agent Lou Coulson confirmed.
Alan Bleasdale, who wrote Boys from the Blackstuff, said Hill’s death was ‘a great loss and also a great surprise’.
“It was an astonishing, mesmeric performance – Bernard gave everything to that and you can see it in all the scenes. He became Yosser Hughes.”
He added: “I was desperate to work with him. Everything he did – his whole procedure for working, the manner in which he worked and his performance was everything that you could ever wish for.
“You always felt that Bernard would live forever. He had a great strength, physically and of personality.”
Hill, who was from Manchester and lived in Suffolk, was due to return to TV screens in series two of The Responder, a BBC drama starring Martin Freeman.
Other roles in his decades-long career included the 1976 BBC TV series I, Claudius, an appearance in 1982’s Gandhi, Shirley Valentine in 1989, The Scorpion King in 2002 and 2008 Tom Cruise film Valkyrie.